I started dance lessons when I was 2. I loved it!!! I remember skipping and jumping and all sorts of fun stuff. Then, in 1st grade my mom switched me to a new studio. My teacher was horrible!!! She was the Wicked Witch of the West. I am totally not kidding. Characters like Professor Snape or the bad guy in Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events totally remind me of her.
I was so scared of her that apparently I still have unresolved issues because at least once a week I have a dream that I'm on stage at a dance recital and I don't know the dance and there's LaRae, yelling at me in front of everybody. Seriously, the woman is pure evil.
Anyway, with that background I'll move on to current events. Jake took swimming lessons in the spring. He loved it! Loved the teacher, loved the water and even started loving getting his face wet. Then, yesterday he started in the next level with a new teacher. Whoa! Psychopathic Grinch Swimming Instructor. She was yelling at the kids the whole lesson.
Then today I took Jake in a couple of minutes late (he has preschool in the mornings). She grabbed him by the arm and wouldn't let him in the pool and started yelling at me. I was oblivious to it and one of the other moms had to get my attention. "What time is his class?!" she was yelling. I was shocked. "What time is his class?!" she kept going.
"Um... 11:30," I managed to get out. "Then you should be here at 11:30! Get in Jacob," and she yanked him into the pool. There was an audible gasp from our audience (the bleachers were totally full of parents and onlookers with the other 3 or 4 lessons going at the same time). To a certain extent she was right. He should be on time, but she went a bit far. I sat there for about 2 seconds then had a flashback to LaRae treating me the same way.
I stood up right then and marched up to the woman in charge of all the swimming lessons. "That woman is horrible. She yells at the kids and she just yelled at me in front of all those people. I did not pay money to have my kid hate swimming because of one mean teacher." I actually said it calmly, nicely and with a smile. She knew exactly what I was talking about and switched Jake to a 'nice' teacher.
When I sat back down on the bleachers a mom from a different class came up to me and asked if I took Jake out of that class. I said yes and she said, "Oh, good! I would never want my kids with her. She shouldn't be working with children." Once again I had a large audience of onlookers who seemed to approve the switch.
I was a bit embarrassed but was happy with my decision. My experience was definitely not the worst thing I went through as a child, but I think it taught me that it was okay to be bullied. I want my children to know their boundaries, learn respect and be thoughtful of others but also have the self esteem to stick up for themselves and not be anyone's door mat.
Fat and happy baby Jake enjoying swimming lessons
