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.

I do. Hotel pools are shallow

When did swimming lessons become the norm? When I was growing up I think only one friend had them, and most of the rest of us could swim too but had been taught by parents/family.

What would help is if swimming and lessons were more affordable, not for parents to be made to feel guilty if their child can’t swim.

When did you grow up? I’m 44, and swimming lessons were perfectly normal! Not every child had them but they weren’t some sort of obscure peculiar thing only embraced by the eccentric!

Not necessarily neglect (if it's the case I think you mean) they were on holiday, it's not like they had a pool/pond in their back garden with a toddler.

Depends where you live and what kind of lifestyle you live. If you don't live near any body of water, and never go on holiday near one, and never go to swimming pools for pleasure, then sure, not essential.
But there's a booming market for adult swimming lessons where I live, because so many adult immigrants come here unable to swim, having not really needed to before, and then realised how much they are missing out because summers revolve around water here. When you spend your summer at a cottage by the lake, with everyone swimming except you, you soon realise how essential it is.

This is interesting, we are in Scotland and my children have never had 1 swimming lessons through school. I did as a child. It's really disappointing as, like so many others have pointed out, lessons are often not an option for so many.

The problem is there an enormous chunk of parents who see teaching there child to swim as someone else’s job
granted not every parent can get there child to swim but you can get your child water confident then fine tune it with the odd lesson

I’m a terrible swimmer and DH can’t swim at all, we made sure DD wa sin lessons from 2. She’s very confident in the water, she’s still learning but I want her to be able to say yes to everything. I want her to be able to try whatever she wants. Not being able to swim is limiting.

Growing up I had a pool at my primary. So did swimming lessons often.
Where we live now. Primary years 3 - 6 benefit from swimming lessons every year over the course of 2 weeks. And then additional lessons after school during them 2 weeks, at a slightly cheaper rate than taking them to a pool. Only 1 of my DC took up the after school lessons on top of the during school ones as he's a water baby and is very nearly swimming (amazingly confident under water though!)
During the summer months we also benefit from a family member with a huge pool, big enough for them to learn to swim, so that's what we have been doing the last couple of years.
If we didn't have these opportunities, they wouldn't get to swim and learn so often, as the cost of swimming lessons around here is crazy money, especially for 3 children. But then again, I had loads of swimming lessons over the years, and turns out I'm a rubbish swimmer anyway. 🤣

How lovely 🙄 Was your son one of ones "taking the piss" out of other kids who couldn't swim? I hope not and if so I hope you didn't encourage it.

I couldn't swim until I was 10. The school lessons just didn't click for whatever reason and I missed loads anyway because of a serious illness. My parents couldn't afford extra lessons when I was younger, especially as it would be likely I'd miss some.

I did learn via outside lessons, I was the oldest in that class but thankfully people were very kind - if I'd been laughed at I wouldn't have had the confidence to carry on.

There are lots of reasons some children can't swim and sneering about it/assuming the parents are "negligent" is just stupid to be honest.

My son is 4 and we've just started him on lessons - one to one SEN lessons due to additional needs, £150 for 10 weeks and we're praying he actually gets in the pool on each one.

All those saying their kids were in swim lessons from birth, I'm genuinely curious - if they'd somehow fallen in a river or something at say 2 years old, would they actually have been able to do anything to help themselves based on a very supported/structured set of lessons weeks prior to falling in? I'm struggling to see how they'd remember/link the lesson to suddenly being in genuine danger? Genuinely asking as I've always been curious!

Someone else's job? Like a... Swimming teacher?

Are you me? 😂

I genuinely just sank as a kid. I just couldn't float, and swimming was a huge struggle because of it. Combined with sensory issues around getting a wet face, and a deviated septum that means I can't "close my nose"... I rapidly developed a total dread of going under and never managed to get past that, despite years and years of swimming lessons.

Our local pool; 6.50 adult swim , 5.75 for kids ( I have 2) , bus is £4 EACH return journey, so taking my kids for a swim is a £30 excursion. I'm a single mum on a low income.

There absolutely needs to be a radically different approach to swimming lessons. Swimming as a sport is not the same thing as water safety and the Swim England scheme is basically a barrier to water safety for a lot of kids whose parents can’t afford to have them spend a year in stage 4 learning butterfly, all while they still won’t reliably go in deep water and can’t cope at all without goggles.

There needs to be a basic scheme for kids who aren’t interested in swimming as a sport, where they learn to swim 100m in one stroke, tread water, float, experience falling in in clothes. That’s it. You could have it over with pretty quickly.

I’m younger - just going on 40! It just wasn’t really a thing in my cohort - maybe a class/income thing. It was certainly my most middle class friend who had the lessons. But the rest of us could swim just fine.

I would tend to agree with this. I do think every kid should have the opportunity to learn to swim but lessons aren’t a necessity for that to happen if the priority is teaching them just as life skill rather than a competitive sport.

Kids don't need lessons. Parents need to make it a regular thing from a baby. Swimming and ridding a bike is important. It's really poor if you can't do that for your kids.

This is now my industry and there's so many complex issues happening that effectively the pass rate of a child being able to swim competently by the end of year 4 has fallen dramatically.

1. Parents don't swim with their children outside of lessons.
2. If parents do enrol children in lessons they see passing stage 4 as the goal when that is the bare minimum of competent and won't lead to your child being able to save themselves in a tricky situation
3. Lessons are becoming more and more expensive in large part to energy costs it takes to run Swimming pools.
4. There's a severe shortage in adequately trained swim teachers.
5. We have the covid generation of kids born 2016 to 2019 whose parents never enrolled them at age 4+ so now there is backlog peaking at 8 year old who can't swim at all...this is then putting pressure on school swimming and the curriculum because they can't reach the standard.
6. For the average family two children of school age enrolled in swimming lessons is £70 a month, that's stretch for most.

You don’t think there is a correlation between 1 and 3?

Not to mention time - we work FT Monday to Friday. Other hobbies on Saturday morning, swimming lessons on Sunday morning. There's not much time in the week for a fun family trip to the pool! Not to mention the pool is mostly booked up with lessons over the weekend (fair enough).

Pissed away a fortune in baby swimming.

He learnt to swim when he was strong enough to physically do it.

It is difficult. Our lessons have parent in the pool with the child so I can’t go during the week (I work part time) so has to be weekends and while I don’t begrudge it it definitely cuts into other things. DS’s is fine, it’s first thing on a Saturday but DDs is 1 o clock. Ds has a rugby class middle of the day Sunday too.

But I do really hate the way some people on here are so quick to place blame upon parents. The thread is loaded in it, in parents not taking their children swimming enough even though it costs a fortune, taking them for lessons, not taking them for lessons. It really is a lot of money, and seriously if money is tight then you know eating and paying the mortgage are more important, as much as I endorse swimming as a skill!

Good grief that is outrageous!

All children need to learn to swim- you may try and avoid water most of your life, but there maybe a time when you need it. As not all parents can afford/have time for extra swimming lessons (lets face it, alot of us are working like blue arse flies to keep a roof over our head and food on the table) it should a subsidised school activity from age 5 years onwards. Not a couple of lessons when they are 10 in the hope something sticks.

Rest my case