Just Stand Up

Many years ago my mother purchased one of those small 1'-2' (it wasn't very deep) deep swimming pools. I told my kids and my oldest, who was five or six at the time, got really excited. She showed me several times over the next couple of days how she was going to swim by mimicking what she had seen on TV. She was so cute moving her arms in circles and holding her breath.

The day came and we went over to my mothers, she was excited all the way there. We arrived and everyone got ready. When we got to the pool, thinking she could swim, my daughter jumped right in before anyone had a chance to do anything or say anything to her.

Within two seconds her joy and excitement turned to raw terror. She could have stood up and she would have been fine but she had never been taught to deal with that situation.

I did save her by the way. For a little while, she was scared of the pool but she finally got back in it. But not before I explained that if she ever gets into another jam like that to stop flailing around and think about what you need to do to. Many times it is just to stand up.

There is a good life lesson in that story. Those times when things are hard and we don't know what to do, calm down, stop flailing about and just stand up.

The next year she was old enough for swimming lessons so I got them for her.