Swim Lessons

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Tiger Mom 


A little while ago there was a lot of press about a little book by a Chinese woman and her "tiger mom" antics. Apparently, they're strict moms who enforce what most would call, insane rules on their children. The term tiger mom is thrown about quite freely now and while I wouldn't call my mom a complete tiger mom, her efforts were definitely tiger-like for a while there and I see myself following in those footsteps. There's a reason they say Asian kids are so good at math and piano.... sure it's a joke but you better believe there's a kernel of truth in there too. It's not a "natural" ability, it's a mom in the background FORCING that kid to study or practice. 

When I first started taking home letter grades, I got rewarded for my straight As. Well, what kid wouldn't want to get rewarded? Sure the grades at first came easy, but then I got used to it. So when the classes got harder, there was no way I wasn't taking home an A! Lucky for my mom because she definitely felt that way too. If I took home a B on anything....I got asked why in the world did I get a B and....well I never got anything less than a B on an assignment or test so I couldn't tell you what a C resulted in. One time she found out there was an AP class I hadn't registered for ( I had opted for the Honors version...in our school we had regular, Honors, and then AP) oh my goodness I had to explain my way through that mess. Ok mom, I was already taking AP French, AP Lit, AP History, taking a ZERO period....you wanted me to switch from Honors Physics to AP Physics on top of all the OTHER stuff you had me doing before and after school? Hhhm..... Just a little tiger-ish. When I quit volleyball, I had to throw in an extra season of basketball to make sure I didn't go a single season without being enrolled in a sport. I was enrolled in dance, ballet, swim, skating, track, basketball, volleyball, violin (typical Asian instrument), you name it....I had to try it at least once.  But the easy part was I WANTED to try all these new things because I was so used to just....doing tons of things as I grew up. By the time I got to high school, she really didn't have to force extracurricular on me because I was already accustomed to that busy lifestyle and I automatically went out for all the school clubs and the school plays and basically everything else I could volunteer for. The result? I got excellent grades and easily got accepted into every college I applied to. I stayed so busy, I stayed out of trouble. I developed friendships with kids like me- driven, busy, motivated...people who were used to the bar being a little too high, people that continued to push me. So, as a grateful product of a tiger-ish mom, although I also think some of it comes from being the first born and all the stereotypes that come with that, you better believe I'm going to be tiger-ish with Jellybean and Tater Tot. 

Yeah, I'm going to question him when he gets a B. Yeah, he's going to get enrolled in some instrument and spend more time than he wants to practicing it. Yeah- as soon as he's old enough, he will be enrolled in a myriad of activities...boy scouts, baseball, soccer, gymnastics, swim, golf, tennis....I draw the line at football and possibly basketball (since I don't need him having knee issues like I do now at the ripe old age of....30...because of multiple basketball injuries). His mind and body will be challenged from an early age and we are going to hit the ground running. But, at 1 year old, I can only enroll him in one thing, and so I did! Swim lessons. 

Swim lessons at the local Y started about two weeks ago. We pay $60 for 8 weeks of 30 minute sessions every Saturday. Not a bad deal at all. While I don't think Jellybean will be the next Michael Phelps, or even swimming on his own after these 8 weeks, it's still getting him and more importantly me and Matt, into that routine I plan on eventually throwing us into where we'll be lugging kids around from one activity to the other all day every day. Best to start off slow I suppose. Our biggest benefit is Jellybean is getting exposed to the pool. He's always been such a water baby, he loves bath time, he loves faucets, he loves water tables, he loves the beach...so it came as no surprise that he immediately took the pool. He doesn't mind getting water in his face, he's still working on the blowing bubbles thing, and he has no fears when to sitting at the edge of the pool and scooting his booty forward so he falls in because he knows mom and dad will catch him. In fact, that's probably his favorite pool activity. He's not a fan of laying on his back though, but we'll get through that eventually. 

I'm already looking at when I'll be able to put him in more activities....looks like I'm going to have to wait a few years though. 
A little apprehensive at first but he got the hang of it! 

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