Swimming with Max

Max and I had our last parent-tot swim class today and I'm still trying to decide how I feel about the experience. I decided to sign us up after my sister did a blog post on the swimming lessons she was taking with her toddler and how much fun they were having. At first I was jealous that I couldn't take a class with Max, and then realized I could take the class, I would just have to get a babysitter and plan it around Emily's nap time, which would be more work, but I figured it would be worth it. After the first day of class I left feeling very frustrated. Max cried and clung to me the entire time and I wondered why I was spending so much money for this experience. It didn't help that it felt like I had accidentally signed up for the skinny mom parent-tot classes. Having my insecurities brought up by feeling like the fat, frumpy mom didn't help the situation. It did get better. By the end of the second class he wasn't crying and didn't want to leave the pool when class was over. Max loved going to class and the majority of the time it was fun, but I still had a lot of frustrating moments. Max loved being in the water, but he wouldn't kick or use his arms and if I didn't hold him in exactly the way he wanted he would squeal and grab at me. He was the biggest kid in the class and by far the most timid. Max won't even lay on his back in the tub and washing his hair entails five minutes of arguing and screaming, so you can imagine that the day we worked on them laying on their backs was awful. I'm sure I was pushing to hard, which just made him more resistant and I again left wondering why I was paying to have this experience. I'm sure I'll put him in swimming lessons again since he is not the charge right in there type of kid and needs to get very comfortable with things before he really enjoys them. At least I learned some things about Max, and the way we work together, that will hopefully be helpful for the future.