Amidst the CPSU’s “Parents in Sport Week”, we want to take the chance to celebrate the Sport Structures parents working hard in the office and at home. One of the Sport Structures team persevered throughout the pandemic to show her daughter the importance of learning to swim, and how enjoyable it can be…
Jobeth’s Story
Swimming is a non-negotiable in my house! You can quit, Judo, dance, netball, whatever sport you like. But my daughter cannot quit swimming lessons until she can properly swim. We have had tears, we have had months where we take two swims forward then one swim back. Then coronavirus hit…. My daughter was 5 when this happened.
Before the pandemic hit, she had just got her 5 metres badge and she was enjoying her lessons, truly loving the swimming lessons and getting so water confident. Then the leisure centre shut, Boris said “stay at home” and the swimming lessons were no more. Shortly, Leisure centres opened but with COVID restrictions and no swimming lessons, and for the first time, I realised that if I wanted my daughter to swim, it was ON ME!
Due to COVID restrictions there was only one family swim session on a Sunday which allowed 6 families to swim. In order to access this session it meant setting my alarm for 6.30 on a Sunday morning to book online, and be one of the lucky six families in a town of over 30,000 people. Sometimes I was too late and we would only get the deep end, sometimes I wouldn’t get a space at all. I look back at those times, where I took my daughter swimming in an near empty pool to ensure she hadn’t forgotten to swim and think how much she learned and how much swimming was a treat, as there was no school, no shopping trips, no cinema, swimming was the only thing she could access away from the house.
Things are somewhat normal now the pool is open on Sunday and there are hundreds of families in there, the swimming lessons are back and as manic as ever. I look back and just think fondly of those times and I’m so pleased I went to the extra effort. She can do lengths, she has progressed so quickly and we can see proper strokes, now arms are coming out for front crawl, frog legs are coming on for her breaststroke, her arm is slicing past her ear for backstroke. My daughter was lucky and thankfully there is no more two swims forward and one swim back. She truly is progressing with this non-negotiable life skill.
The CPSU’s “Parents in Sport Week” looks to provide the information and tools to support parents on their journey to becoming a great sports parent and keeping children safe in sport. To deliver more successful sporting experiences for children, like Jobeth has done for her daughter.
For more details on the CPSU’s campaign click here: “Parents in Sport Week”
For more on keeping children safe in sport, visit our workshops: Safeguarding & Time to Listen