Hello from NZ.
I want to tell you about my youngest child, Jonty, now aged 5. When he was a baby he hated going swimming, although he didn't mind having a bath. At the pool he would cling to me and resist floating alone with a ring or arm bands. One day, aged around 3, he told me about the little boy who was eleven. This child drowned, Jonty explained. He had "gone out too far" and drowned. I was not sure how to respond and muttered something about that being very sad. Jonty ignored me and ran off to play. Soon I noticed he was no longer afraid of water (I put this down to my patient parenting!) and within months, to my horror, his fear of water disapeared so completly to the extent he was a positive danger. He still could not swim but refused to be held or wear arm bands. He would swim underwater without fear and without being able to breath independently! I had to watch him all the time, and lift him out at intervals to breath!
When he was 4 we moved to NZ. We stayed with friends who took us to a lake near their house. Jonty had played in the sea but had never swum in a lake before. The lake was shallow, knee deep on my four year old, for about 30 metres, then there was a band of weeds and the water quickly got deeper. My husband and I played in the water with the three kids and repeatly told them not to venture out past the weeds. Jonty was impatient with this advice and told me he knew he would drown if he did that. He explained the little boy who drowned when he was eleven got caught in the weeds. We had not told the children of the danger from the weeds only that the water got deep there.
The interesting thing for me was how Jonty always called him "the little boy" yet Jonty was only 3 when he first told me this. I regret I never asked the name, and now Jonty has no apparent recall of the events, or of "the little boy" He remains an excellent swimmer for his age, and is supreamly confident in water.
I found Carol's book in the library, and got the email address of this site from there. I am finding it fasinating reading and wish I had read it before jonty forgot his past memories. I now have an interest in finding a good past life threapist and investigating my own past lives. I have no particular reason, but I think I am congenitally nosy!
It is lovely to find people who obviously don't think Jonty and I are cranks!
I want to tell you about my youngest child, Jonty, now aged 5. When he was a baby he hated going swimming, although he didn't mind having a bath. At the pool he would cling to me and resist floating alone with a ring or arm bands. One day, aged around 3, he told me about the little boy who was eleven. This child drowned, Jonty explained. He had "gone out too far" and drowned. I was not sure how to respond and muttered something about that being very sad. Jonty ignored me and ran off to play. Soon I noticed he was no longer afraid of water (I put this down to my patient parenting!) and within months, to my horror, his fear of water disapeared so completly to the extent he was a positive danger. He still could not swim but refused to be held or wear arm bands. He would swim underwater without fear and without being able to breath independently! I had to watch him all the time, and lift him out at intervals to breath!
When he was 4 we moved to NZ. We stayed with friends who took us to a lake near their house. Jonty had played in the sea but had never swum in a lake before. The lake was shallow, knee deep on my four year old, for about 30 metres, then there was a band of weeds and the water quickly got deeper. My husband and I played in the water with the three kids and repeatly told them not to venture out past the weeds. Jonty was impatient with this advice and told me he knew he would drown if he did that. He explained the little boy who drowned when he was eleven got caught in the weeds. We had not told the children of the danger from the weeds only that the water got deep there.
The interesting thing for me was how Jonty always called him "the little boy" yet Jonty was only 3 when he first told me this. I regret I never asked the name, and now Jonty has no apparent recall of the events, or of "the little boy" He remains an excellent swimmer for his age, and is supreamly confident in water.
I found Carol's book in the library, and got the email address of this site from there. I am finding it fasinating reading and wish I had read it before jonty forgot his past memories. I now have an interest in finding a good past life threapist and investigating my own past lives. I have no particular reason, but I think I am congenitally nosy!
It is lovely to find people who obviously don't think Jonty and I are cranks!