Alive and Functioning

Coming back to work after a holiday, or a break of any kind, is always difficult, borderline painful. Having to set the alarm, get up after the alarm, and then make your way to work at such an unreasonable time of the morning (even though it really is reasonable it’s just the holiday mode brain thinking that way), is a physically excruciating thing to do. Like it just hurts to be alive and functioning. Why must we be employed?

UGGGGHHHH!!

So, I just had the school holidays off work; that's two weeks of rest time. As a swimming teacher, most of that time is spent cleansing the skin and hair and trying to get rid of the permanent chlorine smell and feel that follows you around like a sad cloud. And normally this is achievable. By the end of the two weeks you are almost back to your bodies default setting...but then, of course, you have to get back in the water and everything is ruined again...

So much for that!

It wasn't a real holiday for me because I still had Uni classes during those weeks, but it was still nice to rest. I feel like such a child for complaining because I know that I am lucky to even get holidays...but still...I want to complain anyway...because I CAN!

The one thing I did enjoy about my first day back was my classes were really good, and my little babies were all happy to see me (adorable I know).  <3 One of my little ones was even talking! Nothing particularly interesting or that I could understand but it was progress and I always love to see the little ones grow up.

Oh well, it looks like it is going to be a long term...hopefully filled with more exciting stories for me to tell! J

Take for Granted

There are days when you like work, and days when you just don't want to go in, even the promise of money is not enough to inspire you. This is completely normal, in fact it’s rare that a person actually like their job. I am one of those weird people.

I really enjoy my job. I get to meet some interesting people, kids are absolutely hilarious when they aren’t being incredibly annoying, and teaching swimming is a great thing to do, for yourself and others. It a lifesaving skill, a life lesson that people to remember and take with them for the rest of their lives.

People who start swimming lessons early in their lives take for granted the importance of such a skill. Over the last few months in Australia there have been an insane number of drownings. All accidental but all preventable with just a little education and awareness. Water is fun, but also dangerous.

We have recently had a Water Safety week a work where we try to teach the children all the skills to stay safe around water. What to do if you need help, what not to do around water and stressing the importance of life saving skills such as treading water, floating etc. For the teacher in the water (me) this is a super stressful week because the kids love it as the activities are fun and different from their regular lesson plans. Me as the teacher needs to maintain the balance between fun and education, unfortunately. It is difficult to keep the kid’s attention long enough to tell them one thing, then do a quick activity and keep talking and imparting wisdom.

To summarize, for such an important week, it's a lot of work, mentally and physically.

But I also teach adult classes, and it becomes obvious when the adults started to swim by their levels of fear in the water. I was trying to teach a fifty year old man how to simply walk in water and enter and exit safely. Basic skills so that he could one day take his children swimming and supervise them from in the water instead of watching from the sidelines. He told me that he always watched his wife swim with the children and that it was time he took on that responsibility. He was incredibly brave in stepping up and making the life changing decision to learn this important skill, furthering himself and hopefully, creating a new loving bond with his children.

It’s hard to imagine what goes on inside his head when he is in the pool with me. How terrified he is, but I can tell you that his determination to achieve his goal is impressive and inspiring.

It is for people like him that I am always trying to learn more and impart my knowledge on others, to help them better themselves, and to ultimately, hopefully, save a few lives. Every time a new child can float or achieve anything in the water, it is to be celebrated. That skill might save them one day.

And that is why I try to stay positive and greet every baby, child, or adult, with the same level of enthusiasm and determination.

I can never truly know the impact I might have on their lives, but I would like to think it is a valuable one.

This Particular Wednesday

I was teaching babies today. (Sorry but all the best stories are from my baby classes.)

One of the mothers in the class had her two kids at the pool with her. Their presence was not new, occasionally they come along, however normally the stay in the crèche area we have, providing parents like her free child care during the lessons.

But on this particularly Wednesday her two boys were being especially infuriating and all but demanded to be allowed to watch the lesson from beside the pool. Their mum, clearly sick of arguing with them, reluctantly agreed. The boys were sitting on the bench next to the pool and she got in with her youngest baby.

For the first five minutes, everything was fine. The two boys sat nicely on the edge, watching the class, and their mum was happy, glancing over every now and then to check on them.

About seven minutes into the lesson, the boys got a little antsy. Their mother’s frustration grew and bubbled over until about half way through the lesson she snapped. With absolutely no warning, their mum just said to me, “here, can you take him?” and then without waiting for my reply, she just handed me her baby and climbed out of the pool to scold her other children.

This was actually super awesome, though, despite my initial reaction of freaking out! I love babies and I got to play with one for a few minutes! Sounds super lame but it was awesome.

So, I continued to teach my class, trying to talk and sing whilst also demonstrating everything with this child in my arms. It was actually really useful because the other parents in the class saw how I held and manipulated the child and commented saying things like, “Wow, that's so much more comfortable,” and “that makes so much more sense!”

Holding children seems so simple, and as a teacher it’s super difficult to know whether the parents are comfortable or not, because from the outside it looks fine.

When the mother eventually came back, and her boys were looking thoroughly grumpy and told-off, I had to surrender her child back to her and I was a little sad.

The rest of the lesson continued on as normal, but that one mother and I had a running bet going on about how long it would take for one of her other children to fall into the pool! J

Answer: Well, technically they didn't fall in, but in the last few minutes one of them got super close.