Well, I’ve come full circle with my swimming past as I signed Jake and Beth up for summer swimming.
One of the boldest memories I have of summer swimming is having to get into the pool when it’s only 60 degrees. Images of sweatshirted coaches, arms wrapped around themselves, walking up and down the pool while we froze our asses off are emblazened on the old grey matter. With every breath, the sight of their comfort irked me.
So what do I do now that my kids are old enough to swim on the team and it’s only 60 degrees with 20 mph winds?
I don the sweatshirt, grab some coffee and settle into the lounge chair to enjoy some swim practice from dry land.
It’s good to be the grown-up.
It’s just like the expressions we swore we’d never use, like “Why? Because I said so!” Or “If your friends jumped off a bridge would you do it to?”
Ha, isn’t that the truth?! My kids wouldn’t take no for an answer about going to the pool this weekend. Heather pool or not, there was no freakin’ way I was going in that water!
(But it amused and tired them out for nearly 3 hours.)
It is, Scott…the things that come back to haunt us. What would life be without all these habits and institutions latching us to our past, giving us adequate baggage in which to keep all the things that turned us into horrid people?????
That’s why I’m happy to be an adult: to torture my kids like my parents did to me 🙂
Susan, I know, the kids don’t notice the cold–until it’s evening and the swim coach is shouting orders!
Struggling writer–adulthood does have its benefits!
This is exactly how I feel when my kids moan about the papers they have to write — the discursive essays and book reports and speeches. I chide them to get on with their writing, but secretly I think “Yay! I don’t have to do that anymore!” It’s so great being an adult. When I was their age, everyone told me that being a teenager was so much fun and being an adult was nothing but worrying responsibilities. I just knew they were lying, and so they were!
You brought back lots of memories with this post. Wes loves to swim. He is not old enough yet for the swim team here. Hopefully, next year he will still be interested enough to try it. Does Shaler still have the Sea Dogs? Keep torturing them it was good for us.
Hi Dana! I believe the sea-dogs still exist. Remember that one team picture when we were six–there were fifty two people in it from six to 18…I can’t tell you the good memories I have of being with all those people for so many years. I agree, a childhood is not complete without a little torture–gives them something to grow on.