Swimming lessons - gazing into the abyss

[Carrotsurprise]

My god, how many years does this go on for? My DD started swimming lessons at the start of year 1 now she'll probably be moving up to stage 3 at the end of term. It runs for 50!!!!! weeks of the year. Every bloody Monday evening all year bloody round. And I'm on maternity leave! When I go back to work we'll have the juggling a toddler making sure one person gets home for him and the other goes to swimming. Then one day it'll be time for him to start lessons. Every Monday evening except Christmas, for like ten years? Right? Are swimming lessons really non-negotiable??

This! My daughter is a very strong swimmer and she just learned with me when we were on holiday. The swimming lessons she took as a young kid were absolutely useless.

My whole family are strong swimmers and we never had any formal lessons - just learned by going swimming with family.

Non negotiable and totally worth it for kids to have confidence in water as well as the safety side. Means you can then do water based activities with them, Aqua parks, paddle boarding, water theme parks etc

I have three dc, now teens, none of whom took particularly well to swimming. I started lessons with the eldest in 2010 and finished with the youngest in 2024 ( age 3- year 6). No breaks in between apart from COVID, every Friday afternoon.
At one memorable point, I had eldest dc in for a lesson, then middle dc, then 30 minutes wait, then youngest in.

Stop being so over sensitive. I am solid working class and so is my family and DH and my DC of course. We got our DC swimming lessons, because swimming IS an important life skill, and they can have lots of fun with it, as well as potentially saving their own lives! I was taught to swim at 6 years old in the early 1970s, (some lessons were with my dad and some were with one of the teachers when I was at school.) Again, no-one was middle class! By the time I was 10 or 11, most people at my (working class comprehensive) school of 1000 pupils could swim. Many just picked it up, or had relatives teaching them, some learned at school.

Some parents will claim they can't afford the swimming lessons for their DC, but will happily spend on scratchcards, and vapes, and 3 takeaways a week! I've seen it happen!

You are projecting massively!

We didn't start lessons until dc were 7 and 9. Within 2 years they were good enough to drop it. I don't think starting early is necessarily the way to go.

YANBU. We are locked in for eternity. I was totally deluded when we started, I thought it would be a few months or a year perhaps! But no...

Couldn’t afford it, and the waiting lists were absolutely insane. Mine only did school lessons and it turned out one is dyspraxic so she massively struggled.

I just take a coffee and listen to a podcast, it’s an hour to myself really. I’m a shit swimmer and I want mine to be able to swim well so she can access other things (she may want to surf etc). We are not in the uk so I don’t know what stage she would be but she’s 5 and can comfortably swim a few laps in a 25 meter pool. It’s great for her overall stamina and I just feel better knowing she can swim for a while if she needs to. It does feel like I’ve been doing this for years and I will probably be doing it for a few more years but tbh it’s ok.

I’ve been taking mine since my eldest was 6 weeks, she’s now 5.5. She at least goes in herself with her class - I still have to go in with my 3.5yo (they have back to back lessons). The worst of it is that my eldest has started being invited to the birthday parties of kids we know from swimming, which I know is very well-intended but feels like cruel and unusual torture for me on top of the many school ones 🙈

We must have spent thousands on swimming lessons over the years until they begged to stop and they are both still shite at it. I guess some people just don't have it in them. Still, they're competent enough not to drown if they fall in a pool when my back's turned which was the main thing I wanted.

You might feel differently when you have to witness the body of a 7 year old boy being dragged out of the water like I did.

Swimming is a non negotiable for me because we live by the coast, not because I'm middle class (most of MN would have a conniption at the mere sight of where I grew up). DS is in Y1 he's just going into stage 5 he's been assessed as ready but there won't be a space until July. He has also found out that if he can get to stage 6 and turn 7 he can start diving lessons so I think it will be many more years at the pool for me, but it's warm and dry, I'd rather that than the side of a football pitch.
I love that he can swim and that he loves the water too, I took him from 12 weeks bar a gap for covid. We're going to Greece for a fortnight in the summer and I plan to spend lots of time swimming, DH is actually a stronger swimmer than I am (tall, lean, broad shoulders, flipper feet....) but doesn't really enjoy it, so I'm pleased to have a water companion in DS.

Well, kids usually play in the water before swimming a length so doing a handstand is a valid water skill.

I said in total. 🙄 Multiple children.

Essential skills but hate taking her every week. Sadly the thought of dd drowning keeps me going to these lessons although stage 5 now ..want to give up at stage 6 when they swim with clothes on and have enough stamina to survive. I'm in a working class area and the classes are full as parents realize how important life skill it is.

Oooops, sorry. 😊

Im a swimming teacher and school swimming. We see parents teaching their children to swim, often they arent as efficient in the water. Poor body position, little to no breathing and can barely get across 10 metres nm the recommended 25metres. Often they can't swim or float on their back either. So unable to get themselves on their back or to the side to safety if in danger. A 20 year old decided to go for a swim and drowned the other day. The number of children have drowned in the last 5 years. I suspect covid has had alot to play no school swimming over that period and education on water safety. It is a life skill an very important one. In terms of a handstand I would have passed a kid if they passed everything else but not that. That skill is part of orientation and rotation ultimately moving on to a forward roll next.

Yeah I think all the kids in my DD’s classes spend about five minutes doing handstands in the water or roly poly’s. They all started doing that as soon as they could spend a little time under water. Definitely before she could swim a length.

How did I manage to survive then @Minecroft ? How?!

I’m sorry you witnessed that. But please don’t over emote to try and ridicule my position. I wasn’t dragged out of the water a s a child. Why did I survive?

Bite the bullet and pay for one to one.
My DC made more progress in the first 121 lesson than in the previous 3years of group lessons.

Am I alone in thinking that spending 1000s of pounds and spending several years on swimming lessons for your child is batshit? How long has it been like this? It wasn't like this when I was a kid - or for my brother who is a decade younger than me. We learned to do it in a couple of months/8 weeks or so. My DC learned in about 3-4 months (about 22-23 years ago.) Cost a fiver a lesson. They had maybe 15 lessons.

Is it like this for everyone now? Is this a new scam/moneymaking scheme to con parents?

I have two in lessons, now stage 5 and 6. Tuesdays 5:30-6 then 6-6:30. God its dull. I tried Sunday morning lessons but disliked 6 days a week of early mornings. They enjoy it and it's worth it. I had lessons until I was 12 or so with some life saving lessons and I am a really good swimmer, even after years or not doing it I can get in a pool and glide in the fast lane with barely a splash.

The pool we go to has a vending machine but in summer I get a can of iced coffee to drink there and winter I take a coffee in a flask. There is no where to sit and its hot as balls.

I disagree about a comment above about swimming lessons being aa middle class mn thing though. The pool we go to is not in an affluent area and has a families of all kinds of backgrounds.

We are only 9 months in on our (private 2:1) swimming lesson journey, with a hypermobile, dyspraxic 9yo and a 7yo who still panics and sulks when she gets water in her nose. I'll give them 2 years, I'm not doing this for all eternity.

I totally sympathise with you. My children also go swimming on a Monday night. It is relentless. I couldn’t do it every week like you do though, without a break. Ours takes a break during half terms, summer hols, Easter and Christmas and sometimes bank hols. Just waiting for my youngest to reach level 3 and to stay in that stage for a little while before we call it quits.

what they teach in the swimming lessons, I could never teach my children. They’ve learnt survival skills and technique. My technique is rubbish because my parents used to take me & teach me (to be honest, it was all they could afford, so I’m not ungrateful)