Swimming with Little Miss is not relaxing

Swimming is supposed to be a relaxing activity for some, but it is not relaxing for the parents of creative children. It is not relaxing for me, in other words.

Little Miss and I have been trying to go to the pool at my parents’ at least twice a week.

The rest of the family isn’t as into swimming as we are.

My dad did a lot to make the pool look nice and also feel nice so we want to make sure that we are using it as much as we can.

The last few times we’ve gone, Little Miss has made up a game where she jumps from the ladder and then I have to rate her jump. I don’t rate her jump as myself. Oh no. I have to rate it as a character from one of the books we’ve read and I have to speak in the voice of said character.

Little Miss just started to be able to reach the bottom of the pool this year and isn’t super confident with swimming so she wears an inflatable tube for her higher jumps. When she jumps, she expects me to give her a rating and a critique from a character from either the Paddington books, the Chronicles of Narnia, or Anne of Green Gables.

I think I’ve mentioned before that when I read to Little Miss I do all the accents and voices for the characters. I had no idea that she was going to urge me to carry on this tradition when not reading as well, but, alas, she first started asking me to use the accents or mannerisms of the characters while jumping on our neighbor’s trampoline.

I have to rate her not only in their voices, but also their personalities, so Edmund from the Chronicles of Narnia might say, “That was horrid. Now give me some Turkish Delight!”

Paddington might say, “Oh, that was lovely. Would you like a marmalade sandwich?”

Marilla from Anne of Green Gables says things like, “Jumping in pools is not ladylike. You should pray to ask God to forgive you.”

We go on like that for a while and then Little Miss decides we should do swim competitions across the pool, which is how I ended up in agony Saturday night into Sunday. I attempted moves that I should not have been attempting without a bit more stretching and preparation.

There isn’t a lot of downtime for me to simply float or move around gingerly when I’m in the pool with Little Miss, but I still have a lot of fun with her. It reminds me of the days I did the same with The Boy and I know one day I will miss those fun times in the pool with her, the same way I miss those times with The Boy.