Friday, October 21, 2011

How can it be Friday Already!?

Where has the week gone and we haven't been as busy as usual!  Well, On Monday I did make a skating shirt for my eldest....  But apart from that, just the usual...

I did take Oatie Swimming twice this week, once on Wed and then again today. 

Today the Kids like Oatie, they are a highschool group I think I mentioned last week invited Oatie to join their swimming session.  I didn't want to offend them by saying no so I thought we'd give it a go.

Things I didn't miss about Parent and Tot Swim which is straight after:

  • I have to say it was really ODD not having anyone STARING at Oatie, and it was also very odd not to have anyone ask "What's wrong with him..." (I always want to retort back, well what's wrong with YOU for asking what's wrong with him?).

  • I really didn't MISS at all, the parents (not all of them but a few adults) who realise that Oatie is different and then their kid is happily playing with Oatie on the boat or with the plastic bathtub style boats, and then they try and drag their kid AWAY from Oatie, thinking that they can CATCH CP!
It was Surreal really, to be in a pool, and have Oatie excited and that's when his speech is most difficult to understand and the other kids Aides, UNDERSTANDING what he said without me having to decipher/translate what he's just said.  It was one of the most oddest experiences in ages... to be somewhere and people WANTED to understand him and tried and did.

The other aspect that took me back was.... that some of the teenage boys, came over and wanted to high five Oatie and just asked him about the boats he was playing with, another came over and just wanted to hold Oatie's hand for a minute.... and Oatie came home and said I have 2 friends at swimming to his dad.

It was so nice to be accpeted.  The only people who were FROWNING were the parents of the preschool learn to swim (other side of the rope) having so many kids who don't look like their kids having so much fun and you could see them trying not to stare...  Their faces said it all, they wished it was a brick wall...

For me, I found it hard to let my guard down... I am so used to having to be his advocate it was nice to just be a mum for 45 minutes... 

For me, I am usually on the other side of the rope (with the more able-bodied side of the population).  DEFINATELY not sharing their disdain for the people who don't look the same as them... definately not.... but I enjoyed just swimming with Oatie, and not having to answer why he's different all the time.

I got a lot of "ooohhhhhh... now I understand" from some of the kids aides... as I have always chatted to the kids not just the aides, (I see them when I swim in the morning or at the rink before our adult skate class) and I do get a puzzled look from some of them looking at me like am I chatting to them or poking fun them....  One was that group of 20 something's running through (funny enough... the swimming group that we swam with today at the rink) I posted a photo of them last skating season.  One aide has an adult male who she and another lady looks after and I always chat to him too, well I have done since we moved, well today these two ladies were in the pool and then one of them said, Now I know why you chat to our guys/treat them as equals (the people they aide) after seeing Oatie.

I don't know if we will swim with them every Friday depending on times... but it was really nice.

One of the best bits was that most of the high-school aged kids could all swim, which was so brilliant, just so brilliant.  Their aides they had with them, WOW, that's what an aide should be like WOW!

I am still wondering whether I can teach Oatie to Swim, I hope I can, (looking at him today I thought he could so do this....) it would be so wonderful for him to be Free in the water.

Have a great weekend

x

2 comments:

  1. Hi Mel! Loved this post - finding a new comfort zone, acceptance without question. You inspire me to try to find something for Adam. He has NO opportunity (once he finished his school program three years ago) to connect with others. You sound good, Mel - out there living proud with your son. Made my day. . .
    Love, Sharon

    ReplyDelete
  2. Dear Sharon, i'm still bewildered about having acceptance without question.

    Or whom I am to thank as, well last Friday I just saw the group swimming and I asked who at or who organized the group... and then the lady who I thought was in charge... when we returned an hour later said we could join.

    The group was in fact a private hire group from the local high school but they said that we could go too as long as we swiped our card at the front desk.

    The odd bit is that the pool won't tell you who or when they have special groups in the pool, so when I saw groups that Oatie might enjoy I decided to approach them myself. so in effect we Gatecrashed.

    Oatie and I are really enjoying his "retirement", and with him not being ill every 5 minutes, Oatie is flourishing x

    ReplyDelete

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...