Keri Morrison is like any other mom teaching her daughter how to swim. Of course, it seems like no mom can do anything without a bit of criticism on the internet these days. Morrison is now fighting back after critics have said her method is extreme.
So, why do they say it’s extreme? Morrison is having her 6-month-old daughter, Josie, attend swim class; for Morrison, this is particularly important, as her nearly 3-year-old son, Jake, accidentally drowned three years ago. In the now viral video, Josie flops face first into the water before righting herself on her back. Morrison feels this method of teaching is necessary, stating in TODAY:
“You’re seeing a 6-month-old sitting on the steps playing, which can be a real life situation. She falls in and she turns over and saves herself and floats for over a minute and a half. I don’t see how there could be anything negative about that.”
The technique in the video is referred to as Infant Swimming Resource (ISR), which teaches children as young as 6 months old to “self-rescue.” Some of the criticism on Facebook include statements like these:
“‘Every kid should learn this young????!! really??better yet Don’t have babies. 🏻if you don’t have the time to take care of them…’
‘I can’t f-ing watch this. This woman is crazy!!!! I am so annoyed. Learned to swim…. Seriously! The baby can’t even talk. The baby probably already knew how to swim from the womb. The parents just found out one day and said lets video tape this. Just to show how impressive the baby was. They are selfish animals exploiting the child for a little attention. They suck!!’
‘Ok like totally ok to teach a baby to swim but this shit is cruel look how long they let her float she was obviously panicking becuz she was trying to cry. Not right at all poor baby looked like she couldn’t take it much longer and drown.'”
Because of Jake’s death, Morrison wants her daughter to be prepared, and explained how she can’t “fail” her daughter like she did her son:
“I wish I could go back in time and put my son in these lessons. I’m pretty confident that he would be here, and as a parent, I felt like I failed my son, and I was just determined that was not going to happen with my daughters.”
Personally, I can’t blame Morrison for feeling the way she does. Since Josie is obviously being watched and monitored, I can’t see the harm in this swimming method.
Watch the video for yourself below:
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