Swimming parties for little children are the absolute worst kind of party

[Tittie]

I love swimming, whether it’s swimming lengths alone, swimming with the kids, lazing in the pool on holiday. It’s my favourite exercise and I regularly hire the local small, WARM, private pools for family to play. HOWEVER. Swimming parties for younger children are the absolute worst and I think it’s so inconsiderate of parents to organise them. We have been invited to a Y1 age swimming party where parents must also be in the water. It’s so awful on multiple counts and I wish they’d be banned!

1. our leisure centre is freezing. The water is freezing. The air is freezing. You can’t get in and warm up with proper swimming or do lengths or anything because the kids just want to stand in the shallow bit and splash
2. I don’t want to hang out nearly naked with dads I don’t know
3. The leisure centre smells or urine and I don’t want verrucas
4. Many parents feel very uncomfortable standing around awkwardly in swimwear with parents they don’t know
5. Pressure to shave and sort bikini line, lest the other parents bitch about you (I’ve seen that happen)
6. Not all of us have spare adults to go in our place

These parents do swimming parties every year (even when their kid was 3!!) and they get family help so they don’t need to get in. They’re not even ‘making the memories’ with their kids. Party child mum is always beautifully made up, meanwhile we will all look sodden and bare faced, stinking of chlorine.

I have taken the eldest to a Y5(ish) party before, at a shallow pool. We didn’t have to get in, we watched carefully and had nice chats. Marvellous.

Thanks for coming to my ted talk and if you’re thinking of doing this for your kids, don’t. There are hundreds of other possibilities that children and grown ups alike will love. Drop offs preferred 😂

Watch the motherland episode on iPlayer.

I'm with you, this sounds horrific 🤣 can all the Y1 children even swim? I'd be busy that day.

I wouldn't go.

You don’t need to go. I never fancied hosting this kind of party and never would tbh, but my children have loved attending. Tbh… parties in general are a ballache, it’s only now I can look back and think, god all of that was a lot.

Just don’t go to that one.

Swimming parties are great fun if most of the children can go in the pool without a parent.

I wouldn't be keen if most needed a parent.

100% agree. Luckily DD only 2.5 so haven't experienced this yet but I vividly recall hating them even as a child myself.

Nothing would persuade me to go to a party such as this. I've done a lot of unpleasant and unenjoyable things for my kids but the line has to be drawn somewhere and for me, this is it.

Completely agree! You explain it perfectly.

(Only thing I would add is the part where you are shivering and the child needs to get dressed first so that takes about 20 mins and you have to try to put dry socks on a child’s damp feet before you can even get dressed yourself). A lot of fun.

sounds horrendous! 😂 We had one for 10yos one year, even that was fun yes but pure chaos and so much screaming and shouting. Not for the faint hearted 😂

Swimming parties are fun when all the children can swim.

It’s true, they really are a lot! Genuinely difficult times aside, my most stressful few hours of the year by far 😅

Completely get the standing half naked next to parents thing. When my Y1 child got invited to one last year, I specifically bought a long sleeved swim vest and some nylon-spandex knee length shorts. Didn't give a shit how I looked, there was no way I was going to be standing next to little Freddie's daddy with my fanny half out

Gosh, I’m surprised there’s no age limit, our local council run pool does parties for ages 8 and over, no parent needs to be in the water. I’m not surprised you hate these parties, I would too, who’d pick this as an option for a year 1 child!

My DC was invited to one in reception!! The birthday child was an October baby so most of the kids were four and a few hadn’t even been four for that long! Insane! I politely declined as I have absolutely no desire to be in my swimming costume with a bunch of parents I don’t know (or ones I do for that matter). However, I have seen a few 8/9/10 birthdays which are pool parties and they have been brilliant because the kids have loved it, and the parents have been able to sit on the side and watch.

Just decline the invite. To use a MN phrase, it’s an invitation and not a summons

Yup. All this. My son has been to a couple now he’s 10 but I would never have agreed to go if I’d had to get in. Absolutely no chance.

“Long lockers!!”

YANBU OP, it’s my idea of hell. Thankfully DD had her first swimming party this year and they only needed a few parents to volunteer to go in while the others watched.

I wouldn’t go and I’d imagine lots of parents wouldn’t like this. The thought of standing around in my pants with school parents who are also semi naked is enough to say no.

And don't go dressed as Hilary Clinton😄

What a weird choice of party for what have got to be predominantly non swimmers, at best weak swimmers, and the level of parental supervision needed. It would be a hard decline from me. The first swimming party we had was end of Y4 thank god so it was drop off, no parents in the pool, and we picked up from the party room at the end.
Also, YY watch the motherland episode!!

Just don't go. If you hate it that much, you can say no to your child, especially when they are little!

Absolute hard HELL NO from me.

We had one such party in reception and perhaps I am terrible, but if she'd not been a competent enough swimmer to go in on her own then we'd have been "busy" that day.

If I recall correctly, it was the dads rather than the mums that went in with the exception of the birthday mum who had a much smaller child she needed to be in with.

Oh dear I am so glad it's not a thing where I live and we have never been invited to these type of parties! It seems hell and I would 100% politely decline. How can anyone thing this is a good idea? Aside from the very first few Reception birthday parties, I normally already dread at the idea of spending two hours of small talks at a regular party. Imagine doing that in a swimming costume, all wet with messy hair, chasing a child either in the water or in tiny changing rooms. No thank you.
My DS is a keen ice skater and we regularly attend the local ice rink. They organize children parties there but I would NEVER impose such a torture to the other parents! As not all children can skate, this means parents would need to be on the ice and often they can't skate either - it would be so tricky. Plus, it's freezing and you still have to stay after skating for the cake etc. Not all activities are meant for parties!

It was one of the few times that I was able to use my DD’s medical issues as a legitimate excuse - they were drop off parties back then so my DD’s seizures meant she needed 1:1 so couldn’t go, what a shame