It's amazing to me how two girls, with the same parents can be so different in so many ways. I'm speaking of my two daughters, of course. The oldest is 6 and the youngest is 2, closing in on 3. We started swim lessons with my 6 year old when she was 3. She was extremely tentative and clung to Mommy and Daddy with a death grip. She's gotten a bit better, but is still very tentative and has this look of fear on her face whenever she gets near a pool. We were in a pool not too long ago and even though she could touch the bottom with her whole head above the water, she freaked out when we let go of her.
My 2 year old, on the other hand, is fearless. She'd climb on the edge and do a big jump into the water, over and over and over. She kept telling me to scoot farther away from the ledge so she could jump farther. She had a blast in the water during our last pool excursion.
I'm not sure what to do with our 6 year old. I fully understand having a fear of something. For most of my life I was deathly afraid of heights. Even standing a few feet above the ground on a ladder would freak me out. I'm a bit better now, but if you put me in the right situation with heights, I will clam up and freak out.
In hindsight we should have started parent-child swim lessons with my oldest daughter when she was younger. We started my 2 year old when she was just 18 months. I can't say that that is the reason for her comfort level in water, but it may have played a roll.
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