Hi all,
I'm fairly new here and have posted a couple of things on another thread here. I've been reading Carol Bowman's book, Children's Past Lives, and it's made me think about a problem with my seven year old boy. My husband and I are at our wits end with this...he is deathly afraid of water. So much so that he has to lie down in an empty bath tub to get his hair washed and if we accidentally splash water on his face or get it in his eyes (especially if we get it in his eyes) he has a panic attack. And it's plain water, not soapy water or shampoo.
He has been in swimming lessons once a week for more than a year now and still the boy cannot swim. He freaked out tonight when we arrived at swimming lessons and his teacher had left the company and he had to have an all new swimming teacher. I asked him why he couldn't just try the new teacher and he said, "She might not pay attention and I'll drown." The only thing that saved the lesson was that he was in a new lane and it was right next to the lifeguard, something I pointed out to him to ease his fears.
I have never asked him any questions about this, I haven't read enough of Children's Past Lives to know where to start.
When he was very little, about 18 months old, I took him to mommy-and-me swimming lessons and he was so fearless he nearly tossed himself out of my arms and I was the one who was scared. I'm not sure where this new fear has come from, but I have a hard time deciding if it started after his baby brother died. My husband and I have three sons. The middle son died when he was 3 weeks old, and this was when my eldest son was almost three years old. It's been since he was about four and a half or five, after my father died (he died 18 months after my middle son), that these fears have come up. He knows what dying is.
I just thought I would put it out to this group and see if anyone has any suggestions. Whatever we do, however we solve it, I want him to feel calm, comfortable, and confident in the water. His level of fear surpases that of any of the other children in his class, even the ones who are apprehensive. Several kids have graduated out of his little lane into the bigger lanes and still my poor son sits there, hating the lessons and scared.
Thanks for listening!
Rajmo
3/9/2016 Edit: Meant to say that he cannot put his face or head in the water. He cries and clings to the swimming instructor when they tell him to put his face in the water or go under the water. And when he practices floating on his back he has one little hand on the shoulder of the instructor, gripping hard. The fear is very, very real for my son and I've never seen another child in the swimming lessons who is that afraid. (Or any child, come to think of it, even when I was a little girl, none of my friends were that afraid of the water.)
I'm fairly new here and have posted a couple of things on another thread here. I've been reading Carol Bowman's book, Children's Past Lives, and it's made me think about a problem with my seven year old boy. My husband and I are at our wits end with this...he is deathly afraid of water. So much so that he has to lie down in an empty bath tub to get his hair washed and if we accidentally splash water on his face or get it in his eyes (especially if we get it in his eyes) he has a panic attack. And it's plain water, not soapy water or shampoo.
He has been in swimming lessons once a week for more than a year now and still the boy cannot swim. He freaked out tonight when we arrived at swimming lessons and his teacher had left the company and he had to have an all new swimming teacher. I asked him why he couldn't just try the new teacher and he said, "She might not pay attention and I'll drown." The only thing that saved the lesson was that he was in a new lane and it was right next to the lifeguard, something I pointed out to him to ease his fears.
I have never asked him any questions about this, I haven't read enough of Children's Past Lives to know where to start.
When he was very little, about 18 months old, I took him to mommy-and-me swimming lessons and he was so fearless he nearly tossed himself out of my arms and I was the one who was scared. I'm not sure where this new fear has come from, but I have a hard time deciding if it started after his baby brother died. My husband and I have three sons. The middle son died when he was 3 weeks old, and this was when my eldest son was almost three years old. It's been since he was about four and a half or five, after my father died (he died 18 months after my middle son), that these fears have come up. He knows what dying is.
I just thought I would put it out to this group and see if anyone has any suggestions. Whatever we do, however we solve it, I want him to feel calm, comfortable, and confident in the water. His level of fear surpases that of any of the other children in his class, even the ones who are apprehensive. Several kids have graduated out of his little lane into the bigger lanes and still my poor son sits there, hating the lessons and scared.
Thanks for listening!
Rajmo
3/9/2016 Edit: Meant to say that he cannot put his face or head in the water. He cries and clings to the swimming instructor when they tell him to put his face in the water or go under the water. And when he practices floating on his back he has one little hand on the shoulder of the instructor, gripping hard. The fear is very, very real for my son and I've never seen another child in the swimming lessons who is that afraid. (Or any child, come to think of it, even when I was a little girl, none of my friends were that afraid of the water.)
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