To ask if your children can swim? Is it important to you?

[Lionking1981]

Do you class swimming as important? We spend 100 a month on swimming lessons for our two sometimes leaving us short. My two were swimming with their cousins on holiday recently.My brother pointed out how much we all spent on swimming lessons and remarked none of them are great swimmers. They are 8,7,6 and 5. All in swimming lessons since they were 4. They can swim but we couldnt take our eyes off any one of them such is our confidence in their ability. Me and dbro were left in swimming pools by ourselves for hours from age 9. I have always thought it was essential and budget for it, going without other things.My class teacher told me probably only 50% of their 8 year olds can swim. Do you believe that is right?

[limitedperiodonly]

She still resents them for this.

My parents are both dead now but you've just reminded me what uncaring bastards they were for not buying me a pony

[Oneiroi]

I think it's an essential life skill and like many things, much easier to learn when you are younger. DS started at 6 weeks old and he loves the water.

[C8H10N4O2]

DS started at 6 weeks old and he loves the water.

Is this in commercial pools? I'm just intrigued as when mine were babies the advice was no public pools until 4-5 months (clear of early vaccinations) but I'm out of touch with current advice on this.

Mine were all in pools/water/sea with us as babies but didn't start actual lessons until they were pushing 5. Before that it was just about fun, confidence and safety with us - doggy paddle happened but 5 seemed early enough to turn that into formal lessons and I'd have held off another year for a child not quite ready.

[TheNoodlesIncident]

Swimming is important to me - I was afraid of deep water as a child, and didn't learn to swim until I was an adult. I really regret all those years I missed out on a lot of potential fun, plus a great exercise.

Ds swims quite nicely, he has always had a LOT of water confidence (like DH). He has one lesson a week (only half an hour). The group he is in varies in size, last week there was only he and one other boy, sometimes there are one or two more. They get a lot of attention. It costs £50 per term and I'm happy with his progress.

I think you should look at trying another swim school for your two OP. They might not be natural swimmers but you should be seeing progress!

[limitedperiodonly]

It's not a life skill

[nolongersurprised]

It's a life skill if you live in a hot country, on a coast line, where people swim in pools and the sea for 6 months of the year. And where all of your friends have swimming pools and kid spend most of the day in swimmers over summer because they're in and out of the water so often.

[Plunkette]

I agree with nolonger that it depends where you live.

Most of the gardens here have pools. If my children couldn't swim it would seriously limit their ability to visit their friends' homes safely. Lots of the play parks here have pools too.

At home in the U.K we live near a river, the ability to swim and understand water safety is very important.

My cousins live by the sea, learning to swim is very important.

[elkegel]

From my experience, if you start swimming lessons around the age of 5 or 6 they will pick it up very quickly, that's what we did with DD1. DD2 started when she was 2, but only because her big sister was going really. She wasn't able to swim without armbands until she was 5 either. TBH I found it like an outer circle of hell in the changing rooms (particularly when I was getting changed myself and doing the baby lessons with DD2), looking back and I'm so glad they both stopped when they were 7 or so and could swim lengths confidently and strongly and had all the basics. They go with school for a few weeks a year now which is enough to top their skills up along with when they swim with us or friends.

Swimming lessons can be an expensive waste of time if there are too many kids per teacher, and while some kids can learn to swim without armbands before the age of 5, not many will, so I generally wouldn't bother with lessons until then. If they can swim before the age of five, you still have to be in the pool with them on holidays and supervise them.

[KingPrawnOkay]

I did swimming lessons for years, I was alright but I didn't enjoy it so when I quit I never even went swimming. I swapped gyms to one with a pool last year and I've realised I've completely forgotten how to swim I guess it's a useful thing to teach your kids but I wouldn't make it a priority if you're struggling. I'm not bothered in the slightest that I can't swim.

[Swirlysunshine]

We just do lessons in the summer..I find the children "flatline" when they go every week. They seem to spend ages not progressing, but when they have a break and come back to it their learning takes off again. The pool we go to suggests that children should so lessons until they can swim 200m. If that helps.

[Oneiroi]

C8H he is having weekly classes, they are run at weekends in primary school pools that are much warmer than commercial pools. It's a lovely bonding thing and he is already loving being in the water and kicking around so it should make it much easier to learn to swim properly in a natural way and at an earlier age. There are classes like this all over the country, and babies are fine to start once they have had their 6 week checkup. Often children who go regularly can swim properly by the age of 3 or 4. I also expect he'll enjoy his summer holiday more as he's already used to the water.

[CoteDAzur]

"I live in a seaside area too. My kids know never to go out of their depth in the sea, plus I always go in the water with them"

Your eldest is 10, you say. How long do you expect him to remain in shallow waters? Will he ever be allowed to swim out to deeper waters or take up a water sport like sailing or surfing?