...to wish that the crying baby would stop coming to baby swimming classes...

[jamtomorrow1]

My three month old son has always been very jolly in his baby swimming classes and smiles and gurgles his way through them. The sessions are a highlight of the week for me and my husband (how our lives have changed). A new baby has joined the class recently and unfortunately he cries the whole way through every session. I can see how upset and disappointed his parents are about this, and I can see why they want to keep trying... but once Crying Baby starts crying, my son and several of the other babies start crying too in sympathy, and the result is that a previously fun activity is just miserable for all involved. I have the utmost sympathy for mother of Crying Baby but I am concerned that my son is no longer enjoying swimming, and also frankly I am no longer enjoying swimming either! Is there anything I can do other than find another class?!

Your time WILL come

how lovely of you, so you wish for a baby to be distressed and for the parents to struggle? Some bitterness on here!

You do know that it's possible not to leave a screaming baby to bother everybody around you, don't you. Normal parents manage very well not to be a nuisance for others, even when baby suffers from colic and reflux and is just generally upset.

It's called being a parent, the opposite of being lazy and entitled. So I am not sure why you think it will be the OP's turn... It's not a curse.

Andpancakesforbreakfast.

On the face of it my Cryer would seem to others that he was just miserable at the activity and I was spoiling it for others. However my Cryer was like this all the time. Turns out he's was on the spectrum.
I didn't expect sympathy or support for that, just getting out the house, socialising and making friend would have been all the support i needed.
Like a pp poster said it's about being in a very hard place but cracking on regardless yes it may be uncomfortable for others but others need to take their Rose tinted specs off and stop being so precious.

Normal parents manage very well not to be a nuisance for others, even when baby suffers from colic and reflux and is just generally upset

Oh dfod

Give your head a wobble? Wow. Helpful.

And pancakes. Over 2 decades of being a parent prices to me that baby's cry and ops turn will come. They cry to communicate, taking the baby away from a group won't solve anything when the baby was trying to communicate it's needs. OP needs tolerance and understanding of baby's needs and development not assume all baby's need to be silenced.

Oh and pancakes. Part of parenting is listening to your baby's cries and deteming what they mean. Not silencing them as soon as possible to appease others.

Part of parenting is listening to your baby's cries and deteming what they mean. Not silencing them as soon as possible to appease others

Yes!!

GrumpyHoonMain what a horrible post.

YABU. I’ve also never heard of other babies crying in sympathy

My DS adored swimming when he was 3 months old-age be grinning and splashing the whole session. Fast forward to 4 years old when he went to proper swimming classes on his own and he cried and cried! They had to give him 1-1 because all you could hear was him wailing up and down the pool. It would be sods law you'll see her when you have the noisiest/ whiniest/ most hyperactive toddler in a class and it will come and bite you on the bum!

This made me smile as when my DD was young .She had swimming lessons ,and each time a little girl would cry quite pitifully (about 6 or 7 ) the Mum would turn round and say to everyone."Oh she loves it really!" To be fair the child did eventually settle down and the lesson went ahead .Sadly this is a fact of life Im afraid ,nothing to be done !

This thread has made me really sad. I take my 4 month old to lots of classes, swimming and other things. Sometimes babies cry and I always just feel sympathetic for the parents. Because it’s shit when your baby cries, but babies cry. So at baby classes, (that is, classes for babies) there’s a small chance - just a very small one - that a baby might cry. And it’ll probably be my baby next time.

I always assumed all parents thought like this but clearly not.

Incidentally we have a little girl in our swimming class who cries most weeks. The other babies never start crying in sympathy (didn’t know that was a thing actually). They’re far too focussed on the activity and entertainment to notice. So your swimming lessons can’t be very engaging!

Crying is the way an intelligent baby tries to communicate and doesn’t necessarily mean baby doesn’t enjoy something. It could be that it’s different or he’s hungry or insecure. If your baby hasn’t ever cried at a swimming lesson unless he’s mimicking another child I would be worried about their development.

What a horrible idea to try put into the head of a new parent.

If it's water babies, they are all crying because they hate being dunked under. And also, YABU.

Ha ha ha ha ha ha. This is a joke right?

Wow, no wonder the OP isn’t sticking around. Some of these comments are very passive aggressive and harsh.

New mum alert!

Congratulations on the birth of your new baby @Jamtomorrow1and keep on keeping on.

At least you know you’re baby is able to hear and is empathetic.

It’s all good.

If the other baby starts up next week, just try and distract your baby by pulling him through the water and letting him feel the water on his legs etc.

It’s not a bad thing that your baby cries, just as it’s not a bad thing if the other baby cries.

Some baby’s skin is super sensitive to the chlorine in the pool, and this can make them cry. It’s not indicative that he’s having a horrible time with the swimming!

One of my babies hated the feeling of grass, and would wail at every picnic we went on. We put socks / long leggings and sleeves on her and she was fine, but she really didn’t like touching it, at all.

She liked coming out with us.. being in the open.. just as long as she didn’t touch the grass, and maybe this baby is the same..doesn’t like the water on his skin..

Have a chat with the other new mum. She needs support too.. I bet she’s feeling very self conscious about how her baby is in the water. Maybe even feeling isolated?

Peace and love all.

DS2 was the crying swimming baby. He used to claw his way up my body to get out of the water, so I bought a little wetsuit for him. It was a game changer- turns out he was just cold.

Since then, he’s swum competitively to county level.

You can share this with crying baby’s parents- it might help!

This is made up.

You need to find another class.

@GrumpyHoonMain, that's absolute bullshit. I say that as a Grandmother whose had a lot of contact with children until Adulthood.

Crying is the way an intelligent baby tries to communicate and doesn’t necessarily mean baby doesn’t enjoy something. It could be that it’s different or he’s hungry or insecure. If your baby hasn’t ever cried at a swimming lesson unless he’s mimicking another child I would be worried about their developmen