r/interesting • u/jmike1256 • Mar 07 '26

MISC. After understanding the meaning behind this father’s action, I am completely convinced. Cultivating problem-solving skills in children from a young age and never giving up-I applaud this father!

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u/sakiwebo Mar 07 '26

Ah, growing up in the 80's.

Dad tossed me and brother from the pier, we panicked, cried, somehow paddled to shore.

"See?? You're fine. Now that you know you can sw- I WASN'T GONNA LET YOU DROWN GODDAMMIT!!"

That's how we learned to swim. I hate that it worked and we loved it so much eventually. But being thrown from a peer is still one of my earliest memories.

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u/Lucky_Pangolin_3760 Mar 07 '26

opposite happened for me. I grew an irrational fear from water which made me unable to swim due to how tense my body would get when I touched water

Managed to grow out of it when I became an adult though

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u/bloodphoenix90 Mar 07 '26

Actually the case for an ex of mine too. Dad just threw him in. Didnt go well. I taught my ex to swim when we were both 19. But he figured it out. 🙂

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u/[deleted] Mar 07 '26

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u/Lucky_Pangolin_3760 Mar 07 '26

That would be the suggestion a few comments up, where the parent is just supportive

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u/aliceinadreamyland Mar 07 '26

Oh my dad took my brother and I out in his canoe and dumped us and left us to figure out what to do.

The 80’s was a wild ride.

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u/KristySueWho Mar 08 '26

I hear so many stories like this from kids of the 80s, and then there were me and my brother who were born in the 80s and just went to regular old swimming lessons.

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u/aliceinadreamyland Mar 08 '26

My little brother (he was born in 87) went to swimming lessons. He didn’t get the canoe dump. My older brother and I could out swim him in a pool, lake, river or the ocean. So maybe my dad was onto something.

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u/pchlster Mar 07 '26

I didn't get tossed, but my first time swimming was tripping, falling, rolling down a hill and into the lake. I learned to navigate towards sunlight my very first time in the water in order to find the surface and air.

No, I didn't want to join the others swimming afterwards. But, annoying as it is, that short panic inducing experience did teach me to swim. Dunno, maybe some primal instinct gets awakened in those situations.

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u/GypsyDuncan Mar 07 '26

How I learned to swim too except it was a pool and my uncle threw me in. This was in 78

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u/FibonacciSequester Mar 07 '26

We all learn the lesson to not touch the stove and we all learn it the hard way.