Teacher wearing bikini in swimming pool

[SweetSurrender]

Hello everyone, I'm new here - this looks like such a lovely community here, and I look forward to participating in many discussions here! I joined because I have a question to ask.

My child (8 years old boy) went on a trip a couple of weeks ago with his school to a swimming pool. They had qualified instructors outside the pool watching the children, but their teacher chose to go into the pool with them.

My boy told me that their teacher was wearing a very revealing bikini (not a sport one - something like this - www.summerinstyle.eu/cache/30b5e2199cc8f5d06d05de6bb991f9ed93d13a03.jpg ) - which was very surprising.

• do you think this is appropriate for a teacher to wear during school time?

[thaliablogs]

I don't think this is such a ridiculous question, much less so than the pretty teacher one which I assume is the one midnite is referring to. Perfectly reasonable to ask. I think it is an odd choice if you are working in the pool, swimming teachers don't generally wear them, as you can both pop out of the top or have the bottoms push down if you dive in. It's not horribly inappropriate but it is odd. Equally if my child asks a question I often turn to google to help us both understand it, esp if you don't believe they are getting it quite right which may well have been the case here.

Sorry OP that you got a roasting but at least you have now been properly inducted!

[SoupDragon]

We did the common sense thing - we looked on Google and he showed me what (in his mind) it looked like

Well, no. The common sense thing would have been to leave it.

I imagine she did look great in it and perhaps that's why my son noticed it to begin with. I wouldn't be terribly surprised if him and his friends were talking about it, to be honest.

Really? At 8?? Is that normal? None of my boys would have noticed.

[exoticfruits]

If I had taken it up and expected my 8yr old to google swim suits with me he would definitely have thought me batty!
Common sense is definitely to leave it.

[TondelayoSchwarzkopf]

I think it's far, far weirder that you sat looking at google images of bikinis with your 8 yr old son, than his teacher chose to wear one.

Quite.

[Pagwatch]

[boggle] at googling bikinis .

[Pagwatch]

[boggle] at googling bikinis .

[cory]

1. How did he know what the bikini looked like? We did the common sense thing - we looked on Google and he showed me what (in his mind) it looked like.
   

Sorry to disillusion you but this is not the common sense approach to your son coming home puzzled by his teacher's swimming costume.

Googling female costumes for revealingness is not the way to handle his incipient ambiguity about the female body. I'd keep an eye on what he does with that computer over the next few years, now that you've set him an example that is, quite frankly, not brilliant.

The common sense approach would go something like this:

"Yes dear, women wear different kinds of swimming costumes and this is probably the one she had in her cupboard. Now, what did you do at the swimming pool?"

In fact, I find "yes dear" is one of the most essential tools of parenting. Start practising now.

[cory]

cross-posted with SoupDragon, exotic and Pag.

I find the whole googling thing creepy, actually.

[FormaLurka]

When DS was 8 his nanny took him and DD swimming wearing something similar. It didn't make an impression on DS. I only knew about it because I saw it hanging out to dry at home.

It didn't bother me when he was 8. It would bother me today.

[FormaLurka]

...having said that, the swimming teachers at our club wear a one-piece, usually with a T Shirt on top.

[cory]

I now have visions of the OP's ds setting out on the path his mother has so obligingly suggested to him.

-Cor, that TA has big boobs. I wonder if that's normal. Let's google "boobs".

-I saw Katie's knickers when she did a handstand. Let's google "knickers".

[twosmallbuttons]

It's very odd that OP is encouraging her 8yo DS to decide what is or isn't appropriate clothing for a grown adult woman

[BetsyBoop]

I think it's far, far weirder that you sat looking at google images of bikinis with your 8 yr old son, than his teacher chose to wear one.

^^this

[CoralQueen]

I am a swimming teacher myself and in the pool we wear a swimming costume with top and shorts over it. Younger more inexperienced swimmers tend to grab hold of whatever they can, hence wearing the top, but kids of 8 years old are unlikely to do that.

I don't think there was anything wrong with her wearing a bikini, but it may have been more practical and professional for her to have worn a swimming costume.

[ExcuseTypos]

Coral-"I don't think there was anything wrong with her wearing a bikini, but it may have been more practical and professional for her to have worn a swimming costume."

I agree.

However OP, don't sit googling "women in bikinis" with your son. It's a rather strange thing to do.

[cory]

If I were the teacher in charge of teaching internet safety to the OP's ds's school I would be tearing my hair out.

[5madthings]

What Cory has said.

forma you say it wouldn't have bothered you when your son was eight, but it would now? Why is that? Is it to do with the age of your son?

[PelvicFloorClenchReminder]

OP if your 8 year old is at the stage of noticing women in bikinis that way, perhaps you should be teaching him not to sexualise normal human body parts, rather than teaching him that it's wrong.

[SoggySummer]

I used to love the fact my DC teachers would actually get in the pool with the children at swimming lessons at the local pool run by leisure centre staff. I used to think it was nice they had someone familiar in the water with them (esp as DD was a nervous swimmer).

What did the teachers wear in the pool??? I cannot tell you.

I think its bizarre that your son picked up on it enough to talk about his teachers bikini.

I dont see the problem at all - lots of people swim in bikinis. I dont because I dont have the body but bikinis are swim wear.

[ChickensHaveNoEyebrows]

I have two DS's. At 8, the limit of their interest in girls went along the lines of 'Ewwwww, girls smell'. They certainly wouldn't have noticed what a grown woman was wearing enough to comment on it. In fact, DS1 is now 12 and only just starting to notice that girls exist

[MidniteScribbler]

Can I add that, at our school at least, the classroom teacher is not officially acting as the responsible teacher during swimming lessons. That is the swimming teacher for that lesson period. So we are not actually required to be in the pool with the students, nor are we taking any teaching responsibility at that time. By rights, I could be in the staff room drinking coffee. Most of us get in just because it's bloody hot where we live, and a dip in the pool in the middle of the school day is a welcome break from the heat. We also like to be on hand because we usually know the personalities and needs of our students and it never hurts to have an extra set of eyes when dealing with children and swimming pools. And besides that, I actually enjoy having a bit of fun with the students outside of the classroom for the free swim period of the class. What that teacher wears, assuming it covers all of the required "bits" is less important than a swimming teacher who is effectively teaching at that time and may need to be demonstrating strokes or other techniques so will be more "physical" than those of us floating around the edges of the class.

In all honestly, I really think you need to examine your (and your son's) reaction to this OP. Would you have a problem with a male teacher in board shorts, or even speedos? Sitting with your son and googling women in bikinis to determine the appropriate level of modesty of a swimsuit for a teacher is actually something you need to be seriously examining.

[lollylaughs]

In all honesty OP I think the issue about her wearing the bikini is more your issue than your ds's issue.

Yes he mentioned that she was wearing one which imo is a little out of the ordinary (have dc who have done swimming lessons for years). If this was the issue here and one of my dc instructors wore one and he told me, I would react like "oh ok, maybe she didn't have her full costume there today" or something along those lines.

But your reaction to it was to seemingly interrogate the boy into what the bikini looked like and then go that step further to google it and ask him to point out the type she was wearing. What does it matter? And then to specifically join a parenting site and post about it.....Why have you made such a big issue about it?

[SuperiorCat]

Just so we don't all seem hostile...could it be the child has only ever seen the OP in a swimming costume so didn't know what a bikini was and the conversation have went like this....

OPs DS "we went swimming today and Mrs Teacher got in the pool but she wasn't wearing a swimming costume"

OP "What? She must have worn something surely? Shorts and a t-shirt?"

OPs DS "No she was wearing her underwear"

OP "Do you mean a bikini?"

OPs DS "Whats a bikini?"

OP "Hang on I'll show you.."

[LadyClariceCannockMonty]

'She is more covered up than a male teacher would have been in swimming trunks.'

THIS THIS THIS

I think a key to the OP's issue ? cos it ain't her son's issue ? also lies in this sentence, specifically the bit in brackets:
'he showed me what (in his mind) it looked like.'

[jellybeans]

Wouldn't bother me at all.