Swimming

Posted at 9:30 PM, Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Tuesday afternoon. I picked up both boys from school and drove to a very small community center nearby. This is where Yonatan's social skills group meets for ninety minutes each week. Since March, he and six other boys with Asperger's Syndrome have been practicing the art of interacting with others through a routine of guided discussions, relaxation exercise and games led by two therapists. While Yonatan was hanging out with his mates, Nadav and I joined the other moms and assorted siblings at a nearby cafe for our weekly get-together. After an hour, Nadav and I excused ourselves and drove fifteen minutes to the Unley Swimming Centre for Nadav's 5:30 p.m. lesson. Meanwhile, Bobby picked up Yonatan from his group, which ends at 5:30. Nadav finished his lesson at 6:00 p.m., spent an additional ten minutes splashing around, had a 100 second shower (we counted), and got dressed. We arrived home at about 6:45 p.m. for a quick dinner and homework.

This is the kind of day I swore I would never have when our children were born. We have struggled hard not to fall into the trap of the overprogrammed child. I think we've mostly succeeded, since neither kid has more than one activity on any one day. But I sometimes feel like an overprogrammed parent!

The reason Tuesdays in particular have become so crazy is that I determined that Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. was the only time in the week when I could fit in a swimming lesson for Nadav. Not having swimming lessons wasn't an option. Australians may regularly argue about whether Australian Rules Football or cricket is this country's national sport. But really, there's no question what the Australian national sport is: it's swimming. I had swimming lessons when I was a kid, but I don't think it was necessarily a big thing. I never did become a very strong swimmer, and my parents didn't seem to think that I was disadvantaged for life. I think there are plenty of kids in America whose parents just don't get around to signing there kids up for more than a preliminary round of lessons. By contrast, most of the kids we know who are Yonatan's age can already swim a full kilometer, and a lot of kids Nadav's age are impressively competent in the water. When you're living in a country where some astonishingly high percentage of the citizens live within 50 miles of the ocean, the ability to stay afloat takes on a greater significance.

Some parents might accuse me of child abuse, because Nadav only has swimming lessons six months out of the year. State Swim is a network of indoor pools that offer regimented swimming instruction year round, and we know lots of people whose kids take lessons there. I think State Swim classes are overpriced, and I find it depressing that the kids get kicked out of the pool at the end of their lesson. Lessons at our local pool are slightly cheaper, and the kids can stay in the water for as long as they like when the class is over. The risk in taking lessons at an outdoor pool is that if the weather is chilly, swimming just isn't that appealing. We skipped last week's lesson altogether when the temperature fell below 70 with an even chillier breeze. The water may be heated, but the air isn't.

Unlike Nadav, Yonatan has lessons year round. For most of the past year, he has been taking classes through Child's Play, a group of physical therapists who teach disabled children to swim. Yonatan has an intensive one-on-one lesson for thirty minutes, which really wears him out. Progress has been slow, but it's been steady. He now can almost ALMOST manage all of the components of the freestyle stroke, and he's gradually getting better at breaststroke.

Both boys will have an additional opportunity to hone their swimming skills in the new year: like most other primary schools, Massada College offers two weeks of swimming lessons during class time in the summer term. It's quite a challenge getting the kids into their bathing suits, into the pool, dressed, and back into class. But parents expect swimming lessons in school as well as after school at least once a year. A fellow mother at Massada College told me how she judged if her children had learned enough to stop swimming lessons: if they found themselves on a sinking boat, and they were able to save not only themselves but the people next to them. We have a long way to go!