Anyone else find swimming with young children should be pleasurable but it's not?

[Needspace21]

Just been swimming, just me and dcs. One is 6 and one is 9. It started off all fun and games but by the end I felt really ratty and regattably snapped at my eldest over a little thing, essentially undermining the time and effort I spent on the trip...

Reasons:

1)they get a bit silly and over excited and don't listen. The youngest thinks he can swim but he can't. He's constantly wriggling away from me then swallowing gulps of water before I grab him again.

2)they don't listen when we move to a different part of the pool and I stand like a lemon waiting for them.

3)in the showers afterward they both get soap in their eyes... Again. One tries to run off.

4. the eldest was wringing out his wet costume dramatically in the cubicle, almost covering me and the youngest with water. I told him to stop and he did it again.

Number 4 is what triggered me. I regretfully told them I was never taking them again. Now I feel bad.

Please tell me I'm not the only one who finds swimming should be fun but is actually tedious. Feel like a bad mom.

Oh, we love it actually. I don't do it to teach them to swim, they have lessons for that. We just bob about and splash each other and I give them piggy back rides.

Quite looking forward to taking them at half term.

Not much fun until they can swim properly and you can swim/watch. Definitely separate changing rooms, 9 is more than old enough to sort himself out unless he has additional needs.

No activities with young children are pleasurable for anyone.
HTH

@NeverDropYourMooncup great story and great username. 😁

Nope bloody nightmare. Mine are same age plus an older one who may be the worst for silly behaviour.

I love it on a 1:1 ratio. I’ve never done both of mine on my own and won’t until they can swim well. What I used to detest though was carting my baby/toddler to her sister’s lessons. She’d overheat and be Uber grumpy as a baby and then would be a nightmare as a toddler. Moving to a Saturday so we never had to cart the little one around was much nicer. Basically I think I just find being outnumbered stressful with that being magnified in a pool situation.

that's the emoji I meant to use!

I've put YABU as I go with no expectation that it will be fun. I loathed swimming with them when they were little. Quite like it now everyone can swim independently.

@TooExtraImmatureCheddar

Also, you can’t actually do any swimming yourself until all children can swim very well and are old enough to be left - not sure how old that is, mine are 9 and 7 and no way could I leave them alone for a moment! The 7 yo can swim a bit but like yours thinks he’s much better than he is. The 9 yo probably wouldn’t do anything silly but she still needs watching and encouraging. Maybe I could go and do the odd length by the time they’re 11 and 13? God knows. I love swimming. I loathe bobbing about supervising. Then factor in silliness in the changing rooms and needing to get out multiple times to go to the loo…

Exactly this! Mine are just turning 13 and 11 and I can indeed do a couple of lengths...not many, but some! I too love swimming and thought it would never happen but it suddenly did. Hang in there!

Swimming with my 11 mo is awesome. He adores water so we go twice a week. He then sleeps for 90 min after so win win!

Doesn't this describe doing anything with kids? I fully appreciate now why my parents rarely bothered and left me to my own devices. I fully follow their good example with my own kids and encourage my stressed out friends to do the same. We all need to go on strike.

It's one of the activities that I actually really enjoy with my kids. Swimming, cycling, walking and reading are always my top choices.

But I don't like painting or cooking with them, or any arts and crafts really, and I'd rather gnaw my arm off than play board games.

I say play to your strengths, do mostly the things that you do like. Maybe throw in a swimming trip once every couple of months. Let someone else teach them to swim.

It's tricky for about ten minutes then its awful. You're either boiling hot or freezing cold. The changing rooms are too small - you have to balance kids, towels and clothes. Everyone is damp so getting clothes on is a nightmare and their hair gets stuck in hairbands and then their all hungry and tired.
Nightmare!
But mine are all teenagers and exceptional swimmers so I suppose it was worth it!

I just feel shit. I so wanted it to be a good experience for them. I blew it in the last 10 minutes by loosing my rag.

If you don’t threaten to never take them again you’re not doing it right.

I’m generally a calm and reasonable parent, my son is generally well behaved and a good listener. We’re both shouty, stroppy mood hoovers the moment we get out of the pool.

It's awful.
The only "highlight" was "when would mummys lips go blue with cold". We didn't go very often. I paid for swimming lessons.

Swimming with kids isn't enjoyable at all nth. My mother never took us swimming - I can understand why now 😅 I try and take my kids quite often tho but it feels me with dread every time 😅

I used to hate it and only went to be a good mum!

Mine are older and can now go in without me! So much better being sat on the side with a drink 🤣

It is one of those things that gets better the more you take them! I love swimming with mine age 6 and 8 but it is hard work. But I find staying in the house even harder work. I can’t stand baking/crafting/play dates etc.

It's a pain. But my DC loves it. I spend most of the time letting them climb on my back and pretending to be a sea monster. They can't swim yet so I only ever get a decent swim if we go with my DH as well and we can take turns herding DC. I'm planning on going back to work full-time next year so we're vaguely thinking about an afterschool nanny since we'll both be doing long hours... guess what activity will be top of the list for them to do so I don't have to do it .

It's easier when they can both swim, but my pair would then get really competitive, who could swim the fastest, dive the best, swim under water the furthest. It was a nightmare. Or they'd want to re-enact mako mermaids or bloody moana.

By the time we got out they were knackered and hungry so getting them showered usually resulted in massive hangry meltdowns

Ugh I hate it. I don't even go in the changing rooms at lessons since they did away with the plastic overshoes as can't bear the gritty cold damp floor on my bare feet 😆. Swimming on holiday when it's 30c is where it's at. Stick some arm bands on the 6 year old and let him crack on rather than trying to hang on to a giant slippery eel. Definitely separate changing rooms!

Taking DC swimming is vile! My 10-year-old is still awful to take swimming, although he LOVES it, but he spends the entire time getting out, jumping in again, diving to the bottom, trying to climb on me and nearly drown me. All I want to do is swim up and down in peace FFS without getting my hair wet!!!! Argh!!!

I hate it with a passion. Its such a faff. After swimming need to wash/dry swim things and us and my hair takes an hour to wash and dry. Hate hate hate it thankfully mine are now older and not intetested in swimming. Thank.the Lord.

I always make sure there’s no way mine could be hungry before getting in!

Wear the easiest clothes to put on and off- even flip flops so no socks/shoes

And yup it’s still shite