To make dd have swimming lessons?

[Dancergirl]

She's 10, very academic and bookish, VERY unsporty and probably unfit. Other than school PE, she does a ballet class once a week and a drama club that includes dance.

She now wants to drop the ballet which is fine, it's her choice but I worry about the lack of exercise. Swimming is one of the few sports she's ok at so WIBU to insist on swimming lessons if she drops ballet? She's also a little overweight and I've been told to try and get her moving a bit more. Very difficult if she reads for hours every day!

I was a bookish and shy child and my parents insisted that I have either one sport or activity. The only thing I liked was horseriding and I have kept my love of horses to this day is that something your daughter would be interested in?

Is there anywhere she can do something else? Rock climbing, canoeing, ice skating, cycling?

In fact, if poss, cycling would be great for summer. New book, picnic, cycle somewhere together, read book and have a picnic, cycle back....

As she clearly already quite likes dance, how about synchronised swimming?

A perfect compromise! And it looks beautiful

Good Luck

I would encourage swimming as long as she is happy to go. Swimming is a skill for life and a very healthy activity and it is probably the most likely she would continue for leisure in later life. I would also consider other foms of dance like tap or modern as these are less rigid than ballet and she would alo benefit from the confidence of performance as well as exercise.

take up running together? Keep swimming. It may help her in the long term.

Had a chat with this evening and she'd quite like to try netball. They had a club at school for a while which she enjoyed but they're not doing it any more.

At least with swimming you are learning a skill, if she's not keen on swimming lessons, maybe lifesaving, my daughter is 8 and goes to rookie lifesaving which she loves, or diving maybe.