Healthy Fear

So my 2 (almost 3) year old has no fear!  Since she was tiny she has just figured that if the bigger kids can do it, she can (and should!) do it as well.  So she climbs up high things and jumps off high things and isn't scared in the least.

Now that we are in Cairns and enjoying the warm weather and swimming almost daily, there is a new area that Julianne is experiencing:  water!  And boy-oh-boy does she love it!  But once again, she has no fear!  So we have to keep a constant eye on her.

Yesterday, we went to the Lagoon with some friends of ours who are also here awaiting the birth of their baby.  It was a beautiful day and the kids had a blast.  But at one point, the smaller kids decided to follow the larger ones across the pool (which gets deeper in the middle).  Julianne and her friend (who's just over a year older than her) held hands and started out.  The friend, being a little older and thus taller was walking along and Julianne was bobbing along next to him.  But then the water was at her chin, and then it was over her head.  Her friend's head was still out of the water, so he didn't realize that Julianne couldn't touch.  (Us parents were sitting on the shore/side, watching, and by the time we realized that it was getting too deep for her, she was already going on and under.)  So a couple of us went running for her.  She was totally fine, and had done a good job of holding her breath.

You would think after that experience at the Lagoon just that morning she would be a bit more cautious, or at least weary when it came to deep water.  Unfortunately, that's not the case. =(  Last night, Matt took the kids for a much-looked-forward-to night swim.  They were so thrilled to get to go swimming after dark!  Anyway, Julianne "pushed" Matt into the deep end, and before he knew it, she had just jumped right in after him.  Thank God she was wearing her floaties!  (she's never jumped into the pool without someone to catch her, but I guess she decided that last night was the time to start, and she did it over and over during the swim.)

I want my kids to have healthy fear of water, cars, strangers, etc.  But sometimes that's hard to teach.  We constantly tell our kids the rules of the pool, but sometimes they have to find things out for themselves.  I don't want Julianne to be too afraid to get into the water, but I do want her to be aware of the fact that she doesn't know how to swim and needs to be careful!  The balance between constantly teaching and warning, and letting them find things out for themselves can be hard to find.  Sometimes it's ok to let them discover that when we say "don't touch" or whatever, there is a very good reason (it's hot!).  But there are areas where you can't just let them discover something for themselves.... You just have to teach them that it's not safe, or not allowed, and they have to learn to take your word for it and obey.

So, at least for the next two weeks while we're here in Cairns and enjoying pools, we'll continue to work on teaching Julianne how to be safe in water, and to develop a healthy fear of those things which deserve it!