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?

guineapig you can do this through St. John's ambulance I think. And the swimming lifeguard training included lots of first aid (think we did an hour of first aid then an hour of swimming each week). I have been so grateful for this on many occassions

but yes I agree, first aid should be taught to children regularly and I will be making sure mine do classes as they get older.

My parents wouldn't pay for lessons so I never learnt. It was important to me my kids knew how to swim. Husband taught them himself, he took the eldest for a while till he was confident in the water then took the youngest too.

limited - Reading comprehension is another useful skill. I said 231 people died in accidental drowning in 2016. I did not say 300, as it was clear in the article that some water-related deaths didn't involve drowning.

Feel free to provide numbers for number of people dead in hotel fires, to support your view that it is far more likely to die in one than to drown.

We live abroad and have a pool so it was very important. The school has a pool so they have two swimming lessons a week from the age of 5.

But cote she has a point, how many people were good swimmers. AS I SAID I am not sure going to get into a rip tide, I am not going far away from the shore. If we had our own pool or lived in Australia etc without a doubt I would get dc swimming lessons and I personally think five is great age to learn. It's just in our swimming classes dd went from not swimming to swimming in a few weeks. She has quickly caught up to those who have been plodding along since baby hood the only ones she is behind are those who with natural talent. I think it's sad that some parents really berate their own dc in classes and hound and push them, little kids of four and five!!

Yes. It's a life-saving skill and one of the most important things they will learn.

Swimming and water safety, and later life saving and first aid, should be taught hand-in-hand.

My ds can swim and has been swimming since he was three. Did baby swim etc. But swimming unaided since 3. Happy for him to go in the water without me as long as I can see him.

Dd 17 months will never go swimming because I'm too worried she will catch something from the pool. They aren't clean. In fact I don't know how more people don't get seriously ill from them.

Oh ds 8 in a fortnight.

I think it's important, but I haven't paid for private weekly lessons, only school ones from Y2

Both children swim like fish. I can leave them in the pool without me, from the age of 8. They have 12-20 lessons a year through school. That's it.

New figures released today (May 11) reveal that 300 people lost their lives in accidental drownings, or drownings in which an accident is suspected, in the UK last year.

That's the first par from your link cote. Those are provisional figures for 2016 released yesterday. That's what I summarised.

If you scroll down you get this headline from last July: Figures reveal 321 people died in accidental drownings in 2015.

The report reveals that: In England 231 people were killed in accidental drowning or where natural causes were suspected, with 50 in Scotland, 33 in Wales, and three in Northern Ireland. That adds up to 317. But the figures are for 2015 anyway. Not 2016.

Like the 2016 report, it doesn't mention anything about being able to swim or not. It just talks about people who died while in, or having been in water. So neither report is useful when assessing risk.

A lot of Indian people drown because their parents don't value swimming (especially for girls). I was 'lucky' in that my dad lost an uncle to drowning, so he ensured we could all swim and drilled in the importance of it. I've passed it down. To be honest, although I don't say it to my kids, I think it's one of the most important life skills you can learn even more so than academics.

@runloganrun101 My understanding on this was actually that it was more to do with women's clothing - they often wore long and trailing clothing whilst entering water; this carried a lot of water and left them unable to swim. It's the same with women in the Middle East.

I would love to know how many of the people who drown in the UK can swim. And how many of the drownings involved alcohol.

I would also like to know whether people would willing pay for lessons in anything else for 4 years when no progress is being made. People are just brainwashed about swimming lessons.

@BertrandRussell Many of UK drownings are in open waters, not swimming pools. And people are often fully clothed. It makes a huge difference (and is the reason why I will ensure my children can kick off shoes in water and swim in baggy clothes when they are older enough).

Yes I believe it is a life skill as others have said, opening up possibilities for fun holidays and adventures rather than closing them down.

I have just started dd off with swimming lessons at age 4.5. Before lessons she was happy to play in the pool and do a simple doggy paddle and I wanted to get lessons started before she stopped enjoying being in the water. £26 a month for the council run lessons once a week.

My DS had lessons for ages with little progress. A week long crash course was the way to go, then, when he was older, weekly lessons focusing on technique. With dd we did toddler lessons just for fun, then the crash course at primary age.

I learned to swim "properly" as an adult. I could plough up and down a pool, but learned better technique.

change the lessons. I had my dc in lessons for years with very little progress. We changed to a place with smaller classes and teacher in the pool and the difference was amazing. I think being able to swim is really very important, for safety as well as fun, and one of those things that people never seem to do if left to adulthood.

My DS is 8 and has really struggled with swimming lessons. He had a great fear of the pool when he was 2-3 years old. He would cry and hold onto my neck the whole time. He had 1-2-1 lessons which helped him gain confidence in the water but it was a long expensive drawn out process. He didn't cry in the water anymore but he wasn't swimming either.

He started having group lessons at local lesiure centre at the age of 4.5 which he has been going to ever since. I've paid usually for a block of 10 1-2-1 lessons each year to help him alongside the group ones.

He is still in the bottom group in the class. All the others from his class have moved up 2 groups. He loves the water now which is fantastic but not the lessons. I'm still going to persevere even though he complains as I feel it's important to learn. Cannot wait for these lessons to finish though, it's seems like I have been taking him forever!

I went to school with a lovely boy.

One day he was chased by bullies on to a bridge. In absolute terror he climbed over the side and jumped in to the water. He couldn't swim. He drowned.

These things do happen. We would never allow our children to be in a car without a seatbelt. But yes, the car could still crash and they could be killed. The seatbelt just goes some way to reducing that risk.

We'd never allow our children to bike ride without a helmet. Yes, they could still land terribly and be killed, but the helmet goes some way to reducing that risk.

And it's the same with swimming. Yes, they could be caught in bad currents and swimming wouldn't do a damn thing, but by knowing how to swim well the likelihood of drowning is reduced, whether by a significant amount is unknown but the fact it goes some way to reducing the risk is unquestionable. Same as with seat belt and helmet in the above two examples.

£100 a month?! That is silly money. For that they should be getting lots of 1 on 1 time with an instructor and should be good swimmers after 4 years. A swim school would be much less than that and should be adequate

There are some people who naturally swim - usually starting under water. I did aged 2 (warm climate, big seas). As did my DC (UK). I was self-taught - DC taught by us in open air pool. Most of DC's paternal parents and grandparents swam (rivers, lakes, canals not seas).

DC then went in for lessons and progressed fast and was able to waterski, surf, sail etc by 10. Brag over.

But there's clearly something about teaching swimming to kids who don't like heads in water/don't have parents who swim confidently/don't have cheap access to a baby pool where they can just have fun and emulate their more confident peers.

So clearly OP it's a great thing to do and increases safety but if your DC are not learning fast enough perhaps you should ask the swimming teacher and swop to another if s/he hasn't a satisfactory explanation?

I agree with PPs, though, water safety lessons are critical whatever the strength of the swimmer. EG

• Know the tide/weather/surges/riptides or ask about them
• Never swim even in a pool if you've had any alcohol
• Always observe the lifeguard signs
• Don't swim where you don't know the water unless you've checked it out with local info.
• Don't go in after your dog!

We've done weekly baby swim from very early, and at 2 dd is getting pretty good at the little underwater swims and is v happy in the water.

However, I do agree the early lessons have become a bit of a 'thing' and a bit faddy - sometimes whether the children are enjoying it or not! I'm pleased dd has taken to it but I've really only put the time, money and energy into it as she has always seemed to enjoy being in the water & as I needed to be looking after her anyway so just saw it as a fairly useful activity.

I also think the lessons are a lot of instruction for them at a young age. I try not to push her to do anything, whereas i think the teachers are sometimes expecting more than they can give, & people end up moving their children's arms for them etc.

I certainly wouldn't push lessons once she's busier at pre-school/school - only if she continues to want them.

My DC all had/have lessons. We live near lakes so it's especially important to me. Have spent a small fortune over the years....eldest can manage around 20metres (19yrs!!)

I don't think you should be paying for it if it's leaving you short, no.

I read somewhere that people who swim are seven times more likely to drown than non swimmers ( obviously because swimmers are far more likely than non swimmers to put themselves in the water.) If you factor in that the vast majority of people who drown have willingly put themselves in the water as they have been taught to swim, then fear of children drowning would be a very good reason not to teach them.

Counter intuitive but true.