When Zal was about 10 months old, I brought him to a fancy baby spa near my parent’s house at Jakarta. It cost around 250.000 IDR for 30 mins of massaging and swimming (with that neck float thing).
At first, I thought Zal was going to enjoy it, or at least feeling curious. I was wrong of course. Being a cautious boy that he is, he CRIED his voice out for the whole massaging and swimming session fml. He didn’t seem to like being touched by strangers, like the masseuse. The worst part is? He was afraid to take a bath several days after that. Every time it’s bath time, he shrieked and screamed when the water touched his body. Oh my God.
There goes my 250.000 IDR. Me and my fancy baby spa idea. Sigh.
Fortunately, it didn’t last long. When we came back to Singapore, he was all OK with bath again. Thank God.
When he’s finally 1 year old, we were thinking about when we should bring him swimming at the public pool. Should we start soon? But he was freaking afraid with baby spa while it’s only a small pool, and now we’re talking about the public pool! One big giant pool!
Not to mention he has a very sensitive skin. What if he got more rashes after the swimming session? So many ifs I almost cancel the idea completely.
But then I thought again, I can’t always protect him from everything in this world. When the time comes, he needs to get out (and kicked out, if needed) to face his own obstacles. Maybe this swimming thing is one of those moments.
Okay, I am getting too sappy just now.
Anyhoo, we decided to just give it a go. If it’s rashes later, fine. We will treat it again with the ointment we still have from the doctor. If he’s afraid of going to the pool, Husband will accompany him first.
Problem settled!
(Bought his one piece swimsuit at Kiddy Palace for whopping 35 bucks 😐 Couldn’t find anything cheaper, and I never bought clothing stuff online like qoo10.)
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The verdicts?
The first week – still clinging onto his Papa.
Playing with rubber duck so he would feel like he’s at his bathtub at home.
Overall, he looked fine and enjoyed the pool. So now, it’s becoming our weekend thing!
I don’t know what he was seeing, but I do hope it’s not a girl in a bikini or something. Hey you are still too young!!
Little guy finally let go of Papa’s hand by the third week! Achievement unlocked!
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His skin looked alright so far, as well. No rashes, no itch, and although he couldn’t stand swimming longer than 30 minutes (skin got wrinkles, lol), it’s already a good exercise! We are already doing it once a week and hopefully, Zal is going to get used with it 🙂
