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??

That's what we do, twice a week as dc loves swimming and is good at it. All started with waterbabies at 5 months old, and here we are 8 years later....

I can't swim, and I am retired, so yes, swimming lessons for my DC were very important to me.
I actually started before they went to school, every week as toddlers, etc.
then as soon as they were old enogh to have lessons with the local baths, then i did this for many years.

When it's not swimming, it's martial arts, football, dance, drama, horse riding. It's pretty much every evening and weekend until they graduate 😂

At least the swimming pools are indoors, and you can sit down. A book and a coffee, there are worst place to have 30mn of peace and quiet. Or you can do your online shop, works well too.
And you only have 1 towel and 1 swimsuit to wash.

I'd say swimming is completely non-negociable.

Swimming was the one sport we felt was crucial.
All three of ours went every week from age 2ish ( the twins started later tbh as we needed 2 adults, so every other week for them till age 3 )
They did lessons till age 16 getting all the qualifications to Gold
They only stopped when they started boarding

At Uni now they are all part time Lifeguards, are beautiful swimmers and love it.

Oh I feel your pain , sat in (the very hot) pool for 2 years - ds learned very little .
8 lessons 1:1 he was swimming brilliantly .. wish I’d done it much earlier

Oh goodness dd did mother and toddler classes then had a break when going into nursery until she was old enough to do weekly lessons.

It's been 2.5 years of weekly lessons and she still can't swim. We have at least one discussions once a week about where we go with them.

Lessons are bang in the middle of Saturday.

This is so true.
Try standing around in the rain every Saturday for practices and S7nday for matches to watch rugby and football.
The driving rain
The cold
The backache

Give me a seat poolside any day

I agree with you completely. I just wish swimming lessons were better.

My daughter swims at school and it's an absolute waste of everyone's time as those who can't swim don't learn anything and those who can are bored stiff as they're not allowed to swim lengths or even go in the deep end of the pool. I understand that's for safety reasons and it's not possible to group by ability rather than age but it's a waste of everyone's time. There's no lesson on Wednesday and she literally cheered today when I told her.

She also goes to group lessons at the local leisure centre and they are only marginally better but at separated by ability.

The real way she's learnt is through weekly one to one lessons and the rest is just for fun /exercise really. Her one to one teacher has pretty much said she doesn't need one to one lessons any more and is ready for club swimming so she's starting at our local club in September which will be twice a week.

I don't think she's a budding Olympian or anything but I'm happy she's found something she's good at and she really enjoys it (for the moment!) and it's great exercise for her.

Neither of us can swim so much as 10m so we've went totally the other way with her. If we were competent swimmers and competent enough to teach her we probably wouldn't have been so hard core about her swimming..

Group swimming lessons are slow. I would definitely be looking for alternatives, or to supplement myself. The main goal is that they can swim safely and strongly, rather than worrying about perfect technique or whatever. At that point, you can stop.

Sounds similar to here! 9 year old swims 5-6 times a week, 7 year old swims 4 times a week and often same day different pools to each other - OP, kindly you need to get your head in the game and don't view it as a chore. Your DC obviously dont need to swim as much as mine do but its one of the more important extra curriculars and what you described is very tame on commitment when compared to many kids as they start to work through primary school

Why does it take so long 🙈We sort of taught Dd, she could swim underwater, jump in, v confident, no arm bands etc. She could swim, but I was worried about technique so she went one on one with a swimming teacher for just 8 lessons over the summer and it was a done deal

You don't have to give them swimming lessons.

Take them swimming a few times while they're still young enough to do what you say.

Hope the school hasn't somehow managed to cut the half-term of lessons each class gets maybe twice.

Go to shallow beaches and teach the joy of keeping your feet firmly on the ground.

Ensure supervision in holiday pools.

(I got Silver Personal Survival in top year of primary school. Have never swum more than 20 metres without touching the floor or the side since. And have never fallen in, with or without my shoes or pyjamas on)

Most kids who drown can swim. (I'm obviously not including the tragic toddler in three inches of water scenario)

Lifeguarding is great. Mine did it all through uni, GC are doing it now. Full NMW at 16 for a very flexible job, loads more hours in the summer. It might help that we are in a seaside town so lots of hotels and holiday parks looking for lifeguards from Easter to September, slows down then.

My DD has been having 1:1 lessons for 6 months or so, I'm no expert but I feel like modern swimming teaching methods are probably not very efficient. DD uses a noodle, a float and a belt. I go with it because her teacher is a trained swimming instructor and I'm not, but logic tells me that all those aides must prolong the process significantly? Kind of how children learn to ride bikes much quicker by using a balance bike and skipping the stabilisers.

@Neednewglassesplease If you think that's "done" you are very very naive. Your DC may be able to move in water and stay relatively safe but do they swim regularly and maintain practice and training, if not it's really not a done deal and their technique will be poor as that takes time, commitment and work to maintain and entrench and even then you lose it if not swimming very regularly

The crash course ones used to be good so every day for a week or two in school hols. Supposed to be equivalent to far more lessons spread weekly.
Or holiday abroad lots of pool time (1-1 tuition from you)

One of mine was like that, seemed so odd when siblings were such good swimmers. Our local leisure centre did intensive courses in the summer, so every day for 2 weeks, well Monday to Friday. Booked her in for 3 courses so six weeks and by the end she was swimming and so much more confident. I think some kids just need more than half an hour a week.

Years is the answer! In hindsight I wish I had just taught them myself, there is decent private pools in my area where you can do this. Not moving a child up because they won’t do a somersault in the water. I kind of get it but I’m a regular swimmer and I have never seen an adult do a somersault in the water! 😂

I had swimming once a week for years at school. Never learned to swim properly. Turns out having the teacher yelling at a class of 20 from the side of the pool isn't the best method. My own kids go to a one-week summer"camp" organised by our local pool (we're in Canada) where they have several students in the water with them. Both kids (11 and 9) can swim really well. If there is anything like that near you I would recommend it rather than a weekly commitment all year round.

Approx £2k spent on classes and mine are still crap at treading water.
Modern swimming focuses too much on nonsense like dolphin and perfecting front crawl and not enough on stamina and lifesaving skills. Mine only really clicked when I paid for private lessons.

Mine learned to swim at school. All free and pain free.

The thing is OP, if it's not swimming it's likely to be something else isn't it? For many people taking their kids to activities is a standard part of parenting from the preschool years until they can safely get themselves there and back at least. I started taking my eldest to a hobby in 2000 and finished taxiing my youngest last year and I don't think I'm particularly unusual. At least swimming is indoors, you might miss it if you end up with a child playing a winter outdoor sport!

There are positives though. I've made some lifelong friends via my children's sports and hobbies, learned new skills myself as I've got involved in their clubs (I still volunteer twice a week even though my own kids are grown up) and it's really rewarding to see your children enjoying themselves and improving at their interests. Of course it can be difficult to juggle everything especially if you have multiple chIldren doing different things and I won't deny there were plenty of times when I wished I was somewhere other than standing next to a freezing cold pitch in the dark, but I figured I was in it for the long haul so may as well embrace it!

I put mine through intensive courses during the school holidays - so every morning for a week which IMHO they learnt better/quicker. Then we would take them swimming every weekend for fun as a family.

Yes, we have a pool and live abroad. She’s in it almost daily now and in the sea, Dh surfs too so mainly taught her

That's all very well, but drowning isn't specific to middle class people.