WAIT FOR ME!!!!!!!!!!!!

Rubbish day at work - feeling generally grumpy by the end of the day. Decided to regain some degree of calm and good humour before going home. Went to watch the swans and their cygnets.
The cygnet behind his/her mother and sibling was paddling madly to catch up. Usually there is this one cygnet waiting by the pond deciding if he/she will jump in. The others have already jumped in and are paddling around happily. The mother swan is amazingly patient and waits until he/she is ready to take the plunge - and hasn't pushed the cygnet in (yet). Saying that, when I was watching her last week with cygnet she did keep edging the cygnet to the edge and made little encouraging noises. Very impressed by the protective nature of Mrs Swan. My father could have learned a lot from this swan. His way of encouraging one of his children to make the plunge was to throw them into the sea and shout "Its not that cold - now swim!" Now we are not talking Hawaii or Barbados - more like Northumbrian and Swedish coastline.