Toddler swim lessons - waste of time?

[riverofjordan]

My MIL has said she's been thinking our almost 2 year old ought to be having swim lessons. It's quite a craze with the mums I know and I've always thought it seemed pointless from an actual swimming point of view, all their kids do is bob up and down and blow bubbles etc. Obviously a fun and nice thing to do and a fairly cheap outing at our local council leisure centre (way less than water babies etc), but not actually teaching the kids swimming?

It teaches them confidence in the water, so when the time comes they can learn to swim quickly without having to first get used to the water, but in that sense it wouldn't make any difference whether they started at 2.5 or 3.5 rather than babies?

We live on the coast and toddler has been very confident in the sea so far. He also rolls and splashes and puts his head underwater in our big bath (scared the daylights out of me). Definitely not lacking confidence around water. I think if he started lessons about 3yo he would pick it up fine.

She's offered to pay for them and take him to them so in one sense I should probably just say ok fine 😆 But I'm just feeling like a shit neglectful parent I guess and wondering if I'm in the right about this. Also I know they don't really have the money to throw around so I would feel bad to say yes please if it's totally pointless - the cheapest council course is £60 for 10 weeks so adds up if doing it long term.

So humour me, did you do baby/toddler swim lessons? Is there any point before age 3ish? If they did learn to swim , do you then have to carry lessons on for a few years so they keep practising the skills?

Wow sorry that was so long over basically nothing

Fairly pointless until they are 4 to organise lessons. A splash around with family is good to make them confident in the water. But they can’t learnt to swim really until 4ish

Really disagree with this. I started my girls because asap at my parents’ house there is a pool. I really think the earlier the better. They were both shark tested / free swimmers / squad swimmers early primary age. So glad we got it done earlier.

Sorry cannot edit to correct typos

Interesting! My friends who have all done lessons from 1-4 years old have children who can swim the same amount or less than mine who started at 4yo. Their children seem to have less swimming skills?!

Both mine did baby swimming from 3 months, one carried on and did lessons and one stopped at 1 when I went back to work. The DS who has done lessons is super confident in the water, loves swimming and now at 3 does lessons without a parent in the water. He can swim for short periods without flotation but has a flotation device for his lessons. I would say go for it. They love it and it was way easier than getting my older one to start swimming lessons when older.

Both mine did baby swimming from 3 months, one carried on and did lessons and one stopped at 1 when I went back to work. The DS who has done lessons is super confident in the water, loves swimming and now at 3 does lessons without a parent in the water. He can swim for short periods without flotation but has a flotation device for his lessons. I would say go for it. They love it and it was way easier than getting my older one to start swimming lessons when older.

I suppose what I really want to know is, if the worst happened and he fell in someone's pool or whatever without us noticing (sorry hardly bears talking about), would he actually be able to do anything to help himself? Surely they don't have the mental ability to think 'im in a difficult situation I need to float on my back' if they've stumbled into a pool. Especially if it's cold etc.

MIL is scaremongering saying what if something happened he wouldn't know what to do but I'm thinking surely they can't actually learn those kind of skills at age 2?

My concern is if people think he's having 'swimming' lessons they'll be less cautious about supervising him....

Sorry hope that makes sense? Sorry if it's a sensitive topic 🤦🏽‍♀️

Sorry I'm not being pedantic but early primary age is the same as 4yo surely? Or what age did you mean?

I cant speak to your friends or social circles. I didnt send mine to compete with other people. I did it because to me it was much easier when they were smaller, more compliant if you like. They slept well after. And they were water safe at my parents’ house and holidays were much less stressful when everyone can swim.

I am happy with my children’s swimming skills - I really dont benchmark against other families.

I honestly don't think there's any chance of him lacking confidence in water, if anything he needs taming down. Our family all surf and are in the sea even in cold weather and friends have a pool.

Yeah so what I meant was, the swim lessons seem pointless to me for really small children as they don’t progress any faster than children who haven’t had lessons. So you may as well start at 4 when their ability to learn to swim kicks in a bit more

I agree, I can think of a dozen children who had weekly swimming lessons from babyhood and are no further on at about Y2 than those who started in Reception or Y1. I'd only do it if you enjoy it yourself.

My youngest is 3 so a bit older than yours but he did run and trip in a big and deep puddle/rock pool at the seaside this summer. He actually could have stood up if he had thought about it (given he had just ran in) but he swam over to the side and grabbed hold of the rock, like he has been taught. It really made me pleased that he has had lessons as I know my oldest would have panicked.

I think we differ in that you seem concerned about progression. That was never my motivation. To you pointless, to me fun and beneficial way to spend an afternoon and more relaxed when we travel. I didnt snd dont care if they learnt faster or slower than anyone else. To be honest i find your take weird and unnecessarily competitive.

Also how long did you do lessons for in total? Just wondering how much roughly we can expect to shell out overall if we started them now.

Oh that's interesting, thanks. Yeah I reckon I'd definitely start at maybe 2.5 then but I just wasn't expecting it to be a big deal right now. Even if MIL takes him as she's offering I'd still have to buy and wash his gear and make sure he's ready for it and coordinate naps around it blah blah blah 🙃

Is he toilet trained? Now we are out of swim nappies it is just a pair of swim shorts and a towel so it’s very easy to pack and wash. Mine dropped his naps quite early so haven’t had to juggle naps for a while but they always sleep super well after swimming. I haven’t seen anyone say they regret swimming lessons so if someone wants to take him then you may as well!

For my eldest i would say 3 years with once a week lessons and us sometimes going swimming on weekends as a family.

My younger one was really impacted by lockdown ( everything cancelled) so we did self taught when we could and then 4-6 week intensive block lessons once lockdown was over.

Agree. I did baby swimming lessons with my eldest and it was fun and a sweet thing to do but did not teach him anything at all. Realised it was all for the parents not the babies.
Couldnt afford it (money or time) with youngest and she is swimming just fine now

Thanks, super helpful

Yeah I think it's a good idea

The earlier the better

We can drop in at our leisure centre pool whenever to just splash around over the winter so I should maybe make an effort to do that even if it's not worth signing up for organised classes. We're in the sea for most of the summer.

Swimming lessons are NEVER wasted.

They will save your life if needed.

Driving is more dangerous I think...

FYI i really wasnt a big fan of it initially - i hate gyms, changing rooms, showing my body etc but once they could go in by themselves it was so fine.

They sleep so well after.

I also was determined to break the stereotype that black people cant swim. So for me - the sooner the better.

Good luck whatever you decide.