Baby started swimming back in May of this year, when we were selected to be Official Konfidence Swimologists. We were thrilled to be given the opportunity and after a shaky start, she came on leaps and bounds. Only a few weeks into her lessons, she was doing everything the other children (who had been swimming for longer) could do. She really amazed me with how much she improved in such a short space of time and her confidence was so lovely to see. She was moved up to the toddler class just before the summer break and slotted in well.
However, over the last three weeks Baby has changed quite a lot in her lessons. She has become increasingly clingy and cries a little at times, which she hadn’t done since the very start of her swimming journey. I am not sure whether it is just a phase she is going through or whether it is a result of her being challenged more in lessons.
We swim each week with Aquababies West and all the toddlers are being put in for swimming awards, which means they have to do more on their own. Potentially, the change in her could also be down to the lessons being close to nap time. Whatever the reason, poor Baby hasn’t got the same boundless confidence that she had a few months ago. She will still happily jump in off the side, but when in the water, she prefers to be in my arms.
Fingers crossed she will work through this glitch and that we will start to see her old level of confidence return. I miss my confident little swimmer.
Do you swim with your children? Have your children experienced a sudden loss of confidence?
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We’ve been swimming with Seren since she was 6 months old and I’ve just started with baby Imogen now. Of course, Seren has had bad days when she’s tired / teething / had a break from it for a while but generally she loves it. We’re lucky that the teachers she has had (through local company Born to Swim) have been brilliant. She’s just turned 3 and has started council run lessons where she goes in the pool without me and they are the highlight of her week.
I’m sorry to hear that Baby isn’t enjoying it at the moment. I’m surprised at the awards thing, we haven’t done that, the lessons have always been lots of fun. If you think she is being challenged too much and isn’t ready, how about dropping her back a class to get her confidence back up? I think the main benefit of swimming lessons at this stage is water confidence. There’s no rush to progress. If you can change the time to avoid nap time or perhaps try a different teacher, even better!
Good luck!
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Thanks so much for your comment. She enjoys parts of it, but there has definitely been a slightly backwards step. I love her teacher, she is fab. I will give some thought to dropping her back if we can. Thanks again x
To be honest I think all children go through phases and it’s probably another ‘just a phase’ moment. Hopefully Baby will be loving swimming again in no time x
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Thanks hun! I hope so too x
Oh bless her, hope she manages to get her confidence back. Haven’t taken mine swimming very often so can’t offer any advice – hopefully it is just a phase that Baby is going through at the moment x
We’re having the same trouble with Toby but unfortunately it’s been going on since June! He now won’t do any of the activities in his lessons just clings round my neck. He doesn’t cry unless I try and make him let go though. We’ve been trying to persevere but I have to admit we’ve missed a few weeks when I just couldn’t face it! We’ve only got three weeks of this block left and then I think we’re just going to give lessons a break for a while and try to just take him ourselves sometimes. I hope Baby is just having a blip and gets back to enjoying it soon x
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Poor Toby! What has got into these Babies! 🙂 I hope she remembers that she enjoys it, but at the moment wants to be snuggled into Mummy a lot of the time. x