Friday night, was my oldest son’s opening dance show and I was there. It was wonderful seeing him in his element. Austin, twelve years old, has always enjoyed music. He even took violin lessons from 3 to 5 by his own request. Now he just dances Hip Hop and Break Dancing.
I love that he is willing to be his own person!
Saturday was a busy day for the family. First, the four of us helped with a volunteer’s moving sale and she donated 20% to AiN! Then Jacob, my husband, took Austin to his second show while Yaakov, the youngest, and I went to a birthday party at the pool for a little boy I work with. (More to come about this event)
Sunday was Austin’s third show and a friend took him for us. I cleaned house while Jacob worked on the backyard preparing for family to be down this week and of course we are celebrating Yaakov’s 5th grade promotion with a party! He also setup the new pool.
That is the quick run down on weekend, but let me go back to Saturday at the pool.
Yaakov, has Aspergers, swam on his own and said hi when instructed to but didn’t play with any of the kids.
Yaakov came over and ask me to go with him to ask the life guards if he could take the swim test, so he could jump off the diving board. I said I would go, but he had to ask himself. He said never mind and went and looked at the pool and came back and asked me again. I told him I would go, but he had to ask on his own. We got to the two life guards and the manger and tried twice and they didn’t notice him. He almost chicken out and finally one of them noticed.
He asked and she said sure.
I said swim under water like a fish and you can do it. (Yaakov can swim under water like a fish, but he cannot swim very well when he uses freestyle)
He started the test made it to the wall and started heading back when I could tell he was struggling. I walked over and put my phone down walked back and said, “go now” at the same time the manager said to the life guard you got this and I heard splash.
My panic was starting to build up as I watched him struggle and I had to remind myself to stay calm. I told him, “keep it up and you’re doing fine.” Then the life guard grabbed him. It took everything I had not to jump in there to remind myself the life guard is on his way and he doesn’t need a mother panicking jumping in to save her son. It could cause more damage than help.
I am actually surprised I could even think logically, because the terror was ripping through me.
I had just read an article online that drowning victims don’t look like what we think they do.
They don’t splash around water is just below their mouths, and they become disoriented and they are too tired to splash around.
What we see on TV isn’t what we would see at the pool or at a lake. I can tell you after what I witnessed with my own son. I would say the article is more accurate then TV shows.
Please make sure you check out this article, because it was this article that prepared me for our situation this weekend.
Needless to say, we put him back into swimming lessons.
Yaakov has always been able to swim but every year we start back at the beginning, but we aren’t willing to put our son’s life on the line so 5 weeks of swimming lessons for him. We also chose to get a swim pool for the backyard so he can become more confident. Of course this mommy will be right there watching the whole time.