Today was my son’s first swim class. And of course, in true Fader fashion, I was running late as can be. We zoomed out of the house with bags of swimming stuff in hand. Unfortunately, my son hadn’t napped yet! He was not pleased…
We got to the Y five minutes late, and I realized that I had a ton of stuff and nowhere to put it. The locker room situation went right over my head, and it hadn’t occurred to me to purchase a combination lock. The kind receptionist saw me struggling with my bags and offered to watch my sacks of things. How nice!
When we got to the pool I was introduced to a new phenomenon:
Aqua Dad!
Along with myself, there were three other members of the swimming class and all of them were dads! I wasn’t expecting this. I assumed the class would be mom-centric for some reason. I figured there might be a dad or two, but I was overwhelmed by the testosterone in the room.
Needless to say, I became instantly self-conscious that I was wearing a bikini and surrounded by men. But they were all really nice and so were their babies. So I relaxed and soaked in the experience. No pun intended.
Due to his lack of nap, my son wore a stoic expression throughout the class, but he seemed to enjoy it nonetheless.
He even liked being dunked under water as the instructor sang the last line to the classic bubonic plague song “Ring Around The Rosy.” That line (for those of you who don’t know) is “They all fall down!” And with that he was submerged in chlorinated water.
The Aqua Dads seemed to like the class as much as I did. We chatted both in the water and after the class was over.
And, though he played the straight man through the class, when my son left the pool he tried desperately to go back in.
More to come next week on swimming with the Aqua Dads!