Learning to swim- how important is it?

[cherrycat]

I have been reading posts on another well known parenting site by a woman who was worried she hadn't taken her 8 yr old to swimming lessons or hardly ever went to the pool due to finances (It was interesting to see she was ttc baby no2 on her ticker) and lazyness on her part......so her daughter couldn't swim and she felt slightly guilty about this.
A handful of people had posted saying 'don't worry my kids can't swim either' 'it's not important unless you live on a boat' or 'it's schools job to teach 'em'........I was rather shocked that these parents didn't think swimming was an important life skill!
I've been taking my DD swimming since she was 4 months old (@waterbabies) and now she has regular swimming lessons at local pool. I could never imagine not going on holiday or for days out near water and my daughter not being able to swim.....surely it's a potential lifesaver in a dangerous situation?

What are your thoughts?

I am the lazy type - I only just got my driving licence (at 39!!) and there is no swimming pool close to where we live, so neither of my kids ever had any lessons. I started taking them at aged 4 and 5, and after only three months of going with them weekly, DS1 can swim about 5 meters and DS2 can put his head under water. I find it very satisfying and nice to teach them to swim myself, and also lessons are very expensive. I think that in my opinion, some parents perceive children learning to swim as a life skill and are ready to pay hundreds of pounds so that their child can swim very young. I don't dissagree that it's a life skill, and important, but there is no pressure, really, I don't judge people who don't take their children swimming. It's up to them. Like most things in life! Clearly, parents who think it's very imporant will pay and will take the time, but hey, each to their own.

BlueberryPancake - I'm not sure how many people are actually saying that swimming lessons are important, as opposed to learning how to swim?????.... I know lots of people who are extremely good swimmers who never had a formal swimming lesson. I also have a close friend who is very p*d off with her parents for never, ever taking her to a swimming pool and leaving her as the only child in her year at school who was terrified of water and totally unable even to swim doggy paddle when compulsory school lessons came along - which were insufficient to teach her to swim, resulting in her having to learn many years later as an adult, because she felt she was missing out on a lot of fun. And she didn't even live very far away from a swimming pool.

I would have thought that for most people there is a happy medium somewhere between thinking that your child should have expensive swimming lessons from the age of 3 weeks in order that they can be saving other peoples' lives at the age of 5 and thinking that it's perfectly OK never to take your child to a swimming pool at all.

We live in Australia so it is important to me that our DC are safe around water. DD is 21 months and started lessons at 12 weeks. She goes weekly. It focuses on teaching them water familiarisation and teaching them how to get to the side of the pool should they fall in. DS is 5 weeks old and will start at the same age.

I was born in outback Australia and didn't have access to swimming lessons when I was small. As a result I am a less than competent swimmer and was always embarrassed at school swimming carnivals and pool parties (once we moved to the city and I was at high school). DH was a competitive swimmer and represented the state at title swimming events. At opposite ends of the spectrum, it is important to both of us.

important for us as we live in a swimming pool! she went in from 8 weeks and coul swim before she was three.

oh, no lessons here, just daily or almost daily swimming

I'm a Water Babies teacher, so you can guess my answer! Swimming is a fun, sociable way to exercise and few sports exercise every muscle (including cardio-vascular) as effectively (I'm hypermobile, too rabbitstew.). For babies and small children it allows them freedom to move that they can't get on solid ground, therefore develop muscles they wouldn't otherwise. It is beyond me that in a country with a childhood obesity problem and a dodgy climate there aren't much better, more affordable indoor swimming facilities! Makes me cross.

With the life-saving issue, it's obvious that a) being confident and able in water will reduce an individual's risk of drowning and b) if you're confident with water and spend more time in it, you're taking more of a risk - if you never go in an aeroplane you're not going to die in a plane crash, are you?!

Apart from where the conditions are extreme drowning occurs quickly where the person panics and doesn't know what to do. While being able to swim an efficient front crawl isn't going to save you in a freezing, fast-flowing river, being confident and not freaking out will help in most situations.

We teach babies and toddlers to flip onto their backs (helpful in the bath/paddling pool) and float and hold on to the side/something that floats as well as making sure they're comfortable with swimming under water.

I had a 15 mo baby in one of my classes who fell into a pool on holiday, and before his mum (who was right next to him) had jumped in, he had kicked up to the surface, turned round, grabbed the side and was starting to pull himself out.

But Letchlady - your point is a very fair one - my DC's confidence goes beyond their ability and they are, quite frankly, insane and fearless in water. However, once their ability matches their confidence, they will be very able swimmers.

I did Water Babies because I love swimming. I enjoyed the classes so much as a sociable, fun activity that my children and I loved, so I trained to be a teacher - fab job!

Vital. Mine had a choice over activities but they had to learn to swim-it is a necessary life skill and may be the difference between life and death. I took them from babies and they had lessons from toddlers.

It is an important life skill IMO

I take my DD to swimming lessons - she is 17 weeks old and is happy to go underwater without coughing and spluttering. I'm under no illusions that this would save her life at this age if she were to fall in water but for me I wanted her to be used to the water from a young age so that when she is old enough to have proper lessons it doesn't come as a shock to her.

My DH went to Australia on a rugby tour a few years ago and went in the sea not really understanding the strong currents and barely being able to swim (he's more of a doggy paddler) he started to drown and swallowed water and was actually saved by an 11 year old boy!

To put that in perspective, on the RoSPA site, related to drowning fatalities in 2012, it states:

^There were 420 water-related deaths from accidents or natural causes across the UK in 2010, according to a report published today by the National Water Safety Forum (NWSF).

The report, which uses data from the NWSF?s Water Incident Database, reveals that, as in previous years, the highest number of fatalities - 217 (52 per cent) - happened in inland waters such as rivers, canals, lakes, lochs, reservoirs and ponds. Nearly a quarter of fatalities - 94 (22 per cent) - happened at the coast or in a harbour, dock, marina or port, while an additional 73 deaths (17 per cent) happened out at sea. Twenty-four fatalities were the result of incidents in baths (including jacuzzis or hot-tubs), six in swimming pools and six in areas that are not usually watercourses, such as flooded areas.

Children and young people aged 0-19 accounted for 57 of the deaths, of whom 19 were under 10 years old.

Of the 420 fatalities, 58 involved someone who had been walking or running and then entered the water, perhaps to cool off in warm weather or because they fell in, and 31 involved someone who had been swimming at the time of the incident. Thirty-three cases involved someone who had been in a manually-powered boat, 31 involved commercial water activities and 30 involved angling. Twenty of the deaths were related to sub aqua diving.^

My two started at 3 and 4. they started swimming very quickly and love going even now. It keeps them fit, it's social, part of our weekly routine with friends and it's a life skill. The number of adults I know who can't swim - it holds them back from from swimming in the sea or doing water sports with their kids.

Mine started so early as they were desperate to and it was the only activity they wanted to do.