Crying at swimming lesson

[Zadig134]

Hello everyone,
I just wanted some advice.We came back from holiday and decided to enroll DD for swimming lesson.She loved the beach so much that we struggled to get her out of the sea. As soon as she got in the pool, she started panicking as her feet could not touch the floor. She was terrified with the teacher carrying her around with water splashing on her eyes.The teacher kept telling her enough crying and asked me to get her out as she couldn’t get through to her. I have already paid for the whole term. I am not sure what i can do to help her.
i have been planning to take her to family swimming pool for her to gain more confidence. I spoke to her and reassured her that she wouldn’t drown.
Is there anything else that i can do ?Thank you She is 4yr old.

She needs time and gentle encouragement. It might take most of the next lesson too for her to enter the water.
My son enjoyed swimming in one place then had a blip when we went somewhere new. Amost a whole lesson passed before he’d get in the water again. And he was a confident swimmer. Pools can be a real sensory overload for children.

A good teacher would help a child by letting them sit on the poolside to start with. Then see if they want to put their feet in the water and watch for a bit. Then say ‘are you ready to try again?’ Etc. Etc. Swim teachers must see this quite a few times and know how to help kids.

Good luck. Your daughter will get there.

The teacher sounds useless, ask for a new one. It's perfectly natural for her to react like that initially

Did they know she was a complete beginner? The teacher sounds unprepared for a non-swimmer. When mine had swimming lessons, there was a step at the shallow end for those who were too short to stand on the pool bottom. Was this a group lesson or a one to one?

Following as in a very similar position... torn because I want DC to learn but not be in floods of tears.

That is a bad teacher. Ask for someone with experience in teaching preschool aged beginners. (I used to be a swimming teacher).

Take her out of swimming lessons. Visit the pool as a family & try again next term.

This.

You want her to want to learn. If she’s crying it’s all wrong and you’re just going to traumatise her.

Following, albeit different circumstances.

7 year old was getting on fine with swimming lessons- 2 weeks off over summer hols. Now sobbing uncontrollably before every lesson. She's small for her age, and the littlest one in there and stuck on swimming in clothes with no goggles.

Gah. Don't know whether to pause lessons until a bit bigger or persist...

Commiserations, it's awful when they really cry 😢

Thank you all for your replies. Unfortunately she is the manager of the swimming school and a very experienced teacher. She is fully aware that my child has no experience with water. It was a group lesson so my daughter was holding everyone back by crying. I will talk to her and see how we can make this work! I will try to take her to family swimming too.

Swimming lessons can be overwhelming. It's the noise and the splashing, it can all be a bit much. I wouldn't leave her in crying. Would she sit on the side with legs in and just watch a class, it will give her a chance to take it all in with no pressure to get fully in.

Goggles can also help.

Teacher sounds awful. Tell her you want your money back as she's not able or willing to teach a nervous beginner. Then find a small pool with a shallow end and kinder teachers. Where ours went they got used to splashing sitting on the steps and didn't go out of their depth till they could swim.
She shouldn't be manhandling your kid around the pool or blaming her for being upset/nervous.