Monday, July 19, 2010

Joke of the Day

"What toys did you have when you were a kid, Daddy?" Daryl asked the other day.

"Well, cars, erh, cars, and ..." I answered him rather casually 'cos I was reading the paper.

"Traffic jam!" added Daryl.

...

Wednesday, July 07, 2010

Swimming Issue

We all know that Daryl is a boy. But sometimes what he does makes me wonder if he's actually a girl.

We have signed him up for some swimming lessons on Saturday mornings. I went to the pool with him for the very first lesson and asked him if he's ready, and he said he was. His coach is a tall young man with wide shoulders, who sometimes talks loudly but is very patient with kids. Daryl was the only kid under that coach in the first lesson. And so for the entire 60 minutes, he almost had to swim non-stop, making him dreadfully exhausted.

Then on the following Wednesday, Daryl asked, "Why do I have to swim on Saturday?" He looked worried and I asked him why. "I don't like the coach because he yelled at me," he said. "I don't like swimming," he added, with tears running down his cheeks. "I don't like the coach. Can I have another one?" he finally admitted.

Frankly, I was a little pissed when I heard that, as I expect my boy not to be scared by someone who speaks loudly, which the coach actually doesn't. But I also know that I can't expect too much from a four-year-old. So Mommy and I had to assure him that everything would be fine, and he seemed to understand.

Yet when he started crying the following Saturday morning, without prompting, when he knew that he had to go to the swimming pool, I knew I had no choice but to carry him all the way to the pool, which was thankfully not far away. And being experienced with kids, the coach jumped out of the water, came over and brought Daryl into the pool, from which point Daryl stopped crying.

And amazingly, I could see Daryl asking lots of questions to his coach while swimming. All in all, I could see that he was having a good time at the pool. I asked him if he loves swimming after the lesson had ended, and he gave me an emphatic YES.

But even more amazingly, Daryl started crying again the following Wednesday. We had to assure him that everything would be fine, and on Saturday carry him to the pool and hand him over to the coach, again.

And this vicious cycle continues.

Perhaps I should start yelling at him more, just to make sure that he is used to dealing with loud and noisy people ...

Daryl & Dana

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