DS age 6 swimming to bottom of 3.5m pool!

[ritzbiscuits]

DH has taken our son aged 6 swimming today and son dived off the deep end and swam 3.5m to touch the bottom of the pool!

Pretty fearless it seems but am I being unreasonable that it's not that safe for his age?

He's equivalent of working in Stage 4 group at his weekly class. Has been taught some beginner dives, but not in water anywhere near that deep.

Happy to be flames just keen on opinions either way.

It's fine

It's totally fine. Particularly given DH was right there ( I assume).

What is it exactly you are worried about?

Her son not being at school ?

well, he did it, was fine (and I bet he was pleased with himself)

if it was too deep/far, he wouldn't have made it and would have swum back to the top.
he had an adult with him watching. He is obviously a good swimmer.

Ok sounds like I'm being overprotective.

I'm worried about him being so far underwater and struggling, he's not used to doing it.

@billsmothers haha it's half term here - very early in our borough

I can't think that it is unsafe if his swimming is good enough (and clearly it is). I assume your DH was standing by ready to rescue him if needed.
I have seen several small children on my travels in the South seas able to do that sort of thing.

One of the reasons to learn to swim is to be safe if you find yourself unintentionally in water. He's very unlikely to find himself in water accidentally, but if the incredibly unlikely scenario happened and he fell off a boat, he's likely to be at least 3m under and have to swim to the surface. So I'd be pleased that he was doing that in the safe environment of a swimming pool with his father nearby.

Whatever you do, don't let your fears communicate to your son. AT the moment he's confident, but he's still young, and you don't want him to develop a fear of having his head under water.

he's not used to doing it.

Until he's done it a few times he won't be
Sounds like he's confident in the water - a good thing.

Another mumsnetter (bills) who can't understand that mumsnet is used by people all over the world.

Sounds like he’s confident and strong in the water, I think it’s something to be proud of rather than worry about. Just make sure he’s aware of diving safety, at that age make sure he knows why he should only dive in when an adult he knows says it’s deep enough.

God I wish it was half term here

Another mumsnetter (bills) who can't understand that mumsnet is used by people all over the world.

Another mumsnetter (cyberlibre ) who doesn't have a sense of humour.

Oh yes. Because it was clearly a joke. Ha. Ha.

OP, try not to worry if his dad is right there. It it good to push boundaries in a safe environment (I.e with an adult with him)

It is fine. I was doing the same at that age, I am a total water baby. As long as your husband was there and watching, he was ok

I teach swimming. Our pool has proper diving lessons which start at age 6, in a pool 5m deep.

It's not uncommon to see tiny 6 year olds firing themselves off a 3m high board into the 5m pool and coming up fine.

My cousins and I used to have underwater swimming races at that age, we'd hold our breath until we nearly burst. We are all fine. Most of us ended up swimming for the county.

I love seeing little kids enjoy being in the water (as long as there are adults and lifeguards around). Being a confident swimmer gives you so many more options as a teen / adult - rowing, kayaking, scuba diving. I speak as someone who used to date a non swimmer who lacked confidence around water. Although he learnt to swim quite quickly, it took almost a year of adult lessons to get him into water that he couldn't stand up in.

Chill. Noone was forcing him to do it, so it must have been fun.
We didnt have pool that deep, but mine used to lie on the bottom of our 2.5m pool, prob from about age 5. Fingertips at 3.5m isnt much further.

My ds has been able to retrieve dive balls from that depth since he was 4. I'm not gloating, it's just a fact. I've always been right there watching and he would just come back to the surface if he found it too difficult.

My son was always able to swim under water really easily and really far - it just took him ages to learn to swim with his head above water!

What’s the problem?

It's fine. Dh was there if he got into trouble. However, I understand the panic. My dh swims like a fish and our 2 girls, now 9 and 4, are very water confident. Me on the other hand, I sink haha. I have always hated swimming and I hate being in the pool. I was sat watching my dh and the girls at swimming. I dont usually go but thought I'd go watch. Well they were 7 and 2 at the time and dh was putting my 2 year old on this big float going under it and coming up and tipping her off! She had arm bands on and she was laughing her head off and saying again again! I was sat watching, hoping I was going to leave with 2 children haha.

It's fine. He was supervised, he chose to do it. He is clearly a strong confident swimmer.

Both my DDs did this at 6. Some kids are just fish.

Well presumably if his dad was watching him and there are life guards if he got in trouble they’d be right there. But there’s no reason For it to be more likely he’d get in trouble at that depth than any other.
When I was a child we swam in an out dooor pool full of bugs and bits of tree that was stone cold and with sides and a bottom that would rip your skin off. It was 12ft at the deep end and we dived in there all the time. We all survived.