Maria loves to swim again.

This picture means so much to me!! Here's the story: Maria has always loved the water and swimming since as long as I can remember. That was...until earlier this spring. Maria, my water siren, was splashing around in the hot tub one day with her brother and sister. She seemed so confident with her ability (of jumping about the seats and edge of the tub). But then...I thought...she really should venture out and brave the standing area at the center of the tub. According to what I could judge, Maria was tall enough to secure a sure footing in the center of the tub, and she can enjoy the same full benefits of swimming as Noah, if she only knew that she could stand. Someone needed to show her this...something had to be done so that she could know what she really was capable of. This really would open a whole new opportunity of fun and excitement, if only she knew!! So I went for it. I did what every parent talks about doing--or at least it's the biggest debate parents have--concerning children learning to swim: I grab my girl and threw her into the middle. Or course she was safe and big brother was there to help, too. But Maria was not happy with us. Afterwards, I briefly considered letting her be. But...then I thought that maybe she just doesn't understand--she would have SO much fun if only she knew that it was safe, that she was in fact tall enough to stand in the middle and jump around, and, well, that there is just more water to enjoy overall once she were to get to the middle zone. So I was determined. I quickly grabbed my girl, before she could escape the confines of the tub arena and once again threw her into the center. Well she had had enough!! She scrambled around, got her bearings, and went straight to the edge and climbed right on out of the hot tub so fast, there wasn't any chance for her mother to grab and throw her again. She wasn't having anymore of that. And so I learned a big lesson from that day on. I felt SOOO BAD!! Maria hated swimming. I took away one of her greatest joys, the one activity she took soo much pleasure in and I turned it into a nightmare for her. If I even mentioned the word swim, or had her swimsuit in hand, she would run from me. I even had a hard time getting her into the regular bathtub (for a while, there). I mean she was tramatized!!..for life, maybe. She would never swim again. But the story went on. There was more to the guilt. It totally broke my heart one day, when to my surprise, I went outside to check on my other two fishes enjoying a nice summer day in the hot tub, and there she was, my precious Maria back in the water again, happilly splashing and enthralled in her water play...then suddenly scared and scurried, jumping out of the hot tub, and running to get away...at the mere hint of my presence. So...there it was...there and then I knew, it wasn't the water or swimming at all that she was afraid of. Here I am, months later, sad and shocked, when I finally had discovered what she feared the most: that more than water itself, she was scared of ME, her mommy, the one person that brought her into life, that would cared the world for her, that never would want to do anything bad to her! So what was I going to do? I figured out that what I had to do was just give her plenty of space. If she was in the hot tub, I was careful not to startle her and I made every effort to allow her that freedom to play and enjoy the water as much as she was willing to do. I stopt forcing her to do more. I've learned that she knows here limitations and she knows her confort level better than I. And what she needed was my trust on the issue in point. And so it is with soo much joy, now, that we are back to the place we were before and she is totally back in love with the swimming. We can hardly keep her away. Yeah! I am so proud. Attah girl!!!