Friday night my Muddy Organiser and Puzzler had their twilight swimming carnival, other than the overtired children it’s actually really great, lots of families, a sausage sizzle and lots of parent volunteers!

I had one of those moments though, you know the ones, where the lump rises in your throat and you think oh my goodness am I going to laugh or cry, you get so emotional it overwhelms you.

My Muddy Organiser hasn’t been the quickest to learn to swim, but she gives it a red hot go and that’s all we ask. Friday night she decided she wanted to swim in an across the pool race (the town pool is only 33m long anyway), I was amazed that she was going to give it a go. She lined up with the rest of the girls, jumped in, did a few strokes and then this look of sheer terror crossed her face, it was ‘holy crap I have to make it the whole way without touching the bottom’. Quite literally the lifeguard moved to stand right in front of her, seeing her panic, but I was so very. very proud, she gritted her teeth and she kept swimming. AND she made it! All the way across the pool, on her own without stopping or touching the bottom.

Yes, that was my lump in the throat for this week. These are the things people don’t tell you about before you have kids, those heart wrenching moments when you know they need to find strength inside themselves, but all you want to do is scoop them up and tell them they’re OK.