I brought my kids to the pool recently to do some swim lessons and to play in the water afterwards. It’s something that we try to do on a weekly basis. Swimming is a really important skill to learn and I definitely want my kids to be competent in the water. They don’t have to be Michael Phelps out there, but they do need to be able to feel confident in the water. Plus, it’s great exercise.

Through some miracle, my 5 year old daughter and 4 year old son both have swim class at the exact same time. That means that we don’t have to stagger the classes and wait around extra long for everyone to be done. We can also play together after swim classes are over. My son is getting more comfortable in the water and although he has only been taking classes for a few weeks (as opposed to my daughter that has been taking classes for a few years), he wanted to show me a trick he learned how to do. He held his breath and dunked his head under the water. Suddenly, he began twirling around in the water like how an octopus would if the octopus was swimming forward and swimming. I was surprised he knew how to do that because his body was parallel to the surface of the water while he was twirling around.

I was really impressed and cheered for my son when he surfaced. He was also super excited that I was excited. My daughter spoke up quickly and said she has known how to do that for a long time. And she reminded us that she was good at it! I told her I was proud of her too and she showed off her twirling in the water. I know she is interested in aquatic dancing (artistic swimming in some circles), so it’s a good thing she likes twirling around in the water.

What I realized is that kids need to constantly feel seen by their parents. What may be impressive for a baby to do may not be impressive for a toddler, but the attention and care should not change. My daughter wanted to feel seen and even though I know she is a fish in the water compared to my son who is just learning to swim, she wanted that positive attention - so I gave it to her. Each kid is their own unique person and we all have to try our best to treat them as such and balance out the compliments one twirl at a time.