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?

[Mari50]

My DD has been going to swimming lessons since she was 7 months old, I've been able to keep half an eye on her since she was 5, now she's 8 she's a better swimmer than I am.
Massively important to me that she can swim, I want her to be completely confident in the water and be able to do any water sports she wants with no worries.

[PippaFawcett]

I swam competitively as a child and mine all swim now. It is a life skill that is much harder to pick up and perfect when they are older. DH doesn't agree with me and grumbles about how much we pay and how much of a pain it is (for me as I take them!) but he accepts that it is important to me.

However, I do sometimes wonder what we are getting for our money as DS2 has been in the same stage forever has had three different teachers in as many months and I have no sense of when he will go up and DS3 was told he had learnt the wrong technique and had to go down a stage which pissed me off because what had I been paying for for all those years? However that is a reflection on the quality, not the need for them.

[cherish123]

£100 a month on swimming lessons?!?

[khajiit13]

It's important me but I can't afford it. I had lessons in school but they did nothing for me. I know enough though

[Aeroflotgirl]

Yes my son is 5 and he started lessons at 4.

[cherish123]

It is important because you don't want to be 14 and in armbands. It is the only extra curricular activity I insist on. However their confidence will come. £100 does seem accessive. But then I suppose that's £25 per child which is probably about right. I have a similar problem- I often feel the lessons are slow paced and there is very little progress.

[Aeroflotgirl]

I only pay, £20 per month for my son, he shares the lesson with about 5 kids.

[C0untDucku1a]

My children both started weekly lessons at 12 weeks old. i would hate to work out the cost so far! Dc7 has 100 meters badge. Dc5 has 50 meters badge.

[Wondermoomin]

Cherish OP pays £100 for 2 children, so £50 each per month. That is a lot more than it needs to be.

[anon1987]

I taught myself at 10 years old

I had swimming lesson for years, never learnt.
My dad used to chuck me over board the dingy at sea and dunk my head in the bath (he was an abusive twat)

My dd 11 has only been able to swim for about a year now and dd 7 and dd 4 are learning but haven't yet mastered it.
All have had copious amounts of swimming lessons costing me a fortune.

They're all quite cautious little girls, so I think it holds them back and I'm very confident in the after nowadays and try and be positive and reassuring, but it just isn't natural to them.

My nieces and nephews are fearless, and so they swam earlier.
I think learning to swim is very important, it's just not as easy for some children as it is others.

[ExplodedCloud]

My parents were poor swimmers. I nearly drowned as a toddler so my sibling and I were taken to swimming lessons, swam competitively and did life guarding. DH swims well but won't win any style awards.
Both dc (one with ASD) have lessons and swim well.
It's more important than most of the stuff they do in PE.

[SparklyUnicornPoo]

My DC started learning as babies, but not expensive lessons, my mum taught them just by taking them to the pool once a week, they were both confident by about 4/5 years old.

I can't swim, it is quite embarrassing as an adult and has meant I couldn't do a few things I wanted to so it was important to me that my DC learn young. I did start to learn as a child but I nearly drowned at a school swimming lesson (had to have CPR and an ambulance called, properly nearly drowned) and was too scared to try again as a child, then too self conscious as a teenager. DD is now trying to teach me but it's slow progress.

[EvilDoctorBallerinaDuck]

DD 9 has just learnt. DS 5 can't swim and is terrified of taking lessons.

I do think it's important, but we don't have a pool near us and no car, I'd love if school would take them earlier, they don't go until Y5.

[limitedperiodonly]

That's a lot of money OP. At eight I would have been a very confident and competent swimmer in a pool. Whether my mum would have taken her eyes off me is another matter but that's mums.

People always bang on about how swimming is a life skill. It's not.

Most people are not near open water much whether they can swim or not. When non-swimmers are near open water they tend to go in the shallows or stay away completely. The people who drown tend to be swimmers who overestimate their ability and underestimate current and cold.

I'm really glad that I had swimming lessons as a child because to be able to swim well is a fantastic all-over body workout and pisses off splashy men when I overtake them with breaststroke, let alone my front crawl.

So I for fitness I'm glad I know how to do it well. But I don't swim for pleasure. I just do it and get out because I find it boring.

[Heebejeebees]

Limitedperiodonly - I disagree- it is a life skill. You never know if you could be in water unexpectedly. It's important to know how to float/swim/survive. Could be as extreme as a car crash in water/ plane crash, or accidentally falling in a pool on holiday. Or helping someone who's done similar.
My kids are 3 and 4, and having private lessons 2-1. It's £140 a month. I tried group for 2 terms, but it was horrific as they're scared. It's a massive but important cost for me.

[mmgirish]

My 5 year old ds can swim 25m. He has 3 lessons a week. 1 curriculum lesson as part of his PE and 2 after school. I think it's important. But, we live in a place where lots of people have swimming pools without fences.

My 2 year old ds has one swimming lesson a week plus we usually take him ourselves too.

[Ginandplatonic]

I think it is important, not just for the (clearly important) safety aspect, but the social aspect. My teenagers have all been invited to social things centred around water - trips to the beach or holiday homes with friends, pool parties, school outdoor ed, sailing or kayaking trips etc. Not being able to swim would have singled them out and made them unable to participate fully.

Mine took quite a long time to learn, and I found I got by far the most value for money from a couple of intensive courses of private lessons if that's an option.

[emmyrose2000]

Most parents I know get their child into some sort of swimming or water safety lessons during toddlerhood, at the latest. Not giving your child the skills to be able to save themselves should they fall into a body of water is extremely irresponsible.

My kids started swimming lessons at around a year old. They continued throughout primary school. I don't care if they're not Olympic level swimmers, but they must know how to save themselves if they're in or near water. Plus, being able to swim is just plain enjoyable (for most people).

[emmyrose2000]

I think it is important, not just for the (clearly important) safety aspect, but the social aspect. My teenagers have all been invited to social things centred around water - trips to the beach or holiday homes with friends, pool parties, school outdoor ed, sailing or kayaking trips etc. Not being able to swim would have singled them out and made them unable to participate fully

Yes to this. My kids are in scouts, and not being able to swim would've excluded them from a lot of the activities, camps etc.

[redknight]

My dc have been swimming since 4-5 years. I think it's good to encourage them, but I don't see it as hugely important as a life skill.We're city based and don't do a lot of water sports, and I think the importance of swimming skills is a bit overrated in terms of drowning in an emergency (e.g.it can happen to strong swimmers who get a cramp, or we might be good pool swimmers but not be able to cope with rough waters or be overcome by the cold). But it's fun to be able to do watersports type things on holiday - although that's the only time these days that our swimming skills get used. DCs are teens now and aren't interested, and I can't be bothered with the wet hair and chlorine damage.

[WanderingNotLost]

Well, about 70% of the earth's surface is water, and as someone who drowned several times (and was resuscitated) as a child, I'd say it's pretty important. My DC will be water babies for sure.

[SuperBeagle]

I live in Australia. I think anyone who has children but doesn't invest in their learning to swim is a complete twit.

Yes, my children can swim. They all started at 6mo.

[ICJump]

I'm in Australia and DS1 didn't do formal lessons til 4. I took this on advice from from a swim coach. Now at 6 he's starting formal regular lessons.

[HeartsTrumpDiamonds]

Utmost importance in this part of Canada, there's really no such thing as a kid who doesn't know how to swim. There's water everywhere. almost as important as ice skating

[nolongersurprised]

I live in Australia too and the kids have learnt since infancy. The 2 oldest (10 and 9) are in a training squad and swim up to 2km a session. They can also swim in open water. They don't make a big deal of distance here, just technique but my 5 year old can do freestyle arms and breathing and backstroke. My 3 year old can swim a width of the pool (head in the water). He's good enough that I can sit by the pool and watch but don't need to get in anymore, but we have a pool and he's spent whole summers in the water.

As far as I know all of my older kids' friends and classmates can swim. Most people where I live have pools and it'd be irresponsible not to teach them.