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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To cancel the swimming lessons

108 replies

HungryHippo11 · 14/08/2021 05:08

My DD is 4.5 and is a complete beginner at swimming - we have only been about 4 times in the past year due to pool closures etc. An opportunity came up for a week of reduced swimming lessons at a local private pool, so I booked her on. Website said that parents could watch from the poolside.

I phoned yesterday to check the details such as what to bring along, because I hadn't had any confirmation email or anything. Apparently due to covid, parents aren't allowed poolside, or in to the building at all, and have to drop the kids off at the entrance swim ready and pick them up an hour later.

WWYD? My instinct is to cancel the lessons - I don't think I'm OK with sending a young child into a place she has never been, with instructors neither of us have ever met, to do a potentially dangerous activity at which she is a complete beginner.
BUT I think the swimming will be a really good thing for her to start learning as she has been so little and its a life skill.

Am I overreacting? I know kids swimming lessons the parents aren't usually in the water but they would at least be in the same building?

OP posts:
Fullofglee · 14/08/2021 10:21

You've got to do what suits you, you might pay more but these will be qualified level 2 teachers.

gogohm · 14/08/2021 10:21

I dropped my 15 years ago, back then there was a cafe and you could help them change after.

They come out with dry robes on at the local pool now, parents wait at the fire exit - public pool. Some parents go to the gym in the same complex others are sitting on benches outside (in the rain sometimes) or in their cars

gogohm · 14/08/2021 10:23

Ps there are no poolside seats at our pool, no viewing gallery at all.

LittleOwl153 · 14/08/2021 10:39

We did this in a similar scenario- teacher training - in May. My kids are older (7+) and were fine. I don't think tbh I would have put a 4.5yr old in in that situation. Ours were in a school pool which literally has a pool and 2 changing rooms. There was nowhere else for them to go. It worked well but I did notice there was a drop in attendance of the smallest kids - which is usually packed.

Our council owned / management company run pool is back to normal operation now even down to having the teachers in the water for the tiniest this week.

RubertRoo · 14/08/2021 10:49

@Teeheehee1579

We had this ridiculous faff at private lessons - lessons every other week so smaller groups, 10 mins shaved off the end ‘because of COVID’, no spectators blah. Not cheap either. We moved to local council pool lessons where there are no restrictions and everyone cracks on. Works really well. No one should be using COVID as a reason to have restrictions still in place, it certainly doesn’t benefit the children. I’d find somewhere else if I were you.

And the PP who gets phoned if her 3 year old needs a wee - how utterly ridiculous and what a waste of a lesson for everyone with the instructor faffing about phoning and waiting, that is actually one of the most ridiculous ‘because of COVID’ policies I have heard re swimming.

It's not actually as bad as it sounds. When i drop her off I have to leave my phone number next to her name or if DH drops her off then his number. In DDs group - there are about 8 children. 1 main instructor in the water and each one of them has a 'helper'. So if she needs a wee - her helper informs a member of staff on the edge of the pool - they then tell reception who call me straight away and by the time they've got DD out of the pool and to the toilet I'm already there waiting. Her helper waits outside the door to take her back to the water again. So the lessons don't stop and are not interrupted - everyone else carries on.

Although she's never done swimming lessons before so I don't have anything to compare it to but it doesn't seem that much of a nightmare. I just cant see her progress which I don't really like but I take her swimming myself once a week so I can see what she's learnt at swimming the previous week.

liveforsummer · 14/08/2021 10:55

Depends on the dc - mine would have gone quite happily in these circumstances but know plenty that wouldn't. It's not a dangerous activity when there are trained instructors who have likely been doing this time and time again for years and buoyancy aids. I couldn't count the number of swim lessons I've sat through over the years and never seen anything risky going on or any accident happen whilst in the care of instructor. This has been the norm to happen since pools reopened after the first lockdown so staff are well used to it by now

liveforsummer · 14/08/2021 10:55

The instructors are trainees, which is why the lessons were so heavily reduced, but they are supervised by qualified instructors.

Missed this - so double the amount of supervision to normal too

Givemebackmylilo · 14/08/2021 10:57

Swimming teacher here and I certainly wouldn't send her

ChavDiningHalls · 14/08/2021 11:00

I would also cancel and tell them that you are sick of people using Covid as an excuse for everything.

RobinPenguins · 14/08/2021 11:07

It wouldn’t be the safety aspect that would concern me particularly, if their child/instructor ratios are good, it just sounds like a massive faff and a headache and I’d be amazed if there aren’t other pools near you doing it much better.

liveforsummer · 14/08/2021 11:10

@ChavDiningHalls

I would also cancel and tell them that you are sick of people using Covid as an excuse for everything.
It's not the lesson company making the rules. It's the hired venue, so not much they could do with that feedback.
HappyGirl86 · 14/08/2021 11:19

I'm a swimming instructor.

I work at two different pools- one where one parent can sit poolside and the other where parents bring them to poolside ready and then have to wait in the changing rooms.

I know most restrictions have gone but we were having issues with teaching having to self isolate and we therefore couldn't run classes so my boss had to be really strict about how many people we have poolside.

Kids are often far more confident than we think when it comes to swimming. If a child is really nervous, I will ask the parent to get into the pool with them at first. I know that sounds silly that they can't sit poolside but can get in the pool, but we do it because it's needed for the swimmer to be confident enough to get in.
I'd leave my daughter at a swim school and wait outside but I guess that's because I know lots of teachers and I am confident in the training they have done.
I can see why you have concerns though OP. Unfortunately it is quite common at the moment. I think it will be until people don't have to self isolate anymore. Some teachers aren't double jabbed yet.

INeedNewShoes · 14/08/2021 11:27

DD, who started lessons just before she turned 4, has to turn up swim ready so she wears crocs and has a hooded towel over her swimsuit.

One of the instructors collects the kids from outside and leads them to the poolside a group at a time where their respective teachers are waiting for them. They then leave crocs and towels poolside.

At the end of the lesson, the kids wrap themselves in their towel and put their crocs on and are let back out of the building one at a time once the manager can see the parent is ready to collect them. Some parents then dry and dress their kids outside the building.

It's been fine in the spring and summer but I'm dreading winter!...

At our pool, the parents of beginners are allowed to stay but that's it. Had this not been the case I think I would still have sent DD as I just think that water safety is such a priority that I can't delay it any longer.

GoldenOmber · 14/08/2021 11:40

It’s hard isn’t it? My DD is a bit older, can swim a bit but hated lessons pre-covid and isn’t confident at all in the water. I am really keen to get her back into lessons but the arrangements in place now are so limited she’ll be even more stressed and hate it more, and I don’t want her put off even more.

Ours is parents wait outside still, children to arrive ‘pool ready’ and not use showers and changing rooms. It’s extra shit if you don’t drive like me, because then you have to either get them dried and dressed outside or walk home wet. Urgh.

BadMotherLover · 14/08/2021 11:45

Cancel. This is a safeguarding nightmare. No way would I allow this at 4 years old.

Christmasfairy2020 · 14/08/2021 11:49

My dd started at 4. I sat up stairs watching however I don't generally always watch tend to play on phone. Like all other patents.

Fullofglee · 14/08/2021 11:49

As a swimming teacher the biggest thing is safe guarding having parents not in the building is very risky. It's different parents waiting in the area of a building like the changing rooms who could be contacted if required to do so. We had an incident not long ago where a parent left her 8 year old daughter and went home she was called and told to return and was told she wasn't allowed to leave her daughter unattended. I've worked previously using hired school pools and kids were never dropped off and left.

purplemunkey · 14/08/2021 11:57

I’d cancel too. Sounds way too OTT. My DD had similar rules to other PP before restrictions were lifted - arrive swim ready, one way system, parents poolside - but all that is finished now. It’s all back to normal.

Also, don’t worry too much about her age. My DD started lessons when she was 5. Most kids in her group were of similar age. She took to it really well and moved up to the next group fairly quickly so I don’t think you need to panic about having to start ASAP as some have suggested.

Balonzette · 14/08/2021 11:59

I wouldn't allow my child to swim unless I was present and able to reach them in an emergency.

Bunnycat101 · 14/08/2021 12:21

I’d also say I wouldn’t do a session with trainee teachers again unless I had an older more confident child. My daughter did one session when she was 4 with trainee teachers. It wasn’t in a teaching pool and she got out of her depth and needed to be rescued by one of the supervisors on the side. The trainee teacher in the pool hadn’t clocked her and it really upset her.

PogoBob · 14/08/2021 12:59

YANBU - I wouldn't be comfortable with this and I'm dealing with an 8yo DS (who has ALN so isn't as mature as the average 8yo).

He's booked onto a swimming course later this month and they've still got Covid arrangements in place (we're in Wales), we have to arrive swim ready, wait outside until the previous class leaves, go in via a one way system, only 1 parents allowed but can sit at pool side and then one way system back out of the building so I don't agree that what they are requesting is necessary

Wannakisstheteacher · 14/08/2021 13:02

No way at that age! They can easily become upset in early swimming lessons if they swallow water or can’t get their head above water, even for a few seconds.

Original poster
HungryHippo11 · 14/08/2021 14:58

Thanks for your feedback everyone. I have cancelled the lessons and I have booked her on to weekly lessons starting in September, at the larger leisure centre in town.
She still has to arrive swim ready but I can sit and watch from a balcony, I can help her get changed afterwards and the sessions are only half an hour. I'm feeling much more positive about it and glad to know I wasn't overreacting

OP posts:
Bunnycat101 · 15/08/2021 08:08

HungryHippo11 That sounds like a good plan. Hope she enjoys them.

SwanShaped · 15/08/2021 08:14

That’s good. If you get the wrong type of lesson then it can make their confidence worse, not better. Your new ones sound much better