To take baby swimming…

My 4 year old has had lessons since she was 6 months old. There’s no swimming at all for parents, although there may be when she moves up into the child levels

The issue a lot of the time is cost. I never went to swimming lessons as a small child because I was raised by a single parent who couldn't swim herself and just couldn't afford swimming lessons.

I then went on to also have a bad experience at school swim lessons and then as an adult, there's always something else that the money for adult swim lessons needs to go on.

They are even more expensive now.

4 seems to be common. Some children will be fine with that at 3.

I’m assuming the PP meant that if you go to a public swimming session they will want an adult in the water until 8. Otherwise some of our club swimming squad would still need an adult for lessons which seems daft.

100% recommend Water Babies lessons. You don’t need to be able to swim, but it’s a great thing for you to do together when LO is older. Get some adult lessons for you too.

Great idea!

If I were you, I’d let the instructor know you are also learning but there’s nothing in classes like water babies you wouldn’t be able to manage. The pp with the experience at a private gym is definitely an outlier, most places running these classes have “baby pools” or shallow ends.

Edit to add: good luck with your own swimming lessons! I used to teach adult swimming as a part time uni job, people pick it up so quickly!

Good luck with your swimming lessons, and with your baby swimming OP. I learnt as an adult, when my children were teens - I'd made sure they could swim and they loved it, and they encouraged me and helped me to practice once I'd had some lessons. It was terrifying at first. The lovely young instructors at my local pool were terrific, and very understanding, but that first moment of going into the deep end (with floats) was heart-stopping. I thoroughly enjoy swimming now, and when my adult DDs visit we often include a swim together. It's well worth the effort IME.

Oh dear that sounds really badly handled. For a start you should have had proper lessons way before to help you to become water confident and you should have had help to get over that bad experience and develop confidence again rather than just let you avoid water altogether into adulthood...
I bet there are lots of people out there with similar stories and it's so sad.

I sympathise OP, I was pushed in by the teacher at school swimming and lost confidence. Still a very weak swimmer and dislike the water.

I did however take my dc to the local pool and let them splash around, jump in etc to gain confidence. Both are now in lessons (started age 4) and already much better swimmers than I'll ever be. You can tell at the early lessons which children are used to being in water and which aren't.

I recommend the swim vests (and obviously not taking your eyes off them for a second!)

Similarly our moved to being in the pool on their own around 4.

I think it would be fine as long as you stay I. Shallow indoor water. I can swim pretty strongly but when I go with my two year old I will always keep my feet on the ground. I don’t trust myself to swim while holding him as obviously use my arms for swimming! With my five year old I would venture into the deeper water but she’s good at keeping herself afloat with aids and is making good progress in swimming lessons. So I think it would be fine now while they’re a baby but really as they get older they will want to swim more and you really will need to be able to keep yourself and them safe in deeper water so would work on learning to swim yourself. You’ll thank yourself on holiday in years to come!

Make sure the pool is warm enough

You'll be fine, you stand on the waist height floor and swoosh them around a bit.

Isn't it!

I can't swim and due to unforeseen circumstances, my son can't swim either but he is confident in the water and I'm glad of that.

I think baby swimming is a great idea.

This is nonsense. My youngest earned her 5m badge at two years old - young children are certainly capable of learning to swim, just like they're capable of learning to walk!

OP: absolutely take your baby to swimming, it's a huge sensory experience, and good to get them familiar with being in water early on in life. Makes learning to swim later on much easier as they're already comfortable and happy, and "playing" become "swimming" very naturally. Your plan of taking the opportunity to learn to swim yourself is a good one. I hope you and your baby enjoy yourselves 💖

and they are also learning water safety ie automatically holding breath when they go underwater and turning to the side when they jump in.

This is a really good idea OP. As you say, it's a life skill and one day your baby will be a mobile child who could end up in water very quickly, especially on holiday and you need to have the skills to supervise her safely.
But taking her to a pool where you are able to stand is a great idea. It is good to get babies used to being in water at an early age. That way it won't be such a shock to the system when you are teaching them to swim.

Out of curiosity, how did you miss the boat to learn before? No judgement, as it sounds like you are really invested in this :)

You would just be standing in very shallow water with your baby, are you actually water phobic or just can't swim? I don't remember ever being asked if I could swim when taking baby to baby swim classes, which at the start are more splashing around getting used to and enjoying the water (while wearing suitable flotation devices).

You can definitely take your baby swimming, stick to the shallow end and make sure there’s a lifeguard (there will be in a council run public pool), it’s good to get your baby used to the water.
Baby swimming lessons are a bit pointless in my opinion (babies won’t learn to swim and they can still become nervous of the water as toddlers) but they can be a nice way to introduce the baby to the water and to meet other parents, you can check with the individual instructor whether you need to be able to swim but I would think not as you will be in the shallow end with a qualified instructor if anything went wrong.

Starting swimming lessons at around age 4 is the most important thing though, so before then you could think about adult lessons for yourself

Lessons with a baby won't need you to swim, but up until they are 8, you will need to be in the water with them
Just checking you are conflating lessons and general swimming here because I've not been in the pool in my children's lessons since they were 4, definitely not 8.

I took my kids to private swimming lessons & saw a mother & baby learning to swim, I thought it was brilliant!

So it was the grandmother, mother & baby. Grandmother held baby & played with them in the water whilst the mother had some time with the instructor. Then the mother had some time with the baby whilst they were doing things like water over the head etc, & grandmother went off for a swim. They were the only ones in the pool.

I know that you say you are going to get lesson by yourself, Gerbera55, I just thought I'd mention this as a possible option too.