Pleasure or pressure?

Its the beginning of the September School Holidays already and its time to start planning what to do with them during this one week. Swimming is definitely in the list as they don't swim as often as I want them to swim. I can't help but think of my childhood when I started swimming at the age of three and already competing at the age of 6 and now, Caleb is already 6 years old and he is still not confident in the water.

I keep asking myself, should I pressure them to swim or should I just continue introducing them to the pool till one day they are confident enough to take the plunge and swim on their own? It has been bothering me actually as it is definitely a life skill that they need to pick up and the memories of my childhood keep returning.

Anyway, because I did not really have a pleasant childhood swimming and training intensively, I may just take the opposite route to go easy with my children and allow them to naturally tell me they want to learn or slowly discover how to swim on their own.

I want swimming for them to be enjoyable and not something being forced. My role as a parent, I feel, is to create happy memories and so, I do not wish to jump in the bandwagon with most parents who sign up endless lessons for their child, resulting in both tired parents and children.

I will just enrol them in lessons I feel it is useful and when they agree to it..

That's Caleb learning how to put his face underwater and breathe properly.

For now, I am glad they enjoy the water and though they are not brave enough to try out those water playground slides, I am sure in time to come, they will. So what's the hurry?