to wonder what he bruhaha is about learning to swim..

[AtYourCervix]

great if you want to but why the years of weekly lessons and enforced cold dripping and swallowing someone elses wee?

what's the point?

I started my two at 3-3.5yrs old. I take them to learn a life skill but also so that they can enjoy water whether that be on holiday or going to the pool with their mates when they are older. Once they are fairly competent I will stop, I am not interested in them become olympic swimmers.

Saying that I do get very pissed off with my older DSs lessons as they are teaching them dolphin swimming presumably as a precursor to butterfly - who the hell swims butterfly as a stroke of choice??? I would rather they focussed on the main three strokes and if I want him to do competitive swimming later he can learn the bloody butterfly then!

Not being able to swim restricts so many other things (canoeing, surfing, sailing etc). It also reduces the risk to others through being able to rescue them and not needing rescued yourself. Finally, if you are unfortunate enough in the future to ever have to gradually introduce exercise due to obesity, illness or injury it is a good low impact starting point.

It's part of the National Curriculum nowadays isn't it?

falsemessageoflethargy i don't know how often your 7 year old is beside a canal ( and don't think he wouldn't get older, there are a fair few deaths of adults in the canals), but the last time my great uncle aged three fell in the stream he died - he wasn't alone on the bank either

A teenage girl drowned last summer at the nearby lakes. Was reported as 'not a strong swimmer'.

I don't understand dunking = poor confidence/trust in the water at all.

My husband was never taught to swim properly and it means he misses out on playing with the kids in the pool on holiday, snorkelling, diving etc which is all joy good fun. He says he 'doesn't like the water' when in reality he was never taught to swim an as a result has no confidence. He really misses out on holiday.

Makes me angry that his parents couldnt be arsed tbh.

Swimming is a life skill.

Well if you're scared of swallowing water and thereby drowning then if you've been dunked unexpectedly and that's happened, that is going to knock your confidence I guess soupy.

ragged - that is interesting. DS is dyspraxic and it was 50/50 whether swimming would be a help. Unfortunately it didn't. He doesn't sink and is confident enough but just doesn't move anywhere even after 20 lessons.

It is tough finding things that he could do that won't dent his confidence in the trying. Hadn't thought of gymnastics.

Niecie - if gymnastics doesn't work try a martial art - these teach coordination skills

I've not seen that with either of my 3 though, LadyBiscuit. Never. I have, however, seen it in children who've not been dunked :o I imagine it is more to do with the child.

snowmash I bet if they couldn't swim at all they wouldn't even have tried to swim in the canal/river/quarry. Having said that, that's not an argument against learning to swim.

Swimming is a life skill that one really ought to have mastered (or be able to at least fumble through) by adulthood. Like driving, riding a bike, playing chess and riding a horse.

Disclaimer: I cannot ride a horse. And I'm shit at parking. And swimming. And my chess skills are pretty lame, too. And I have to push my bike up hills.

Swimming is great fun. Shame for a parent to be denying her children such an enjoyable pastime but that's her choice. Just as it will be her fault if one of them drowns one day.

As parents we have a responsibility to prepare our offspring for the challenges and dangers that life throws in our way. This parent is failing in that duty.

Niecie - my (mildly dyspraxic, 10yo) ds still can't swim either, after lots of lessons. it's a real bugger. He's OK on a horse though - apparently it's good for core strength and all that.

TBH i think learning to swim is an important skill that every child should have.

I want DS2 to learn, and am currently saving so he can have lessons, but they aren't cheap.

I can't take him swimming on his own because of the other children and our council have a 1-1 ratio for children under eight, and the session for parents with more than one child is always incredibly busy and theres not much room.

I'm a very strong swimmer and it never crossed my mind to teach my children to swim myself. They listen much better to their swim teacher. With me they just want to play.

yes ivykaty - I was being slightly obtuse - there is always a risk around water -that much is obvious - and I said apart from the safety issue I dont really get the whole obsession with swimming - I wasn't belittling the safety issue.

I dont see why lots of my friends families need to drive to swimming pools and pootle up and down instead of walking to more places in the first place. Plus municipal ones are rife with communicable disease and lots of toddlers end up with neverending ear infections from going swimming far too much.

Swimming is great exercise, good fun and a life saving skill. I don't know why anyone would choose not to teach their children.

Having said that, I do think that baby swimming lessons are pointless. My parents taught me to swim when I was young, just through regular visits to the local pool, sometimes just splashing about and having fun, other times teaching me different strokes etc. I never had formal lessons but won several swimming galas as a child. My DD is 5 and has never had a formal swimming lesson either but I have taught her and she is now a very good swimmer and very confident in the water.

I walk to the swimming pool and lots of other places :) It can be good to do some other form of exercise as well as walking, to use different muscles etc, and lots of people find swimming an enjoyable exercise.

I think it's absolutly disgusting that some people can't be bothered, I reallydo think you are letting your children down.

Like I said earlier I knew 3 children who have drowned-and had an accident myself, as well as my younger sister.

I dis grow up on the coast/countryside so it was more important to be a strong swimmer earlier, but still I cannot understand how a parent can be so lazy that they would not provide their children with skills that could save their (or anothers) life one day.

Mine had swimming lessons from babies until bronze medallion level (dS passed at 14 and DD 13 just started the course)
It's the best money that I have spent on them.

1.Neither are very conventially sporty but do well in the pool and win races at school so a huge confidence builder.

1. They both have excellent styles and can breathe properly unlike all the kids I see at pools where they have obviously been taught badly by their parents

1. They really enjoy swimming as fun and excercise

1. The baby lesson were lovely and some of my best memories of them as babies.

1. They both kayak and sail so I they need to be strong swimmers.

6.I was a good swimmer but still have an adult lesson a week and am still learner as well as having fun.

Socy - had thought of martial arts - my concern is the size of the teaching groups round here - they might be too big. Swimming had to be 1-to-1 lessons and even that wasn't a huge success - in a class he just couldn't keep up.

JenaiMarr - had thought of horse riding too.

Problem is DS doesn't seem very keen on any of them. He thinks he will be rubbish at all of them, depsite us being encouraging.

Swimming lessons are about getting children used to being in water as well as teaching them a valuable skill. Fear of water can be very debilitating.

Most people may not be by lakes on a regular basis, but many people take a holiday each year, near the sea, or by a swimming pool.

It only takes a moment for a child to slip out of an apartment and get to the pool.

I always feel so sorry for the kids who cant swim, and spend there holiday being screeched at by their sunbathing mother to "get away from the pool".. while the kid looks at all the other children having fun in the water.

It is never to early to teach your child to swim. It is a life saving skill. It is healthy good exercise.

Additionally, many people now have deep large plastic pools in their gardens, not the 3 ring inflatable paddling pools of old.

Water if fun, but it is dangerous.

Make a child confident in water, and that childs chances of survival if they do get into difficulties are so much greater.

scuse the typos..