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?

Teach your children to swim, it might save their life or the life of someone else some day. Even if you're not a confident swimmer yourself, just spending time with them in the water will raise their confidence and give them a headstart when it comes to lessons.

It's not a life skill. It's more likely that on holiday you'd have to escape from a smoke filled upper floor in a hotel in the middle of the night when all the lights are out than your child will fall in the pool and be unnoticed by all the other people lying around sunbathing. But most of us don't do fire drills and check all the exits when we go away.

But being able to swim well is a good idea for fun and fitness and you should learn. I also think you should have formal lessons for technique rather than being stuck as a doggy paddler for the rest of your life. OP should find a different teacher.

I disagree - waterconfidence is essential -- its not about being on holiday and falling in but being out and about anywhere, ponds, waterways, canal walking and then the possibility of an accident ending in water (I had a cousin drown from a car accident) I really DO think it is important. HOWEVER I have only ever paid for school lessons and tiny tot lessons (ie at 6 to 12 mths when I could go with her) and they were a complete waste of time if I am honest - I taught my daughter to swim aged around 5 properly - before that she was playing in water and doggy paddling, at 5 we started going more and more regularly and practicing she will swim lengths with me now at 11.

" It's more likely that on holiday you'd have to escape from a smoke filled upper floor in a hotel in the middle of the night when all the lights are out than your child will fall in the pool and be unnoticed by all the other people lying around sunbathing."

231 people died in accidental drowning in 2016.

Number of people dead in hotel fires during this time was...?

100 a month ours for a one is 122 a term. I think its important but as a pretty rubbish swimmer myself I simply don't taken risks. Even if good swimmers over estimates their ability and drown in sea and rivers. Don't get me wrong I feel it's important skills and opens up sailing etc but unless you're child has a talent in something they ate going to take months to learn something and days, weeks when older. Mine started at 8 and is fine.

I have have friend who is obsessed with her dd having confidence in water and is assured that's the come from lessons at three. My dh takes dd from the young to play occasionally in local pool when she was three she also had waterfall confidence, I done understand.

Mine have had lessons from baby swimming at 6 weeks onwards. They only really clicked with it around 6 or 7 years though which seems to be a natural time for kids to 'get it's so I think I probably wasted a lot of money. Best lessons were council pool ones which were only 19 quid a month per child. Had some shockingly poor value private lessons.

I agree it comes in category of riding a bike. For fun fitness and safety. There was a pool party recently for a friend's 10 yr old and all the kids were off armbands. I was thinking if a kid was still on armbands they'd feel like the odd one out.

Can't depend on school. Round here they seem to get one years crack at lessons only.

We had a similar conversation last night whilst watching our children's lesson.
I say lesson they swim with a club. So whilst this group of 10-12yo were up and down the pool doing all 4 strokes we (other parents and me) suddenly realised that most kids that age could probably manage a length somehow or further if required.

The conversation came about as the whole group looked knackered last night and I suggested we work out the average amount of lengths they swim per hours training. We came to the conclusion it's 50-75 lengths - which they do 3 times a week and an hours land training on top!

So I'd say at that age if they safely swim about a pool that's probably acceptable but personally I'd want to make sure I felt they were strong enough swimmers to keep themselves safe.

But that doesn't necessarily mean they need to be able to pace up and down a pool for hours in a technically perfect stroke!

Out of interest of the people who do, die in pounds etc were they able to swim? Surely ponds is more about dark water and weed, rivers, current ey and

It's a life skill where I live where most people have pools and kids spend summers in the water. When they visit friends' houses they swim in their pools too.

Fair enough if you know your kids are going to mainly stay in the UK and never travel.

On a related topic I think the baby lessons were they go mad dunking and submerging them are horrible!!! I get the gist of what they're trying to do but I get breathless watching these wide eyed blinky babies being plunged under. There seems to be a showing off element to it also.

I should clarify I could swim unaided by the time I was 2. So it's possible. No floaties nothing. And I learned in the sea.

Dh thinks I'm nuts even contemplating trying to teach new baby to swim without floaties but I'm going to give it a shot.

We live on an island and as I said are in/on/near the water a lot of the time so for me it's an essential life skill. Also for them to understand the sea. When they are old enough they'll do as I did and go to a surf lifesaving class/course to learn how to recognise rips etc. To keep themselves safe in the water. I've been caught in a rip twice and it was scary. But there's not much you can do other than go with it. To try and outswim it is ridiculous. Yet every year here people get into trouble because hey don't know. Last year two people sadly died in the water because they were caught.

So yes. It's a life skill.

I think £100 a month for 2 kids is extortionate as well unless they are very small groups. I pay less than that for my 2 and my child with sen has 1-1 lessons and my other child is in a group with a maximum of 3 others.

I think lessons are advisable but some children don't like swimming and some may do better leaving lessons til they are ready to learn from them

We never had swimming lessons but the local swimming pool was literally the only thing available to us back in the day and we pretty much learnt on our own after a certain age or with help of older siblings

I do wonder if the obsession with forced swimming lessons from a young age is always beneficial

I class it as being extremely important, it is a life saving skill! My kids started lessons at 8 months and are still going now at 3 & 4 years old. It's enjoyment and fun for them but most importantly they need to know how to swim so they can save themselves if ever in trouble whilst in the water and learn how to be safe around water.

cote those statistics you've quoted lack information that tells us why those people drowned. Therefore, they are not very useful when it comes to assessing risk.

They suggest that most of the 300 people who drowned (188) expected to be in water, otherwise why make the distinction between those who didn't expect to be in water (112)?

104 of the people who drowned were partaking in water-based activities. It doesn't say how many of them could swim but it's a reasonable assumption that some of them could. And yet they still drowned. There's no information to explain why.

I don't understand the relevance of saying that 77 of the people who drowned were out walking or running. They might have been but fancied a dip or gone into the water to save a drowning person or a dog. It's a reasonable assumption that, like the other people who didn't expect to be in water, some of them would have been able to swim. But again, the report doesn't explain why they drowned.

The 35 people who died from suspected natural causes while or after being in the water might have also been able to swim. I'm guessing that some of them might have had a heart attack while swimming or died from hypothermia after a shipwreck. But again, because the report doesn't explain, we don't know.

Being able to swim is a good thing for a number of reasons, one being that it might save your life. But it might not - as the figures you've linked to appear to show.

Therefore I don't think swimming is any more of an essential life skill than being able to grope your way out of the dark in a smoke-filled building.

Yes £100 a month for 2 is A LOT.

I pay £40 a month for ds to train 4 hours a week!

But the skill that saved you was knowing what to do in the rip tides. Thousand of strong swimmers will die if they get in rip tide simply as the lack that knowledge. And I would never get into one ad a poor swimmer as I wouldn't get out that fare from the beach.

My child's lessons cost £8.40 per child per half hour.

Limited I agree. In many ways I think it's all a bit of a con. If you want to swim with baby for fun do it but unless your dc is talented in this area no point in wasting so much money on it all

Yes and yes, we have a pool so it's absolutely essential (access is secure, but things always have the potential to go awry).

Ds did nothing in group lessons
Private individual lessons cost £25 each

Massively important for reasons set out by lost of pps. I would prioritise it above virtually all other forms of extra curricular activites - rugby/ballet/music lessons etc.

The other thing which is not really taught to children (or lots of adults) and should be covered regularly is basic first aid. Was only discussing this with my sils the other day (one is a teacher the other a gp) and we agreed that if someone would put on first aid classes for kids they would make a mint!

We pay £25/month for each child. And that includes being able to take them to the pool for fun swimming whenever we like as well.

Admittedly these are anecdotes not statistics, but..
I know someone who saved their own life by swimming for safety, they had to swim for nearly an hour so being a strong swimmer did literally save their life

I have been involved in a water rescue and it could have had a tragic ending if my brother and I hadn't been very strong swimmers and able to help the man in difficulty.

My children's swimming lessons include a component on water safety right from the start. I also spend time drumming into my children that in order to have fun in /on the water we need to respect all the safety rules.

Huge numbers of people die of drowning where i live. Its young men mostly and has nothing to do with not being able to swim but being pissed around water. Awfully sad but baby swim wouldn't have helped. In my exp. Non swimmers never go near the water. Its the people who dont know about how to behave around water and boats, take cavalier risks but got their 25 m badge so can swim are the at risk category.