Waiting to Swim: Unlearning the Ghost Rules of My Childhood

What’s something you used to believe as a kid that seems ridiculous now?

One thing I was told as a kid—and I may or may not have fully believed it—was that you had to wait an hour after eating before going swimming. “You’ll get stomach cramps,” we were told.

I really should have known better. Even as a child, I knew people who ate and then took a shower or a bath immediately afterward. For some reason, I actually believed the danger only applied to swimming. I’m not sure how I rationalized that, other than the fact that I was a kid and didn’t have the world experience to question it. I didn’t know the difference between a groundless old wives’ tale and a genuine safety precaution.

I’m not sure exactly when it dawned on me that the “wait to swim” rule was nonsense. I’m sure there was a time I ate, jumped in the water less than an hour later, and realized that I was “pushing the rule.” When nothing happened, the illusion of danger simply evaporated.

From Childhood Myths to Adult Autonomy

It’s interesting, because my parents had a pool, so I grew up as a fairly strong swimmer. Yet, like many kids, I was still daunted by water deeper than I was tall. I think that’s a theme for life: we are often afraid of things simply because we lack understanding. The ocean, for instance, should be daunting—it is overwhelmingly large—but it stopped being intimidating to me once I lived in South Carolina and learned to respect it rather than fear it.

That shift feels crucial. My relationship with water today is a stark contrast to my youth. Am I a weaker swimmer than I was in high school? Probably. But I’ve replaced irrational, programmed fear with common sense. I’m not going to swim in the middle of a storm or in the dark, but I’ve moved from being controlled by a rule to being guided by my own judgment.

Choosing My Own Path

Perhaps that’s why I’ve become so relaxed about other “rules,” too. I’m not exactly a germaphobe. I don’t obsessively sanitize my hands, and I rarely use hand sanitizer, mostly because my dry skin wouldn’t stand for it. I suspect that in our rush to hyper-sanitize, we might actually be doing our immune systems a disservice.

It’s not about being a “scrub”—I shower, brush my teeth, and keep myself presentable—but it is about rejecting the excessive, performative habits that some people lean on. I’d rather trust my body to handle the world as it is than live by a set of arbitrary, fearful habits that don’t actually serve me. It’s just another way of choosing my own path, rather than following the ones laid out for me as a kid.

Rebuilding a life takes grit, consistency, and a lot of ‘Option C’ thinking. Having crossed the 1,000-day milestone, I’m now charting the territory beyond. The mission remains the same: No glitz. Just the work. New to the blog? Start your journey here to see the blueprint and the ‘Tricorder’ perspective behind the rebuild.

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The article “Waiting to Swim: Unlearning the Ghost Rules of My Childhood” first appeared on Rebuilding Rob.

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