Waterlings

There's a lot of quiet heroism on a pool deck.

I've watched it for twenty-five years. The parent who gets a wriggly toddler fed, changed and poolside by 8am. The one who still comes in the middle of winter, when the car park is cold and the doona nearly won. The one in the water, week after week, holding their bub through every wobble.

Teachers teach the lessons. But consistency is what turns lessons into a swimmer. And the consistency is all yours.

Because here's the thing about babies and trust. In the water, they borrow their calm from you. Your arms, your voice, your face showing up again and again in the same warm place. That's what they're learning from, long before they're learning strokes.

So this one's for you. We see you every week. It doesn't go unnoticed. ✨

Nobody ever taught us these things.

There was no lesson for exploring a rock pool. No one showed us how to fill a bucket with shells until it was too heavy to carry. And the rules of beach cricket were passed down the sand like folklore. Six and out. One hand, one bounce. Argued over every summer, never once written down.

That's the thing about an Aussie childhood. The essentials were never bought, and never taught. They were absorbed, one golden arvo at a time ✨

Now we get to stand in the shallows and watch our own little ones pick them all up. Same rock pools. Same shells. Same arguments at the crease.

We've started the list. What did we miss? 🦀

I wrote this checklist long before Waterlings existed.

Not on paper. On the pool deck, over twenty-five years of watching swim nappies come through my swim school. The ones that held. The ones that didn't. The ones that looked so plastic, parents hid them under their baby's swimwear.

I banned disposables from my pool back in 2008 because they kept failing at the one job they had. And somewhere in that decision, this list started writing itself.

A lining that seals the whole inside, not just elastic at the legs. Leg bands with enough give for chunky thighs and skinny ones. Prints you'd happily photograph. Fabric made from plastic that was on its way to becoming ocean.

It took me sixteen years to make the nappy that ticks every box. The standard was never negotiable. The pool deck taught me that.

Beautiful and functional. It was never going to be one or the other. 🐠✨

This rock pool is a few hours south of Sydney, near Mollymook. I took my camera on this trip, and I'm so glad I did.

Once a year, I try to get away on my own down the East coast. I'm not a spontaneous person, so these drives are properly planned: a beautiful destination to look forward to, a business audiobook queued up, the notebook packed. That's my version of a holiday, and I love it.

Here's something that surprises people. I was a competitive swimmer, but I'm not a strong surf swimmer. Something about the surf intimidates me. My happy place is a rock pool or an ocean pool, doing my laps with the ocean right there beside me, but not underneath me. And down south, there are so many beautiful ones.

My work is intense. A swim school with a team of 40, and now a completely new arena of fashion and e-commerce. The coastline is where I find the space to think. I need it badly, and it gives it to me every single time.

This trip gave me something else too. These rock pools are what inspired our Rock The Pool nappy. This rock pool world really is my happiest place.

Where do you go when you need space?

– Sasha, Waterlings 🩵

Nobody signs up for swim lessons to make memories.

You sign up so your little one is safe in the water. Fair enough. That's the reason I want every family to come too.

But that's not the part you'll carry.

Years from now, you won't remember the week she first floated. You'll remember the drive there with the radio on. The particular smell of the change rooms. Her wet little head against your neck on the way out, worn out and happy. The way she reached for you the second she got nervous, and how it felt to be the one she reached for.

The swimming is the reason you come. The rest is what you keep.

One day these ordinary mornings are going to be the ones you'd give anything to have back.

So this is your reminder. You're in them right now.

What's a swim day moment you never want to forget? 💦