Swimming lessons should be essential!

[PipersSeaSalt]

Inspired by the other thread.

As a nanny of over 25 years, I've always said that if you can only afford one class for your baby/toddler then make it swimming (unless, of course you are able to teach them yourself).

I've heard so many times that "We didn't put child in lessons because he was fearful of the water" and that attitude absolutely blows my mind! That is the EXACT reason why you should get your child enrolled in swimming lessons!

Why wouldn't you want your child to be safe in and around water?!

I know that not everyone can afford lessons. I know that. Many people can and just don't because they don't want to upset their child.

Absolutely agree. I organised a kayaking session for my Cub/Scout group. I asked the parents to tell me of their child was a swimmer by the Scouts' definition - can swim 50m in a buoyancy aid and float for 5 minutes. 5 of the Cubs (8-10.5 years old) were non-swimmers. Very very worrying.

Why can't you take them yourself
Why always 'lessons'. My dad taught me to swim. I only ever got lessons for technique (to get into a swimming club).

why can’t you take them yourself

I can’t speak for that poster but a trip to our pool sets us back £40, and I cannot take two children solo hence paying for two adults.

My two eldest learned absolutely nothing from swimming with the school
This they had 30mins 1 day a week 3 or 4 weeks year 5 and 6 didn't learn anything.
Saying if you can't afford lessons take them yourself what if you can't afford to take them either.
When I was at primary school in the 70s we had swimming lessons every week at he local pool and you got badges as you swam further and further.

You are right, swimming lessons.

We have taken them ourselves, but it takes over an hour each way, the car park costs £6.50 for an hour, the pool itself is £12 each for me and DH and £8 each for the kids, (assuming we can actually book a slot, which you almost never can), and you only get 45 minutes in the pool. It's not something we can afford to do very often!

As I said, they've been taught water safety (both at the pool and at the beach) since they were tiny, and we did the basics with them when we could, but actual lessons were completely out of our reach. 45 minutes on the rare occasion we can get them to a pool was never going to create strong swimmers, and the consensus on this thread (along with many, many others) is that parents who don't send their kids to swimming lessons are lazy/useless/disinterested/ignorant, and are wilfully depriving their children of a vital life skill. I was just trying to point out that in many cases, the parents are desperately trying to do their best with very limited resources.

Swimming lessons around here are about £120 per month and take place at times like 4pm on a Tuesday, when working parents can't make it. I was a keen swimmer, and DD would love swimming lessons, but there just aren't any at times for working parents. Our council is on the brink of bankruptcy closed down all but ones of the swimming pools, which is a hour away, so we wouldn't get to the evening classes on time.

Gosh I hadn't realised it had got so expensive
Are you really only allowed 1 under 8 per adult now? That's really bad. Maybe the councils need to lighten up on this to give kids a chance to swim.
Many single parents have 2/3 kids and would never be able to take their kids swimming

It’s two under 8s for some of the bigger chains like Everyone Active.

It probably is two under 8s but it’s certainly one adult to one child for under 5s for everyone active

In my area, since Covid, it is virtually impossible to get new starters into the cheaper council swimming lessons. My DS was 4 at that time and we were just about to enrol him in swimming lessons. Due to availability and his SEN, the lessons he eventually started at age 6 are with a small, private swim school and cost us £208 a term. He’s just moving to Stage 2, as due to his sensory needs he refused to put his face in the water, so didn’t meet the criteria to complete Stage 1 for over a year.

We have a DD6 who we can’t start with swimming lessons yet, as we simply can’t afford almost £400 a term (there’s just a 10% discount for siblings). We’re still trying to get her into leisure centre lessons and we swim as a family when we can. Which also costs over £30 a time.

I think it’s the same for most places @FloatinguptheLagan

I started my baby with puddleducks (extortionate!) when the Covid restrictions came down and carried on when I went back to work. I then had another baby last year and she started with puddleducks and I am considering stopping her lessons as I just can’t afford them, but worried I’ll never get her in anywhere else!

I pay £40 a month for DS to have 1 hour lessons a week in a 50m pool. Definitely nowhere near some of the prices mentioned here. As he has lessons at the pool he also gets free "fun swims" with me (I have to pay for me) as part of his membership.

I actually think the early years of swimming lessons for our children were a complete waste of money. We could have saved money by just taking them swimming ourselves, getting them used to the water, getting their heads wet, teaching them to tread water etc. Once they could listen - maybe around 5 - lessons started to become worth it.

I am not well enough to teach them now and lessons are non-negotiable as I want to have strong swimmers (and they are) but I think more people could just teach their children the basics.

I just don't think the assumption that they need formal lessons (rather than being taught by family and friends) is that helpful and may well have led to less children being able to swim as parents are disempowered (as they are in other ways).

Thank you!

No 3 or 4 year old needs swimming lessons. A great thing to do, sure (mine did), but it's very far removed from a need.

Likewise, fun trips to the pool before that are important if you want them to swim well at a young age. Many of us are happy for our DC to learn slowly at an older age. Swimming is nowhere near my list of important things for under fives.

I took my DS to swimming lessons at the local leisure centre aged 2. All good, he enjoyed splashing about, and it was in a baby pool where I was in the water with him so he felt completely safe.

When he turned 3 the leisure centre lessons said that parents had to watch instead of being in the pool, and I didn't think my DS would follow instructions properly or be safe doing that, so I paid for a term of Turtle Tots where I was in the pool with him. This was in a different pool, which was part of a gym and quite dark and he couldn't touch the bottom.

He was absolutely terrified and refused to let go of the side of the pool for the whole sessions. The other kids were fine and were going along with the lessons. My DS was not fine. His fear got worse week on week, whatever I or the teacher said or did. He sobbed to me that he was scared he would "drop down to the bottom".

I stopped taking him after 4 or 5 attempts because it was making the situation worse and he was getting less confident around the water.

He's 4 now, and I take him to open sessions at the leisure centre pool every couple of weeks or so and he enjoys a splash about, and can doggy paddle a little bit wearing armbands. I know armbands aren't generally recommended but my DS asked for them "because then I might not drop down".

He's confident and has a happy relationship with the pool again now. Next year I'd like to try him with lessons again, maybe once he's got used to being in school and listening to a teacher properly. Until he is a confident swimmer I would never let him be unsupervised around any deep body of water.

I don't feel guilty about taking him out of swimming lessons aged 3 because they weren't helping him be a safe swimmer. It just wasn't right for him at that time. He was becoming afraid of water, it was horrible for him and no fun for me, and for those reasons it was a waste of money.

It’s £75 a month here, two children code together £150.
They do scouts for £10 a month now, but nothing in that kinda of price bracket!
The lessons are crap too, lots of queuing, too many at once and little progress.

I don't see how this is an essential life skill. My mother can't swim and she is doing just fine in life. I never had swimming lessons as a kid but I knew how to float and my friend taught me basic swimming skills when I was an adult. Apart from being swept by a tsunami, I think my chances of drowning are lower than average because I can't swim well and, hence, never put myself in situations where I might need to.

Too late and not enough!
I helped at my kids swimming in Yr 4. 2 competent swimmers out of 45. 5-6 could manage a width. The vast majority complete non-swimmers with approx 10 children that had never been to a pool before.
A very average area, not especially deprived.

I’m not convinced of the need for actual lessons for very tiny ones. Better. IMO (if a parent is confident enough) to take them swimming maybe once a week - in a nice warm shallow pool - and just get them used to being in the water and enjoying it. That’s how mine learned anyway - both were swimming very early, inc. under water - albeit no proper strokes. Those came later, with lessons at maybe 6, when they were already very confident in the water.

Wow I'm really surprised at the costs mentioned on here. Our local pool costs less than £5 for an adult swim and kids are only a cpl of quid. Adult bus fare is only £2 and kids are free (or £1 if they're older). Our pool also has family sessions where its absolutely free to swim but that's about an hour once a week.

I do think it's important to teach your children to swim though. We just took them regularly when they were going and by the time they started the school lessons they were both top of their own classes. Holidays can be the best place for solidifying their skills as they're in and out of the pool too.

I had swimming lessons every week at primary school and still came out a non-swimmer. I was a really skinny kid but what there was of me was quite solid, basically I couldn't float. Whenever the teacher tried to get us to float I would just sink like a brick. Consequently every moment became a struggle to keep my head above water.

To make matters worse I couldn't get my (generously proportioned) nose to close sufficiently to stop me getting a partial lung full of water on a regular basis leading to a brisk outbreak of coughing and drowning.

I rapidly came to hate swimming and everything to do with it, used to pray for verrucas so that I would be banned from the pool and sent to do other games.

Sometimes no amount of trying is going to get your child swimming.

My local council pool closed the waiting list for swimming lessons in 2021. Now on the rare occasions they have places they post on Facebook and the first parent to ring up gets the spot

So I started taking my son to private lessons - expensive but fortunately I could afford it. Unfortunately the pool closed permanently after a month. I've been looking for lessons elsewhere but everywhere is full. The one place I did find recently with spaces is charging £58 per 30 minute session (no, that's not a typo).

Do you not go on holidays with swimming pools?