Real life: Swimming helps blind dad bond with his baby daughter
Mike Duxbury and Daisy Mae take to swimming like ducks to water
Worrying about your baby’s safety is common among new parents, and this is especially true for dad Mike Duxbury who is registered blind. Mike discovered swimming with his daughter Daisy Mae helped eased his worry and enabled him to build a lasting bond.
MadeForMums chatted to 45-year-old Mike, from Northamptonshire, to find out more about his amazing story.
“I’m registered blind and my disability meant I was concerned from the start about Daisy’s safety, especially around water,” he told us.
“My wife, Claire, 39, works for the Water Babies swimming school, so I decided to take Daisy to a lesson when she was three months old.
"We decided I’d get in the pool too and hold Daisy Mae while Claire guided me, and I’m so glad we did. Daisy loved the water from the word go and I felt much more confident with her afterwards.
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“Now I take her regularly and not only have lessons given me peace of mind, but they've really helped establish and develop our daddy-daughter bond.
“She’s just under two years of age now and completely understands that I can’t see. For example, she’ll show her mum something but come over and put it in my hand. It’s simple things like that that go beyond simply swimming - the repercussions continue when you're back at home too.
“I think that a lot of dads will say they spend more time at work and it’s only evenings, weekends or holidays, that you get quality time to spend with your kids - and that’s just the reality of life.
“Making time to swim with Daisy has forced me to change my approach. Now I’m deliberately at home as soon as I can be and take time off to go swimming or do other activities.
“I can really see the bond that we've built by swimming together, and now I take the time to reinforce our relationship in other ways too.”
Water Babies, which started out as a small family-run business in 2002, is now the world’s leading baby swim school, teaching over 32,000 babies to swim each week across the UK, Ireland and Australia.
Find out more about Water Babies swimming school at waterbabies.co.uk.
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