What it Means to be a SwimMom!

I feel I have been remiss, negligent, careless, lax and oh so slack (got to love the thesaurus).  Here I have I have designated myself "THE SWIM MOM" and yet only in passing do I mention the very sport I have tied myself too.  Really, how can I be "THE SWIM MOM" when I let the whole of the Olympics go by with nary a mention?  Michael Phelps did earn 8 gold medals an Olympic record and "THE SWIM MOM" says nothing.  It is a shame a ... (ok, ok I won't use the thesaurus again), and past due that I spend a little time on "THESWIMMOM" blog posting about the sport of swimming.  So here is an interview between "THE SWIMMOM" and me.

Q.  How long have you been involved with swimming and what made you become involved in swimming?

A.  When our first child had reached the stage of walking all the sudden a fear of her toddling off in to her grandparents pool and drowning became very real. So in an effort to "drown proof" her we put her in swim lessons.  At 18 months of age you have two choices, as a non-swimmer, you can take a mommy and me class (NO WAY was I going to do that, run around in a swimsuit, nuh uhh not me) or you can put your little tike in private lessons. We opted for the private lessons where they taught your little one how to get to the edge of the pool if she fell in.  Our oldest who is now almost 12 did awesome and thus began the tradition of our children taking private lessons until the age of 3 and then moving into group classes.

First Day of Swim Lessons

Splashing around with Jilly Bean

Now I will skip ahead five years move to a different state and enroll our oldest again in swim lessons.  Where it is discovered she is in a level to low for her.  Move her up a level, NOPE, not that one either, move her up one more level and suddenly you find that your six year old is in level that most kids do not take until they are ten or older (I didn't know this at the time). Within a year our oldest had moved through all the remaining levels and found herself the only girl in a class full of boys in swim team prep.  

"Hey Mom, where is the pool?"

When it comes to my kids I'm what you would call a question gal.  My mind started to buzz, what is swim team prep, who can be on swim team, what do you have to do to be on swim team? We started going to swim lesson's early so that our oldest could watch the swim team practice.  She thought it was kind of cool.  Meanwhile the class of boys were kicking her but. (Most of them, I know now, were over twelve and she was barely seven at this point) One day after class she got out of the pool just steamed that they beat her time and time again.  At the time I happened to be standing near the high school records board and said, "Look, at those times the boys times are always faster."  Again what I didn't know then that I know now is my daughter is a tad of a feminist.  The next day at class she beat those boy's time and time again. She was  awesome! 

Our oldest first swim meet (indoor pool pictures are notoriously bad)

To tie this question up, shortly after that she joined the swim team.  "TheSwimMom," wasn't born yet but in a short while a whole world that I didn't even know exist would become a major part of my life. What had started out as a mom afraid of her baby drowning would turn into a whole new lifestyle.

Outdoor Swim Meet 2008, Four years and still going strong 

"The best part of swim meets is down time, where you can take pictures of yourself."

Ask "TheSwimMom" is going to be a weekly post so if you have any questions let me know.  Next week I will be talking about swim equipment.  Swimsuits, goggles, flippers what you should buy what you shouldn't waste your money on and how to keep chlorine from eating it all gone.