Thread 53 - Covid GCSE Cohort - Happy New Year 2025 to our fab young people

[Delphigirl]

New thread! Looking forward to traversing 2025 with this fantastic group 🎉😘

@ExpensiveDecoration You're 13????

It's great you're a competent swimmer, at least you can enjoy some light water fun on holiday or jump in the pool when there's a heatwave. It's awful just standing there staring at the twinkling water when you're so hot but too scared to go in. I had no idea prescription goggles existed, it's fantastic you have that option, i imagine they cost an arm and a leg for you though.

@shimy Loving it is half the battle. Not to get personal but your physique may be making it harder. Those of us with a spare tyre and big boobs are naturally helped to float! Have you also tried aquafit? You don't have to be able to swim and also great for non-weight bearing exercise and some of those exercises will help you balance/float. Good luck.

I really hate swimming (unless it's floating around in the sun on holiday), and can just about manage doggy paddle.
Much to my shame I neglected swimming for my DC. They both had lessons, but neither excelled and DD hated it. She has always hated the cold, and I suspect her sight issues had something to do with it, although that didn't dawn in me until she was much older when we got some prescription goggles. Her prescription used to change significantly every 6-12 months though, so it was a huge cost to keep updating them, when she would do anything to avoid being in the pool.

I'm not a strong swimmer and stick to middle aged woman breaststroke with my head out of the water. I do like being in the water though and am excellent at floating! I need prescription goggles too really - definitely think that would help

I just buy -10 goggles as they are good enough to get me in and out of the pool safely and avoid hitting anyone, see the clock etc. I take my glasses to the poolside with my towel and put them on as soon as I get out. I am another who benefits from extra buoyancy in the mid-regions

Aqua fit is a good call, I don't go now because there are no classes at suitable times but it is great as a low impact safe way to exercise for either those with eg joint conditions or just returning to exercise, it's a great gateway to other classes too as your confidence grows. I started about 4 years ago post-covid then had a few PT sessions with my lovely aqua instructor in the gym which got me into that and I go to other dry classes now. I have a whole collection of old injuries to take care of but have got good at working round them.

I've done a bit of Aqua aerobics if that's the same as Aqua fit? infact it was what led me to biting the bullet and signing on for swimming classes. How big does the spare tyre have to be? Im 5ft 1, weight 60.5kg, so carrying at least a stone that should help with floating.

@Seeline Funy thing is i was determined that the ds's would learn how to swim and not be like me and dh. They must've done hundreds of lessons but were never any good at it. I noticed they were always held back and had to repeat the level they were in. They can swim now but neither is a strong swimmer and its a cause of a lot of anxiousness because online ds1, ds2 fancies himself as a 'surfer' type and has been on a surfer training course but its so worrying.
Im with your DD when it comes to the cold, that's why I'm doing now while the weather's warm. I couldn't bear the though of getting into a pool in winter.

Kudos to you @Shimy for the determination to crack it. I can ugly swim, head above water but if someone cuts me up or I end up in the deep end I cannot float or tread water and sink. I have circa 8 german scared young men to vouch for that in 1988 when I had to be resuscitated after I thought I could just 'wing it'.

DD was not a natural water baby but was lucky to be taught well in junior school, the teacher ran his own small swim club outside of school that started the competitive side of swimming. Even then she was told she wouldn't amount to much as she had a strange approach to instruction.

Hard work can sometimes override talent if talent doesn't work hard, especially in activities like swimming as the body goes through so much growing transition and swimmers who were superstars in the early years faded into other stuff/quit. It has left her with so much positive and the strong desire to help others get to the very minimum swimming standard to survive, I have past that moment but good to see others like Shimy enjoy the challenge.

I took mine to swimming lessons pretty much from babyhood. My eldest from 18 months when we moved to HK. She fell very silently into the Murray River once when she was chasing some ducks in Australia. She managed to kick her way up to the top of the water & didn't panic because she knew what to do.

My twins were always jumping into the water as they had absolutely no fear. The number of times i had to rescue them from drowning. And plenty of other kids as well.

It's one thing I will insist on with grandchildren.

You lot are making me laugh -'Middle aged woman breaststroke', 'Ugly swimming', didn't know swimming had so many categories.
Yes, I'm crackingon with, i have weekly lessons but go to the pool in between and practice on my own, splashing about and spluttering, i think the life guards know me now. Sometimes i see the little kids pointing...who cares. When we have our usual 'family achievements/ goals' meeting next January, I want to be able say i learnt how to swim.

The eyes are a challenge in pools, DD was circa -8 by 15 years old, and couldn't read the clock or exit the pool safely without putting on her glasses or relying on others to set her off on times.

She ended up lying to her optician and wore contacts under her goggles, so we had to pay a fortune in good fitting, high performance ones that didn't seep water. Ruled her out of water polo as you cannot wear goggles at all playing it.

She was a little worried last week in Marrakesh (more self conscious) to say to her erasmus group she would have to wear goggles when they went sea swimming. But there was then a rush by them all to go and get some, what a great idea that was, making her feel so much better.

@Cantonet What you described there of your DD 'silently' falling into the water, is actually terrifying to think of. Imagine if she couldn't swim! You would've been searching in all the wrong places not even imagining she's underwater. I agree it's a life skill and everyone should be learn to be a competent swimmer.

@ealingwestmum I'm glad your DD's group were such good sports and just joined in the spirit of it rather than being awkward. Id never thought about how sight might affect the ability to swim. First time i got in the chlorine irritated my eyes so much they were grainy andmy vision blurred for days afterwards so i can imagine what a challenge it would be for someone with existing eye problems.

Well done @shimy! That's amazing! I'm like @Seeline - always hated swimming, ever since I was made to jump in the deep end by a scary swimming teacher at 7! I don't even do middle aged woman swimming!

I just about managed to do my 10m and that was it, I've not been swimming as an adult except on one occasion, when ds was 6. He was just like me, absolutely terrified of the water, and we spent 3 years of swimming lessons, where he basically had one to one (the assistant focused on him) and every lesson involved 10-15 minutes of crying and persuasion to get into the water. I had a hunch maybe I should take him swimming - so I reluctantly did and he learned to swim in that one session with me, despite the fact I can barely swim myself! After that he flew, had no fear and did his 1500m a year or so later. Very odd!

Dd learned at 4 during swimming lessons, never had any fear and is a reasonable swimmer now, but she does say she feels she's not as strong a swimmer as her friends and it can be a pain on holiday when they're swimming in the sea.

DS won't sea swim - 'fish water' he calls it....!

So, so sensible @craggyrat. 5 out of 7 of the Morocco group have come back with some kind of E. coli strain. The insurance finally had to be activated for consult/ABs on Friday as DD was not being able to shake it off naturally 🤮

Oh no @ealingwestmum ! Hope she feels better soon

DD spends hours in the sea snorkeling with the fish. She's been scuba diving a couple of times in Greece (but that's an expensive hobby to encourage) She sent me some underwater pictures from her sea swimming adventures in Aberystwyth last week. That's far too cold for me! She spent several years planning to be a marine biologist so she could have a career swimming with turtles.
DS is spending his days swimming in a French lake - apparently it's nicer, cleaner and warmer than the old clay pit he used to swim in here. Probably a lot safer too.

DS used to hate going for swimming lessons. He called it the Drowning Pit. He actually loved it when he got there. He was the same with nursery, school, football.....maybe I should have read more into it and considered ADHD and anxiety back then 🤔

@mummyinbeds sounds fab. For DS if it's not chlorinated with lane markers and a scoreboard it's just not for him!

I'm not that keen on sea swimming (unless it's the Med and calm and warm). But lakes can be nice, I braved Loch Lomond last year, and a few years ago we stayed at Annecy in France and the lake was fabulous, so warm. But the eyesight thing is definitely a problem for all watersports including that sort of casual swimming. I'd like to try paddleboarding but you can hardly do that in goggles, they'd steam up and vision is pretty restricted. I'd rather not risk losing my glasses (I do wear those to pootle about in lakes and hotel pools etc). But that's a pain too as then I can't wear sunglasses (prescription ones aren't really feasible for me either). Contact lenses not safe in the water. I have been thinking about buying some dailies for this purpose though and chuck them as soon as I'm out (I normally wear monthlies). @mummyinbeds we are off to West Wales in a few weeks, probably won't be going in the sea!

I hope DD and friends make a speedy recovery @ealingwestmum

@ExpensiveDecoration watch out for the shark that's hanging about!

I hope dd gets better quickly @ealingwestmum .

@mummyinbeds snap, Ds hated nursery, school and football too! Lots of crying…he also got bullied in primary and we had to pull him out to home educate. We didn’t realise about the ADHD until year 8. But now he’s afraid of nothing and probably the most confident person i know, both physically and socially. I’m not sure how it happened! He was practising backflips in a reservoir yesterday 😬 I think it’s probably not allowed?

I prefer sea swimming (lived by the coast when primary school age) and DS has done life saving training so beaches feature in most of our holidays. Three years ago we took DS and friend on a seal snorkel safari off the Farne Islands. Same boat has been uploading videos of orca off the Farne Islands this week!

@ealingwestmum Hope they are all recovered for flight home.

I love swimming - would be great to live by the sea to swim there every day!
I have awful eyesight. When I was 18 I was on holiday happily swimming in the pool, oblivious to a drowning person next to me People who are very short sighted will understand when I say that because I couldn’t see, I never heard people shouting at me either to save him ! Someone else had to jump in to save them.

Wow remind me where she is @crazycrofter? Crazy prices but in a good way !