Spent straight 2 hours dealing with a 6-year-old kid. Let’s call her Riley.

Unlike other kids who did what I asked them to do, like leg kicking, nose bubbling, and starfish floating... Riley was a character!

She would always walk away from me... even if I was holding toys that she was so happy to play with just a few minutes ago.

(she liked the mermaid and starfish the most)

I would say this to make her feel more motivated to do what I said...

"Riley, kick faster... The mermaid is waiting for you to high five her..."

But the problem was...

She was not coming towards me, the one who's holding her favourite toy.

She was kicking to go to someone else...

Someone that made her completely forget her favorite mermaid...

And it's none other than her own brother.

Her 8-year-old brother was a few feet away, swimming his front crawl...

While Riley kept calling her brother to get his attention.

And the only way I could get her to do what I said after seeing this?

"Riley, do you want to be like your gorgor (it means elder brother in Cantonese)? Then you need to kick kick kick faster... "

I also slapped the water to show that she needed to kick harder to have that splash of water.

And guess what...

Her legs were fluttering so fast like the unscrewed mermaid toy where its tail kept flopping.

😂

Lesson of the day:

Always have someone to swim with your kids. Be it their siblings, their friends, or their relatives — or even yourself as the parents, they will at least feel less lonely and will be more focused on swimming.

And it’s proven that it works better than their favourite toys.

Vivian Ho
Optimum Train Swim School

P.S. If you’re a parent, how do you handle a crying kid if they don’t want to do what you ask them to do? Reply to me and I’ll feature them in the next email to help out the next parent or our coach.

Our Student’s Transformation

From a swimming newbie to be an OTSS-certified swimmer who swims confidently and independently without any support in a 25m swimming pool.

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