Why can’t everyone swim???

[GorgeousFox]

Am interested in understanding what is stopping children from learning to swim? Is it the cost, lack of facilities, time constraints, something else?????

I had 4-6 lessons with my primary school before strikes meant they never happened again. I'd got as far as being able to get my costume on and get into the pool for a mushroom or star float when they stopped. Secondary School had a pool, but that meant walking across the site in the snow, barefoot and in swimming costumes whilst boys leered out of the windows at us - and then the pool was an unheated, chlorine free puddle under a corrugated iron roof, covered in an oily film and dead insects, so we all strangely had our period every swimming week. My mother's attitude was that she wasn't going to waste money when I should have ignored the 'I can see your nipples' and 'she's got pubic hair' type humiliation and frostbite, never mind the potential bug swallowing and probable dysentery.

I took out a gym membership in my 20s where they had a tiny pool and managed to get myself across 5m by variations on doggy paddle-crawl, as shown to me by a friend aged 16, but that lost its appeal with men diving/bombing into the 5 foot deep end over your head and swimming right up close when there wasn't any staff around.

I've looked for private adult swimming lessons before now, but the local pools only do children's lessons and they're extortionate - I can't imagine that adult lessons, if I could find any, would be any cheaper.

This plus cooking and how to exercise properly without spending money.

My husband never learned because he has severe eczema as a child and the chlorine made him very unwell

Some people are poor
Some people are uninvested in their children’s safety
Some people cba with the changing palaver and would rather wait until the kid gets to the swimming part of the national curriculum so the teachers can deal with it
Some people aren’t organised enough
Some people are waiting until their kids are older
Some people were never around water as a kid so never needed to learn to swim
Some people have a phobia of water so will never be at risk of drowning so no need to go through the trauma of learning to swim

Just off the top of my head.

Availability of lessons, the local public pool only have my sons age group on a Wed morning and he is at nursery/I'm at work.

We did do a term of private lessons but it was £30 per lesson so quite pricey especially as toddlers get ill a lot and we were on holiday one of the lessons.

Changing rooms are often gross and a faff with a toddler/baby.

When I grew up, swimming lessons were never a thing. I went to a country school and when I was in primary one I was one of 3 children in that years intake so there were no facilities for that. I am honestly terrified of water. I've tried lessons as an adult it's not for me. I just panic too much. But both my boys are fantastic swimmers thanks to lessons and their dad. We couldn't get lessons at all post covid so their dad took them twice a week until my youngest could swim in the deep end. Someone also threw me in the water at 21, thinking I'd do that whole swim or sink thing. I didn't. I choked on water and started drowning. I've no intentions of learning to swim at 37.

Why is it a christian question?

Its a stupid question but I dont understand why its a christian question?

Because it's not taught is schools anymore. Many parents EITHER... don't have the time to teach their kids, or they CBA to teach them, or they don't want to fork out the money, or can't AFFORD to fork out the money.

Even before the issues with the economy right now/covid/brexit etc, one in four children couldn't swim. (25%.) I think it's close to 4 in ten now that can't swim! (40%.)

Some parents really genuinely don't have the time or money for lessons, but to be honest, some parents just can't be bothered.

The children who CAN swim will typically have parents who spend time with them reading, watching films, crafting, taking them for walks, to museums, to nature reserves etc etc.

I couldn't imagine not being able to swim, and can't remember a time when I couldn't. Most people my age/generation learned to swim. It's shocking how many younger people and children can't these days. It's such an amazing life skill. Yes, it really is.

All of these things. Currently there are families who don't have enough food.

*Not taught IN schools, not IS schools!

I live in a rural market town. There was a municipal baths that closed at the start of covid and hasn't reopened. The next nearest towns baths closed the year before as the building was too old. This leaves only private providers and they are all a long journey. My DC's are very lucky to have a place in lessons, but it is an hours drive away on rural roads to get there, costs £78 for each of them per month (plus petrol) and is at 1pm on a Saturday, thus cocking up the entire weekend. Many families nearby simply can not afford the cost, the driving distances or the time on a Saturday.

My children have had swimming lessons since they returned after Covid. But we recently moved to a different area of the country where there is a waiting list for lessons at the local pool. When I enquired I can’t even get them on the waiting list which is closed because it already has 800 children on it. So no hope. I’m now on the waiting list for a provider 40 mins drive away. We live near the coast and they must learn to swim well.

@WhileMyGuitarGentlyWeeps Or maybe they can't teach them because they can't swim themselves? Even if they can swim it doesn't follow that they can teach it!

What is this obsession with formal “lessons”? I just took my toddlers to the swimming pool with flotation aids and got them going by myself.

Availability at local pools and the lack of public swimming pools IME. Private lessons are often the only way to get in consistently. I remember being taken on a Sunday morning every Sunday by my parents as a child, but now there seem to be inadequate family swim slots. Not every one is a SAHP. More people need to work these days, which puts pressure on the weekend slots.

Er yeah OK that's another reason. Your point being?

All mine could swim confidently by the time they were 7/8. No lessons we just took them swimming every week. It was fun and an activity we did as a family one evening a week. We started to encourage them from about 3yrs.

I can assure you it's possible to live your entire life without ever going near a deep pond!

If you live in a big city your whole life and don't really travel, you literally have 0% chance of drowning.

I am goggled at the amount of people on here poo-pooing swimming, like it's really not THAT important.

Even if you can go your whole life without 'encountering a big pond' it is still bizarre to think learning to swim is pointless.

I think not enough hours in the day. For me culturally it is vital for children to swim. I swim 4 times a week and my daughter twice a week since the age of 1. I take her. We have six pools locally, second highest council tax in the country. But I have friends with more than one child, who aren’t interested so it becomes less a priority. It also scares the shit out of me that children don’t know the basics

I'm not sure things will change a lot unless councils/the government start to subsidise more facilities and lessons for kids.

But personally, given financial constraints, I would rather they focused on teaching all kids how to cook and budget properly, as that's something everyone needs to do in life.

Yeah this. ^ As I say, the posters dismissing learning to swim, like it's of no importance whatsoever is actually very worrying and disturbing.

It's expensive and time consuming. My DC have lessons on different days and it's a real slog back and forth. I'm a single parent and can't really afford it. I definitely can't afford to take them for an extra session for practice.

My own mum never learned to swim and was afraid of the water. I had some swimming lessons as a child and was also terrified. My parents eventually decided trying to persuade me was useless so the lessons stopped. Then school swimming lessons started, I was one of a few non-swimmers and the group teaching just didn’t work for me. I have my grandmother to thank for teaching me as she eventually decided she was going to sort me out and took me to the pool every week with endless patience.

With my own DCs, I was determined they would both be able to swim before the school swimming lessons started as I remember the weekly humiliation I had. There were no spaces in any of the group lessons in our local pool. DP used to take them after school once a week to a pool which was a 45 minute bus ride away which was the only one which had spaces. He was only able to do that because of the flexibility of his working hours. Eventually as they moved up the groups the more advanced groups had availability in our local pool as most kids had given up lessons by then (once they had the basics). So eventually they were able to get themselves to their lessons with their friends who had also kept going every week.

What I mean is it was a massive pain and if we hadn’t had the flexibility of our working hours we would not have been able to get them to lessons.

It's not pointless but it's not as important as many other basic life skills that kids are also not learning these days

I can swim myself but I genuinely can't think of any way my life would be worse if I had never learned. It's not a must-have.

I had swimming lessons when I was in primary school. Everyone learned to swim apart from me. I just sank. People forcing me to try resulted in a phobia of water that I still have to this day.
It has not held me back at all. I have no interest in learning or going into water.