My babes have always loved me swimming with them. I even wear a cute, modern-retro halter one piece, conservative yet stylish. Each year I've noticed a little gap widening between them and me...a bit more water for me, a wider swath of freedom for them, I guess.
Monday changed all that. I found myself doing arm and leg circles against the wall at the 4-foot ladder, surrounded by water and other people's children. Mine had hugged and splashed and front-flipped with goggles for a few brief moments, then vanished to the outer edges of my periphery. This changes everything, I thought. I'm never going back from this.
It is a weird moment for my mom brain to compute. I am tearing up a bit, but I also feel that stretch for independence for myself every now and then. Even if I'm not ready for it, obviously it's here. Well, obvious in that painful, I just figured it out because all the other moms are giving me "that look" from above their magazines in their lounge chairs. I do have Cosmo in my bag...
