The Former Dancer a/k/a The Kid is now officially The Swimmer. She went to swim tryouts, made the team, then AFTER her mother signed her up and paid money, said she wasn’t sure she really wanted to do it.
She’s having Dance Withdrawal, which is totally understandable. Her mom said, “Well, I asked you last week after tryouts and said you were in, so I signed you up. You have to stick it out until the first meet. After that you can change your mind.”
After practice tonight she said she had fun and her mom was right. I am all in on supporting this, and I’ll outfit her with swimsuits and caps and whatever else she needs, because I foresee needing multiple swim bags for mom’s, dad’s, and grandma’s when she forgot to pack her stuff. Trust me, this is WAAY cheaper than one competition dance, and no false eyelashes involved.
I swear, disengaging from dance is a bit like coming out of a cult. She’s still friends with some of the girls in the cult, but she is also spending time with friends from school, and she’ll make new friends on the swim team, and it won’t take up every afternoon and weekend of her young life and also most of her parents’ discretionary income. She may still want to dance in the future, but for now, it’s time for a break to try other things. Grandma’s happy about this.
We are having our second round of thunderstorms for the day at the moment. They were lucky to get swim practice in between. The Atlantic is heating up late this year, but we are far from done with hurricane season. While the northern part of the country is ready for pumpkin spice season, we are just hitting Oh Shit Season.