leaving kids at swimming lesson

[unicorns4eva]

Can anyone help me out please? Is it normal practice to leave your kids age 9 and 11 at their swimming lessons? So drop them off, they get changed themselves, do their lesson, get themselves changed again, then wait by the leisure centre doors for you to pick them up again?

I thought swimming pools insisted parents stay with them but maybe it varies?

Maybe as they are over 8 they can stay without a parent

At our local pool kids need to be 8 to swim unacompanied, so i assume at 9 and 11 itd be fine for the lesson. The instructors arent checking which adults are there.

If it were me id just either watch oe go for my own swim/sauna etc.

I wouldn't.

One lesson the teacher was talking to another child down the end and ,y DS was being pushed under by another child and I had to shout down to the teacher to draw his attention. DS has also had nosebleeds and had to get out, sit in first aid room etc. I think parents should be there tbh.

Happens all the time at my local pool.

At 11 I'm pretty sure I was getting a bus 5 miles on my own to swimming lessons. I really don't see any problem with that.

My children have been swimming without a parent since they were 8 years old.

Competitive swimmers with club.

At our local pool if the child is 8+ they can be left, though I don't think many parents do

It is fine. I drop my 8 year old at the door and meet him back there an hour later.

No. At our local pools although they can be unaccompanied in the water for general swimming, and parents in stands for lessons from 3yrs, it is very clear parents must remain on premises and within eight of the teacher until the children are secondary age.

My Ds (11) does rookie lifeguards. Takes himself and walks home. He also goes swimming on his own . It’s not like when he was tiny and wanted a wee I had to get him.

Within sight of the teacher... unless briefly gettting another child changed or nipping to loo.

Our pool you can leave them over the age of 8. Most people don't but I would happily leave my 9 and 11 yr old if I had something important I needed to nip out and do. The 9 yr old swims for an hour then there is an hour fun swim afterwards so upwards of 2.5 hours sat poolside is a long time out of my evening. The 11 yr old has a phone and they are together so that helps, if one had a problem they could always call me.

As I say, most of the time I do stay but am aware that I don't have to.

I left mine, aged 7&9, at their lesson for the first time today. I spoke to the centre manager before I left and he was happy to have one less parent clogging up the tiny waiting area.

Check with the teacher or manager to be sure.

At our pool you can leave them once they are 8. After all, they could go swimming by themselves at 8yo (assuming competent swimmers). I used to go for a swim myself in the other pool.

Mine don't have swimming lessons but at piano lessons the teacher is happy for our 12 year old to be left but says our 10 year old and 7 year old need a parent to stay.

Depends if they are competent swimmers or not
I prefer to be there and watch but it's not always possible

I use daily to pop over the road to Waitrose. If they’re in a lesson, they are supervised so a non issue.

I leave my 10 yr old but she is a squad competitive swimmer so I'm confident leaving her and I meet her in the leisure centre cafe! I didn't leave her before the squad swimming so roughly 8 yrs because it was only half an hour so not worth it. Seems to be a mixture where we swim. I don't leave the younger one but he is much younger.

It's not the lesson itself that concerns me, it's the getting changed without a parent there and then hanging around the leisure centre entrance waiting to be picked up.

I wouldn't be happy to do it but I'm in the minority.

Yes.
Once they're over 8 years old that's the general idea.

When dd started club swimming at 8, I went in the changing room with her on her first day to do her hat for her. She was mortified to discover I was the only parent in there, and I haven't been allowed in since.

And, I would actually argue that parents shouldn't be in the changing room once the dc can get themselves showered and dressed; changing rooms, especially female ones, are packed enough as it is without unnecessary extra bodies.

Happens reasonably frequently in our pool. The unaccompanied over 8 year olds only applies to open swimming during lessons the lifeguards and instructors are enough. I stay because I have nowhere else I need to go but I’d nip to the supermarket across the road and pick him ds up after. He’s 8 and goes in and out the changing rooms himself I head to the poolside seats on the way in and wait outside when he’s done.

At 11 of possibly younger this was totally normal for me as a Brownie. Possibly not for a 9 and 11 year old, because if it was me and my sister we would have killed each other!

I used to wait until DS was actually in the pool so I knew where his clothes were etc then nip to the shop or whatever then wait in the pool cafe til I could see him coming out then meet him in the changing room.
He was 8

Apparently DD school will let her arrive/depart from year 5, when she'll be 9. If children can make their own way to school at that age I don't see why they can't go be in a leisure centre on their own.