From teaching horse riding to teaching babies swimming, I’ve had a truly unique journey on the road to becoming a Water Babies teacher!
I loved horse riding from a young age and as soon as I finished school I travelled to Thomastown in Kilkenny where I trained for a year to qualify as a horse riding teacher and taught horse riding to adults and children until I had my first baby.
Along came my first daughter Abigail and we started baby swimming classes as soon as we could! It became the highlight of my week as we just loved the classes and it was such a special bonding time and we made great friends. I had such admiration for our teacher who made us feel at ease even through more difficult skills and made the whole experience so much fun!
During my second pregnancy I was offered redundancy from the stables I was working in so I took this as an opportunity to find something that was better suited to my life as a Mum and I got the brainwave that I would train as a Water Babies teacher! I was 36 weeks pregnant when I did the interview and completed by Level 1 teacher training at 38 weeks pregnant! I travelled to the UK to complete my baby swimming teacher training when my second baby Alicia was just 4 months old and while it was a tough time it was very rewarding and I have great memories from the week.
I love the feeling of knowing that I’ve made the children and their parents happy and that they have benefited from spending time in the water. Watching them grow in confidence as they master the skills, each baby at their own pace. Seeing friendships and bonds created with new parents makes me smile too as I know these relationships are so important to help parents in so many ways.
Teaching water safety and how to be safe around water is hugely important to me. When we were on holidays and my daughter Abigail was just seven, she managed to save a little three year old girl by holding her up and threading water until help arrived. There's nothing more important than knowing that your little one has the ability to keep themselves safe in the water from day one, we teach water safety skills to both parents and babies.
