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?

Why on earth would an 11 and 9 year old need a parent in the changing room with them? Surely the 11 year old if not already at secondary school will be in less than a year.
My own kids have got the bus 3 miles into the nearest pool to meet friends to go swimming since they were 9. They would have been mortified if I had suggested they needed me to be in the changing room with them, very odd.

I leave my 6 and 7 year olds to get themselves showered and changed after swimming so I wouldn't expect a 9 and 11 year old to need supervision.

I had an accident at a pool and nearly drowned as a child. My parents clocked it before the instructor, if they hadn’t been there I could have drowned.

You should never leave a child swimming, the instructor is watched 10+ kids, you’re watching one.

My 10 year old swims with a club 4 sessions a week (about 10k a week). The pool is towards the back of the school grounds and she walks out to the car park when she was finished.

She would think I’d lost my mind if I turned up to help her get changed and watch her swim in case she drowned.

It’s a busy club and most kids seem to be picked up in the car park. Completely normal practice in Australia. Actually, my 6 year old does lessons attached to the school and most parents don’t watch them either.

You have to be 14 to be at our pool without a parent.

Wow not at all normal here.

At 8+ they dont have to be physically handed over to a parent at the end but the expectation at lessons is youre on site (usually in the cafe watching). We do club swimming too and as far as I'm aware everyones on site (i think roughly 7-11age) but maybe thats not an expectation Ive just assumed it.

Theres a difference between getting changed/swimming without an adult in the pool and the adult not actually being on site surely?

I often see 8+ kids swimming after lessons without an adult actually in the pool. But we're all at the side "watching" (reading kindles etc.)