(Photo credit: Michael Lokner)
The other day, as I sneaked upstairs, quietly closed and locked my bedroom door, and placed an urgent call to my husband, I realized I have a problem.
I quickly dialed his number (no, I do not have it programmed). I whispered in a rushed voice: “It’s 67 degrees. Cloudy. Breezy. Should I keep the kids home from swim team practice?”
His unhesitating response: “Absolutely not.”
Well, easy for him.
Turns out, I’m a softy. It’s hard for me to ask my kids to tackle something that I myself never would do. Like getting into a cold pool on a cold day. (And let’s just preface this whole posting with the fact that when I was a kid, my mom wouldn’t even let us go BAREFOOT unless it was above 70 degrees.)
I never swam on a swim team. Good Lord. Even in perfect weather I don’t think I could have swum more than a lap or two freestyle (when I was a kid we called it the “crawl”), and that would have been at a very leisurely pace. These practices last an hour or more and they swim the whole time.
Parents whose kids are super swimmers racking up top times and lots of ribbons may scoff, but for your average (or below-average) athlete just participating in a summertime sport, swimming is intense. And swimming practice at the start of the season in “unseasonably chilly” temps is really intense.
I’m a Mom who’s a wuss. Ready to let them play hooky from a practice. Monday was ugly and my daughter was miserable at the end. Tuesday was colder and cloudier, hence my hushed, urgent call to my husband.
After his “Absolutely not” response, he added something about commitment to the team and needing to practice and an upcoming meet and then I tuned him out.
“Kids, get on your suits!”
Surprisingly, they didn’t whine.
Not till the end of practice. That’s when their lips were blue and their teeth chattering. My daughter got really mad at me and said she wanted to quit the team.
I told her to hang in there. It would get better. It would get FUN again, like last season. Remember LAST season?! And then I *GULP* promised her (I being the Meteorological Mom who had just consulted two weather sites) that the practices would get warmer from here on out… 90 degrees next week!
And then I added…
Cause I have another problem…
That it was their Dad who made them go.
You are HILARIOUS!!!! I am sure that they survived, and I think it is our duty to give our children things to hold over the heads of their children. Keith obviously swam when it was chilly. My mom, on the other hand, had trouble keeping us out of the water- When you grow up in Vermont and summer doesn’t seem to start until Mid July and then ends the first week of August, as a kid you just go- I can remember swimming in the Mad River in October…..
Oh, I like that I’m providing them with something to hold over their children’s heads! THAT is something noble and will help with my guilt as I sit bundled in layers reading my novel while they practice away… (And perhaps I need a summer or two in VT to adjust my internal thermometer… alas those five summers in Alabama have me all whacked.)
Hang in there! You are teaching them life lessons that reach far beyond being cold and uncomfortable for short bursts of time. I work with adults these days whose parents apparently never ask them or expected them to try. They have no sense of what they they are capable of,so they don’t even try, quit early, whine about doing the minimum – And working in less than royal surrounding is a hardship! You are a great mom — your children will be proud of themselves and their practices in these conditions will make their fair weather practices more meaningful. They will be stronger swimmers and only true champions (in life, in sports, in character) know the lessons you are teaching them now…but for the dad part….lol
Thanks… I do hope that conditions improve soon. And yes, as annoying as it is to have my husband be the voice of reason when I want a mere reflection/affirmation of my concerns, he was indeed dead-on in his guidance. Annoyingly so. But hey, he can deal with his daughter’s resulting wrath now and then, right?
absolutely agree! it’s never a good feeling to be the lone grown-up in the house – whether your spouse is nearby or not!