Swimming lesson and puddle jumping

         Being four must be a lot of fun. Well most of the time anyways. Mind you I'm the sort of person who thinks pretty much any age before chore charts and hormones has to be pretty awesome. I envy the freedom from judgment that youth provides. I'm pretty sure most of what goes on in my little one's head is far different from what is in my own. He is becoming more aware of certain things however. Lately if were out to eat and he has to use the restroom he wants to use the "boys" room. He has the equipment for it, but not really the know how, and I'm one of those people in the not so unique situation where I can't say "Here Dad it's your turn!" Locker rooms, must be an entirely different scenario however. Or maybe its the excitement of swimming lessons that powers him through the door with a silhouette of a stick woman, or we can only assume since she clearly has on a triangle dress. I like to let him have fun on the way there. It's been pouring buckets lately, normal march in the Pacific Northwest. So he had on his swim trunks, swim shirt, rain boots and a hoodie. It was pretty much the cutest thing ever, but really it was for the sake of a short encounter the first time through the locker room, which I knew would be empty this time, but still the less time the better.

           He stood in the shower, spray him off, go out find the group, try not to get to jostled by the crowd of wet children and their dry hurried parents who just finished lessons before us. Now today I had a plan. You see I respect that there are families with multiple children and or both parents who can help after, so I respect them and I stay away from the family locker rooms, at least for now. I don't really have an issue taking him into the girls side, he is only four after all I am a single mom, these things are to be expected, but Sunday night swimming lessons, does not so much coincide with the whole bath time at home later, so I had a plan. I was going to make sure we were the first ones back to shower and we were going to get the handicapped shower because it has a hose. I could shower him after swim, no bath needed. It was going to be great. I sat and watched him as he jumped in and out of the pool, eavesdropping on the family behind me (4 adults to watch one little girl who happened to be in the same group as my son, mind you I appreciated having the boyfriend by my side last week but am use to doing things on my own so a group of 4 to 1 seems a bit like over kill) and kept track of the time, I was going to be the first one out there and the first into the locker room so we could get in, get showered and get out as fast as possible. Now I am sure there are families that were faster, but we did pretty good for us and got the hose shower. (Just for the record if there was a handicapped person who needed it I would have given it up in heart beat and forgone my dry jeans and had him shower in the regular ones.)
 
              Its after the shower where things get interesting. He's curious and 4, his eyes wander. Its become almost a game. Its like how can I teach him locker room manners without making him aware of what's actually going on, especially when it comes to the opposite sex. Guys joke about crude locker room stuff all the time. Girls are catty and mean when it comes to locker room business and if you aren't the alpha female you keep your head down and pretend you don't exist, you don't look you don't talk and hope that no one notices your tiny white training bra with a pink bow. Mind you I've gotten over most of my locker room fear (although apparently not the middle school version of locker room). There's not a lot of room for modesty after you have shoved a child out of you. However certain locker room etiquette exists such as, keep your towel around you if your nude and get at least your undergarments on you as quickly as possible (I can manage to flash very little amounts of private skin). Okay there are plenty of women out there who literally don't seem to care one bit about... letting it all hang out, and I am somewhere between in awe of their lack of caring and embarrassed for them. However all of this leads to me as a single mom attempting to be a sort of shield, hiding the women from my son, so he's not acutely aware that he is surrounded by girls and women to avoid him feeling awkward, but also because he just doesn't need to see naked girls. Of course he's seen me naked, being a single mom means pretty much every time I'm like "Yay 5 minutes in the bath room to poop and shower in peace" means I'm going to get walked in on by him. I have this maneuver where I dry his hair and walk to where are clothes are waiting in relative dryness, this keeps his eyes pretty well covered, I then wrap him in it, strip him down and get him into his underwear as quickly as possible. Then I remove his towel, I try really hard for the sake of all the other moms and the little innocent girls to hide his penis. Not because he should be ashamed of it, but just because this is a place where they shouldn't have to worry about such things, and maybe just maybe I can teach him some modesty in the process as well.

               His dry clothes were a pair of sweats in such a light blue they looked like jammies another thing that would mortify me but doesn't phase him, and he dressed and slipped into his rain boots again. Bundled back up we stopped at the front desk and talked with our favorite front desk lady, he just knows her as Grandma though. By the time we ventured back out there were more puddles than cars in the parking lot. and he jumps into the very first puddle he comes to. It was one of those moments, where I caught myself before stopping him with the usual complaints "you'll get sick" "You'll get wet" he already was wet and if he fell and got muddy we were 5 minutes from home and he would be cleaned up again easily enough so it seemed like a good time for him to get to. It was a good moment for me, I just let it go and let us both be in the moment. After all isn't that what #puddlejumping is all about. The little ones got stomped in but there were a few big ones that warranted multiple jumps and before either of us knew it, he has splashed into his boots and up his pants, I knew it was going to be an early #pajama night.

 

             We took his boots off when we got in the car. Which made for an interesting teachable moment when we got home. "Mommy my feet are cold and wet" He told me as we got the front door unlocked, him on one hip, bag with clothes and my purse hanging from the other arm "Well yea you jumped so much that water went into your boots." I told him stating the obvious "but that was fun right?" I asked hoping he would reply yes. "No, its cold" he told me, "Well what if next time we jump closer to home so its easier to get warmed up would it have been fun then." "Yea!" He cheered, as we raced up the stairs to a drawer of dry clothing. Once changed all was right in the world. I wonder what adventures swimming lessons will bring us next week.