Is Swimming a life skill (following on from driving thread)

[girlfriend44]

Alot of people here said that driving was a life skill.

If you drive can you also swim?
Do you consider Swimming to be a life skill too that everyone should learn?

It's far more important than driving. I don't think you can compare them.

Not at all, everyone should be able to ride a bike unless they have disabilities which prevent it. It opens up leisure pursuits as well as being a method of transport. I bet Dutch and Danish MNers are laughing at the fact that people in the UK could possibly think that learning to ride a bike isn't crucial.

I am not convinced that being able to swim stops people drowning - usually water is too cold and deep. It is however a very useful thing to be able to do and opens up a world of leisure pursuits.

Just because you can swim doesn't mean you know how to save someone. The two skills are very different, which is why people do a week's course to become a lifeguard.

Anyway I think if you are prioritising activities for your children based on cost or time or whatever, I'd put swimming and learning to ride a bike at the top.

Everything else is a bonus.

If you fall into a canal Weils disease is probably a bigger danger than drowning (the one near us is actually very shallow - especially at the moment with there having been so little rain).

What do people mean by not being able to swim? As in at all? No floating, no doggy paddle, no treading water? Can't move in the water? Like if your feet aren't in the ground or you're holding on you'll go under??

I'm not being rude or snarky, but I thought everyone could tread water or doggy paddle to some degree even if they never had a lesson to do so?

It's perfectly possible to live in Denmark or the Netherlands and not cycle as they have excellent public transport.

Plus the number of people who can't learn to ride a bike is surprisingly large - even those of us with Danish parents. Dyspraxia, autism, hypermobility are real things and not necessarily diagnosed.

@PuppyMonkey Aarg! Wrong thread obviously. It was meant for a thread about life tips.

My mums net has a habit of going "Aw snap" just when I have typed in a long message so I tend to type my message in Notepad then copy and paste to mumsnet. Except this time I pasted to wrong thread. Blame the wine.

All well and good if the actual lifeguard had been doing their job. You saying if someone who is a strong swimmer, has good common sense, knows the dangers of the water and the risks involved, shouldn’t save a child from drowning if they can because they havnt done a weeks life guard training? There were plenty of other people around but only my cousin who went after the child, the life guard didn’t even show up until my cousin was on his way back to the beach.

There are definitely people who can do none of that, and even if they can do it in a swimming pool they may not be able to do it in full clothes in a cold river, in a state of either drunkenness or blind panic.

DM is absolutely terrified of putting her head underwater, so no she definitely wouldn’t be able to do doggy paddle or tread water if she fell off a jetty or something. DS can swim 5m in good circumstances but totally wouldn’t manage in a rough sea (he is 5, and will be wearing a life jacket near the sea for the foreseeable future).

I used to believe that everyone could swim or at least float.

Its not true. I have a friend who sinks, he literally just sinks, he has no capacity either mentally or physically to float or move in a way which enables him to swim

On holidays he has had the usual lifeguard types who have said 'I'll be able to teach you to swim mate', and they've all given up!!

You thought wrong. I had swimming lessons in school at various time from 7 or 8 all the way to VI Form but have never been able to really master it.

Just don't seem to be very buoyant.

I think the trouble is that I am not relaxed in the water so as soon as my feet leave the bottom I tense up and sink.

A few times on holiday we have rented somewhere with a pool and I enjoy floating around in the shallow end with an inflatable. I once spent the fortnight trying to get the hang of doggy paddle and by the end of the holidays could cover the 8m or so length of the pool. I thought I might build on that when I got home but the reality of spending time in some ghastly leisure centre pool put a stop to that

I did take DD to swimming lessons from an early age. She was quite young when she sussed that mummy's feet never left the floor when I took her in the children's pool.

However I can drive which is much, much more useful.

Oh dear Dutch and Danish people laughing at us, whatever shall we do

Perhaps they've got a modicum of sense to realise that different countries have different infrastructures and so cycling for leisure and transport is not as significant in other countries.

I like to ride a bike but I suffer with vertigo so Im very limited about where I can go certainly no where with other people or traffic.

Swimming is infinitely more important than driving - if you don’t drive and need to travel you can get a bus. If you don’t swim and need to get out of water, you drown.

Yes both essential and I intend to make sure my DC can do both

I bet Dutch and Danish MNers are laughing at the fact that people in the UK could possibly think that learning to ride a bike isn't crucial.

1. I doubt they give a fuck.

2.I really doubt that every single person from those countries can ride a bike.

1. I wasn't allowed a bike as a kid, I never had one, never had someone teach me. As an adult I tried ,but it sucked and I sucked so I lost interest.

4.Crucial for what? Made it to 37, moved countries without a penny to my name at 23, now have a family,a job, friends ,a home etc.

In a swimming pool I could probably do a couple of lengths, in a river, with my clothes on I doubt I could swim 10 metres

If you've been taught to float on your back you can do it with or without your clothes on. It's also why they chuck the kids in the water once a term with their clothes on to get them used to how it would feel to be in the water fully clothed.

Assuming you live somewhere with decent and regular public transport. And it is going where you need it to go at a time you need it for work, leisure or whatever. Oh and you don't mind bringing your week's shopping home on the bus. And all the days out and holidays you take can be served by public transport. Then there is the day you get a phone call at work to say your DM is dangerously ill in hospital and if you want to see her alive again you need to get there ASAP. The list could go on.

Yes in the very, very slim chance that a non swimmer found themselves in deep water they may be at slightly more risk than a swimmer. But based on day to day need I would turn your statement round and say driving is infinitely more important than swimming.

When I see threads like this where posters dismiss driving as a "nice to have" I can only assume that:
a. They live somewhere like London where public transport is good and don't understand it's not like that in most of the rest of the country.

b. They never have to travel for work

c. They have a OH who does drive and can conveniently pick up the slack when required

Just looked up the definition of a life skill: ‘a skill that is necessary or desirable for full participation in everyday life.’
So it’s actually all open to interpretation-around here it’s very dangerous to cycle, and we’re in the midlands so unless you’re heading off somewhere people don’t come across many bodies of water. We need cars as are rural, had I stayed in Dublin I’d never have learned to drive!! So depends really!

I understand what it's like in the rest of the country. That's why I moved to London.

My shopping gets delivered to my door.

Even if I drove, I wouldn't make it in time to see my DM given where she lives.

It's pretty easy to outsource driving anyway, you know. They have this thing called a taxi.

If you're in the water drowning, it's harder to outsource not dying. I don't mind waiting 5 minutes for my taxi to arrive. 5 minutes underwater? I'd be dead.

Quite happy being able to swim rather than drive.

I can drive and I can swim (winning at being an adult over here)

I had private swimming lessons but used to cheat and walk along the floor and do all the arm movements. All was great until I went to a swimming party and fell off the inflatable and had to be dragged out of the pool.

Dd is 13 and never had private swimming lessons, due to a lot of different factors at the time but mainly money. Luckily she took to the school lessons really well, and within the first lesson she was out of the non swimmer group and then by the end of the term she was in one of the top sets.
We have just returned from a holiday where the pool was 2m deep everywhere. The pool depth was never mentioned anywhere, had we not been able to swim well, the pool would have been completely off limits all week. (no floats were allowed) my poor legs hurt after treading water for what felt like hours everyday.
Dd wants to start open water swimming and do the great North swim next year. But that scares me slightly.

Then there is the day you get a phone call at work to say your DM is dangerously ill in hospital and if you want to see her alive again you need to get there ASAP.

Considering she lives in another country, I'd never make it anyways.

Call a taxi? I can’t drive as disabled….soooo…that’s how I get to the hospital for appointments now.

If no one in the world could swim it wouldn't make a bit of difference to me really.

If no one in the world could drive the impact would be massive and would effect everyone's day to day life.

We live by the sea & it shocks me how many kids can't swim by the time they leave primary school. It's most dangerous in their teens in a mixed group with only a few non-swimmers as they get into difficult / dangerous situations, rather than admit they don't have the same skills as their mates. It's got worse recently we them going out on paddle boards (usually without any float jackets) as they can get rapidly out of their depth. So yes, if you live by the sea (or another watery area where some of their mates might have a paddle board) then they need to be able to swim / know some water safety.

I also think learning to drive before having kids is pretty vital - two other mums in our social circle suffered from social isolation & in one case depression even living in a city as they couldn't meet up so easily with the parents they'd made friends with & were dependent on their partners for transport & emergencies.

Plus both skills seen to take longer to learn the older you get so b as early as possible would be my rule. I would also add riding a bike to this list - so many Y5's can barely access the Bikeabilty training because they can barely ride a bike. They often own one but have never been taught & the older you get, the scarier it is to try & trust the physics. So they don't actually get much time being taught the on-road bike safety because they're still wobbling about in the playground.