Hubbard Swim Schools Ahead of the Curve

Posted on December 2, 2011 by Swim School Bob


WOW — WE ALREADY DO ALL OF THIS — TODAYMOMS on MSNBC has an article about a swim school opening in London in January, 2012 that highlights the fact that it will offer a pool that is four feet deep with 91+ degree water temp and UV lights for sanitation. Hubbard has had six pools that offer all of those special features along with our fantastic staff for years!!! Glad the rest of the world is catching up with us. Here is Baby Molly at 3 months swimming. We think she is cuter than those MSNBC babies. Don’t you?

Read the MSNBC article here.

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Big and Small

Posted on November 14, 2011 by Swim School Bob

We had a visit from our nephew last week. He is being honorably discharged after four years of service in the Marine Corps. Took this picture as he sat with one of our grandsons in the play area in our swim school. What struck me about the photo was the simplicity of the two of them just sitting and talking. Our nephew’s patience and interest in just being there with our grandson. They live in such different worlds yet when you bring things down to their essence — they are so much the same.

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Life’s Cycles

Posted on October 27, 2011 by Swim School Bob

Tonite I sit and reflect on an amazing day. Drove our 17 year old son to school with all of his “equipment” to be a pirate at tonite’s Halloween dance at school. This afternoon I was with our daughter Maureen as she gave birth to her son Brian. What a joy to share that experience with she her husband Matt and Grandma’s Kathy and Karen.

After seeing Brian’s safe arrival into our world thanks to Dr Schultz and the team at Good Sam, I moved on to cowboy night at pre-school with grandsons Frank and Hank with their dads Pat and Bobby.

So my day was spent as a father to a 17 year old and father to a new mother and grandfather to a new new new baby boy and two of his 12 other cousins at the cowboy cookout.

Wow what a blessed life I lead.
Embrace those around you and embrace all of your roles in the world.

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Swim School Bob Blog Honored

Posted on October 12, 2011 by Swim School Bob

Thanks to the member’s of the US Swim School Association for honoring “Swim School Bob” as the Best of Association Blog at the US Swim School Annual Conference in Orlando, Florida.

Now I have to live up to the honor.

More thoughts coming soon and more regularly, I promise !!!

But right now we have the afternoon off so I am going to see Mickey and his friends with the grand-kids at Disney World.

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Sad News

Posted on September 9, 2011 by Swim School Bob
I feel compelled to share with my blog readers a recent message related to a friend’s loss of a child to drowning and one of the many thoughtful responses we received.

Hubbard Family Swim School August Message to Our Families:

This month we received the very sad news that a long time Hubbard Swim School family had lost their 4 year old to drowning. He was to start lessons that week. Our entire staff is mourning along with the family. We take pride in being able to recognize our families and children when they walk in our door. This is one of those times when that commitment to kids and families really hurts.

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Dad’s Success

Posted on July 13, 2011 by Swim School Bob

The Wall Street Journal recently published an article titled: The Secret of Dad’s Success (click here to read).

The article uses a number of surveys, studies and examples to discuss distinct ways that men and women parent differently. I know there are many strong women out there who are going to argue with the various broad statements in this article but the author has many interesting observations about the different talents dads bring to the parenting role.

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Where Does Pool Safety Start?

Posted on May 24, 2011 by Swim School Bob

To keep your children safe around water, start outside the pool!!!

Safe Kids reports that in 63% of drowning cases, the victims entered the pool through an open or unlatched gate! If you have a pool or even are at a party or visiting a home with a pool, you need to ensure that the pool gate is locked. Do not count on the host to confirm that the gate is locked. If you are at home with a pool that does not have a fence and you have toddlers, you need to either leave or tie your children to your waist so they do not wander away from you.

In more than 75% of the cases of drowning, either one or both of the parents were present at the home. You cannot count on adult supervision when a pool is unsecured.

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Are You Taking Time To Be Selfish?

Posted on April 25, 2011 by Swim School Bob

I posted a photo on my Facebook page last week of myself with our 5th daughter as she headed off to her high school prom. It prompted me to think that I had been sending kids off to proms over three decades. Whew, that is a lot of great memories.

This week I was reflecting on that experience, as I heard a young couple discuss the stress that they were feeling with an eighteen-month-old toddler in their home. I had made some comment that I was planning on doing something, attending a concert or trying a new restaurant for dinner. They responded with what my good friend Bruce Sullivan in Australia calls “whingeng”. That is an expression of fatigue and disappointment of how difficult life is etc. They got caught up in describing how they had no time for themselves with a toddler in their life.

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Posted in Off The Wall Thoughts, Parenting Ideas | 2 Comments

Does Your Waiter Know Your Name?

Posted on April 8, 2011 by Swim School Bob

WaiterHow many times have you sat down at a table in a restaurant and the fresh faced waiter or waitress comes over and says …. “Hello, I am Tracy and I will be serving you tonight”? Often times, that is information that passes in one ear and out the other.  No eye contact by either the waiter or yourself.

On the other hand how do you feel when you walk into a place and to quote the old Cheers TV slogan … “Everyone knows your name?”

By the nature of our lifestyle and time of life, we eat out a lot. We gravitate back to favorite places time and time again. Often the food is very, very good. But most often, we frequent places where we are greeted by name or in a special place the waiter or bartender may inquire whether we would enjoy a specific beverage or appetizer, since they know our tastes and habits.

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Play, A Lost Art

Posted on January 12, 2011 by Swim School Bob

Welcome to the New Year. Honestly have had a bit of writer’s block over the past few months, ok more than a few, months. I finally found the topic to get me writing again. PLAY or, rather, the lack of it in our children’s and our own lives!

Our kids are living in very structured worlds where they go to swim lessons, soccer practice, piano lessons, and after-school math tutors. Whew! I remember heading out the door after school when the only rule in our Brooklyn neighborhood was to be back by dinnertime. I know times are different today but I do think that we, as parents, are over-reacting and over-structuring our kids.  As a kid, when we played basketball, there were no coaches, no time clock, and no audience of parents to assess our performance. We played shirts and skins. When one game was over, if no one was waiting on the sideline to join the next game, we’d reshuffle the teams, re-balance the game and start anew.

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