Is it 'alright' to stop swimming lessons

[Monvelo]

At this point? DD is just turned 10, she's in stage 6 of the swim England scheme. She's had 6yrs of swimming lessons, give or take. She's had either 30 or even 40 lessons at stage 6. I don't know if she'll pass this time or not, find out later today. She doesn't want to go anymore so it's a struggle of nagging and arguments to get her there, although she's generally fine when she's there. If I 'let' her stop now, she's got lessons with the school in the spring and I will see about doing the lifeguard skills courses starting with bronze in the summer. Is this 'enough'?! I'm looking for validation to stop flogging this! DH wants her to keep it up. But he doesn't take her.

She can swim lovely front crawl lengths breathing to both sides but runs out of stamina after a couple, decent breaststroke, backstroke also ok, butterfly is ok but forgets to breath. But then I would just sink!!!

I think stopping in year 6 before secondary school is reasonable. I plan to do the same unless mine want to continue.

and you think a load of anonymous mumsnetters will change his mind and not his wife?

I don't understand your question. Most parents want their children to learn to swim for safety reasons. She can swim. If she wants to do it competitively great. If not why would you make her?

I think if she can keep herself safe in the water that's plenty.

I made mine do stage 6 (although she didn’t quite pass it due to one stroke having her arm a few inches off and I wasn’t about to pay for another term for that!)
Then I agreed we could stop. She was moaning too. And age 9 so similar.

however - she’s now doing the rookie life guarding and loving it! Already passed the bronze and it’s arguably better skills to learn anyway now. Than say continuing with badge 7.

I would suggest doing the life guarding asap though. The school stuff she will find super easy. So no point in waiting til that’s done - unless you want a break of course. You sound like you’re in the same position we were last year :)
We did take a break of a term
but only as I didn’t know about the rookie course!

I think being able to swim a couple of lengths is fine, especially as it sounds like she's confident in the water.

Tell your DH he's more than welcome to take her himself.

At 5, no. At 10 when she can swim competently enough to keep herself safe, absolutely.

Yes as long as she knows how to float and do some basic moves to be able to move through water. I can't do front crawl or butterfly but I love swimming and know how to be safe.

I’d make her keep going until she’s passed level 7. Arguably being able to swim 100m non-stop is going to be the thing that saves her life if she got into difficulty in the sea. Swimming a couple of strokes badly isn’t helpful.

I’d look at 1-2-1 lessons if the group sessions aren’t working. She’ll do more swimming per lesson and they can be tailored all around her

I want to check if i am being reasonable in my line of thinking before I entrench my position.

Oh we also went to the local pool to see how far she could swim as I find the distance badges now are so concentrated on strokes. She only got a 100m badge from the lessons but she swam about 250m and then 400m with a short break at one end, doing whatever stroke she liked that way. So I felt more confident about stopping the general lessons.

There are no 1:1 options in our town or neighbouring towns.

So long as you and/or DH are happy to take her semi regularly then I don’t see why you’d continue tbh. She can swim and keep herself safe. Stamina she can build on with you. If she isn’t enjoying it and is never going to swim competitively then there’s zero point in carrying on so she perfect her butterfly.

I would stop. I agree that swimming is a life skill but for me that is safety related not being able to do the perfect stroke! If she's confident and competent then that should be enough.

I was always very keen for mine to carry on as long as possible as I remember being a fairly competent swimmer at a young age but lost a lot of the skills from stopping my lessons early. I think if you have a plan for other swimming things via school and lifeguarding, and can regularly go swimming as a family, that may be ok. Any swimming clubs near you? Mine both hated swimming lessons until they got invited to swimming club and now love it (no pressure to compete competitively at their club)

I think it's fine to stop at her age if she isn't enjoying it and she's safe in the water. Like you say she'll go with school anyway.
My 9 & 13 year olds still go but they enjoy it and the eldest has started swimming competitively.
You can take her yourself at the weekends sometimes so she keeps it up and it becomes more about fun and getting some exercise rather than lessons

I came completely disillusioned with Swim England stages at level 5. Butterfly doesn't improve water safety for example.

They need stamina, treading water, floating, and water awareness. Not judging about their breathing technique.

Away from lessons, I've been more than happy with DDs water skills. They enjoy water sports. They don't use half the stuff they had apparently needed.

I've always encouraged mine to keep going to the end of primary, whatever stage they are at. Swimming regularly is good for fitness and to enhance a life skill. But if you're going to swap to lifesaving then that ticks that box imo.

Does she do other forms of regular structured exercise? When mine got older and wanted to stop swimming, I made sure that they had other sports to participate in and didn't just lose that active time each week.

The key thing is whether she is safe, and you need to be thinking about more than just at the local leisure cnetre on a wednesday. My DC have been told they can stop when they can

1. Swim at least 100m without stopping, any stroke on their front
2. Can do backstroke and/or manouvre on back/float on back for at least 2 lengths without stopping
3. Tread water for at least 5 minutes, while I'm splashing them and causing waves etc (if we lived by the sea I'd make them do this in the sea).
4. Jump into the water with their clothes on and swm a length
5. Jump into the water with no goggles and not blocking their noses

And they need to be able to do all these things in one session with little or no breaks betwee.

DS stopped when he could do all of these but I still encourage/d regular swimming trips, trips to water parks etc, to maintain that level of confience. DD expects to be able to do this by the end of this year - she's in Stage 6 officially.

We stopped when DS was 10 and well into stage 6. He just stopped making progress and hated going, he can swim confidently, all I wanted really.

@stilleasy I'm just interested in opinions, seeing as we have different opinions in the house.

Gave up at same stage. Although I won't describe my dd has having lovely strokes 😄