Pyjama Week

Starting this year, my seven-year-old son goes to the pool every Thursday for swimming lessons – one day he has to jump into the water in his pyjamas.

And now, back to the news from school life.

Starting this year, my seven-year-old son goes to the pool every Thursday for swimming lessons – it sounds like part of a training program for young Navy SEALs.

I'm really glad, because children are learning important life skills that, back in my childhood, were considered as exotic as dolphin yoga.

The first time I ever set foot in a swimming pool was already after I entered university, and even then not by choice but because the PE instructor required it. We floundered helplessly in a meter and a half of water, clinging to the edge with all the desperation we could muster, while the attentive coaches gently yet firmly pushed us back into the depths with paddles, where we once again discovered both the element and our own futility.

Much later, in the Netherlands, I was once denied entry to the adult swimming pool. Turns out, it's not enough just to be able to swim there – you actually need a swimming license. A license! My pride was shaken a little, because surely I can stay afloat at least as well as a dumpling in a pot.
But the stern North Holland zweminstructeur was unyielding. As I later learned, the North Hollanders are a tough people. Tougher than the southerners. Tougher than fishermen's boots.

But what impressed me most was a letter that recently came from the school: "Please bring pyjamas for the next swimming lesson." Pyjamas, you understand? This is the so-called Pyjama Week – a week when children jump into the water in their nightwear.
The idea is to learn how to survive in the water in case you fall in accidentally. They practice swimming, jumping, climbing out, turning, and conserving energy – all while wearing trousers and a T-shirt (or even a robe).

This is a level that even professionals in my childhood never reached. The most survival training we got was in shop class, when the electric jigsaw came flying toward your head.

In what life scenario could I possibly find myself in the water in pyjamas? Only if my sleep were so deep that I rolled straight out of bed into a pond – but in that case, the pyjamas would hardly be my biggest problem 🙂