prioritising swimming lessons

[lottieann]

My husband is adamant my son doesn't miss any of his weekend swimming lessons and insists he doesn't accept party invitations if they fall at the same time as his lessons. I disagree and cannot see the harm in missing swimming now and again. My son is 8 years. Who is being unreasonable?

I would leave it up to your son to decide what he wants on do on each occasion.

Probably your DH.
Is your DS a keen swimmer - what sort of stage is he at? TBH at that age if they're keen they're probably doing the awful weeknight training sessions; and if they're not then perfecting strokes isn't the be-all and end-all.

Well swimmings an important life skill and the lessons are darned expensive, but birthday parties are a pretty important life experience when you're 8!

I would say the odd one or two really doesn't matter, if he is regularly missing swimming then perhaps his lesson could be moved to a different day or time.

Owner of an 8 year old, who would not be chuffed if I told him he had to turn down a party invite for swimming :)

Good grief, he is 8!!
He will not forget how to swim if he misses a lesson.

If he misses out on too much, he might just decide that he wants to quit swimming lessons.

Swimming lessons are expensive.

I would set a limit, say 1 per term that can be missed, or can be missed for closest friends only.

Or move swimming lessons to after school one day?

Ask him

You might be surprised at the answer - I know I have been when my 9 year old has had parties clash with other activities.

We moved to 1:1 lessons for this reason. On average,we were doing things (visiting relatives etc) every other weekend which meant we'd have to completely miss a lesson and that was before you factored in parties etc. We now arrange the lessons around what we are doing and only pay for the ones we book so are not missing out financially and get to do a lot more of what we want to do.

Oh, and despite having fewer lessons, DD is progressing faster