Pool Time

Four colorful wrist bands. That's my collection for four sessions of sitting in the bleachers of Schroeder Aquatic Center this weekend. That adds up to about 12 hours of hot humid pool air while Kelly swam 6 prelim events and 4 finals, dropping a total of 37 seconds. A great weekend!

But the time spent at the pool is not all about the seconds and ribbons. When her and I go off to a meet, it is our alone time. A date you might say. We talk, observe, laugh, hang out with swim friends, and more often than not, stop for ice cream on the way home.

I learn about her on these weekends at the pool. This weekend I learned she is becoming more and more confident. And a hard lesson....that with that confidence and her new found independence my roll as mom is changing too.

When a disqualification occurred in her 100 fly she surprisingly came up to her coach and then to the bleachers with a smile. Until....she got to me. Then the expected reaction, and the tears came. I gave hugs and words of consultation, but she was still sad and embarrassed. Finally, off to the locker she went. Ten minutes later she came back acting as though nothing had happened. On the ride home I asked her how she was feeling. "Just great" was the reply. I was curious how she turned it around. She explained that her fellow swimmers were in the locker and were concerned about her, and then able to laugh with her about the whole experience, and that made her happy again.

During that conversation I realized her friends were able to give her something I wasn't able to. They were able to console her and make her feel better. A peek into the future when she will go to the girls instead of her mom.

I asked her what her teammates said that I didn't. She couldn't really explain it, but said that they just made her laugh and forget. Then she assured me that even though her friends made her happy, I was the one person at the pool that she could be sad to, and at the time she needed to cry more than laugh.

So I am still needed after all.