Is the baby swimming class a "scam" or is it truly beneficial?

[happyfishcoco]

Is the baby swimming class a "scam" or is it truly beneficial? Can a 6-month-old baby really learn to swim? Some claim that a 6-week-old baby can start joining swimming classes. Moreover, there are a total of seven levels in baby swimming classes, followed by ten levels in toddler swimming classes, amounting to seventeen levels that take around four years to complete. Is it worthwhile to spend £2500 to learn swimming by the age of six? Are the initial seven levels in baby swimming classes of no use? as toddlers can directly join toddler swimming classes.
I'm wondering if anyone has experience with baby swim classes. is it worth anything?

The key there is the 2nd and 3rd didnt go swimming with you.

So any water confidence is a great start, but that can be playing in the water with you each week or going to a toddler payg session with woggles and floats or the expensive sessions. The point is that the expensive ones aren't giving any extra - the goal is fun and water confidence. Obviously it will over not going at all!

💯 this!
I did waterbabies and it was just all very stressful and unnecessary.. complete waste of money. Wait until they can talk and walk, 4/5 yrs old and start then. I have two competent swimmers now 12+

Oh sorry the 2nd and 3rd did go swimming with me, from a very early age. We just went at the weekends when DH could come with us as I couldn’t supervise them all on my own. Or DH and I would take it in turns to take them 1:1 at weekends. I just couldn’t take them to baby lessons as the ones near us were all weekdays and I had my toddlers with me. We’ve always swam lots with all of the children.
Either way though, my point was that it was worth it for us because we enjoyed it. I wasn’t doing it to make her an Olympic swimmer, it was just fun.

As to cost mine were babies in the time of Sure Start I think between £1-5 a go other times included with a gym membership. When I had 2 under 3 it was a nightmare of changing and running around in a wet towel and for 2 lessons and 2 sessions in the creche it was about £20 ( 2006 South London for refference)

Why should there even be an expectation that this is going to fast track them to Olympic swimming success or whatever?

It’s a baby class. It should be fun.

My older son didn’t start swimming lessons til Y1. By Y3 he was joining a club. At one point he was the fastest boy in his age group in his best event in the whole country. But he quit when national times threatened a move to even more relentless training.

i know that you don’t need baby swimming lessons to develop water confidence or to become really good at swimming. But it’s a nice thing to do with your baby if you want to and can afford it.

Indeed, having had a competitive swimmer - my goal is not to have another one. It’s a bloody nightmare and makes baby swimming seem incredibly cheap. Baby swimming is nice to do with DS3. He enjoys it. I enjoy it. There’s socialising with his friends in the cafe after the class. It’s nice. And that is the point.

You’ve said what I was trying to say, more eloquently. I didn’t go in order to gain any sort of competitive advantage for my child, I went before we enjoyed it. I looked forward to it every week, and my baby was always happy at lessons. I’m not sure you need any reason other than that, if you can afford it and want to do it.

This, they have a snack or a lovely breastfeed afterwards then have a really good sleep allowing you to have coffee/ lunch with the other "swim mums" that surely is the whole point.

I did water babies with both of mine, but they only lasted to about 1.5 to 2 years old. They both refused to continue. It's just another parent/baby class to go to. I find the only benefit for the child was they are happy to put their heads into the water when they started proper swimming classes. But I continued taking them to the leisure center pool after they stopped water babies. DC1 restarted when she was almost 5, and DC2 at 3.

Yes, that's what I did and I also taught my daughter to swim myself (although she attended weekly swimming classes when she was about 5 I found them pretty useless). I taught her myself by taking her swimming and on holidays. She's a very strong swimmer now.

We signed up for one 10 week session when my son was around 5 months old, we missed a couple lessons because we went on holidays for 2 weeks in the middle of the term.

My health insurance covers 70% of the costs of baby swimming classes so it was a very cheap activity for us to do and something different from the other baby classes. It was obvious to me going into it that my little 5 month old baby wasn't going to be learning to swim anytime soon so I didn't see it as a scam at all. We didn't stick with it because his nap schedule changed after that term was up and the class times didn't work for us anymore but enjoyed it while we went.

My son is 20 months old now and super confident in the water. Zero swimming ability but he absolutely loves being in the water, especially at the beach when there's waves throwing him around the place. If he slips and goes under water he never gets upset by it, we pull him out and he just wipes the water off his face and charges back into the waves laughing. He also loves jumping in to the pool and having us catch him. I don't attribute his love of the water or his confidence to the 7 or 8 lessons he had when he was very young though, some children will just enjoy it more than others.

You have to be realistic about baby classes, they're mostly just for fun and socialisation. My son started soccer lessons at 17 months, I'm not expecting him to be playing soccer matches by next year.

They might be some benefit for the mums but they are expensive money making schemes. I have shared a pool with many of these " classes" and it looks like money for old rope, splashing about in the water singing nursery rhymes. They don't do anything that you couldn't do with them yourself at the local pool and they are too young to learn to swim properly.

Having said that, I do believe in teaching them when young. I went swimming with our 2 year old granddaughter whilst her older brother had his swimming lessons. She started off terrified of water and wouldn't even go in the shower. Within a couple of months she was able to swim unaided. The staff at the centre were gobsmacked when she was able to demonstrate to the lifeguard that she could swim a length and didn't have to stay in the shallow pool.

I am no swimming expert and she was no prodigy. I believe that it was just the right time for her to learn.

We've done swimming classes from 3 weeks with DS, so covid aside, he's swam every week since he was that age. By his 4th birthday he could swim a width independently and is now focusing on technique and stamina.
By 2 I knew if he fell in a pool he could have turned around and found the side.
It's relaxing for babies and fun for toddlers and means they'll never have a fear of water as it's something they've always done.
Dd is on the same track and it's nice to see.

Expensive ? Had a Google this is Goswim's website, doesn't seem too extortionate....

Do you have any “Better” leisure centres near you? (The group’s name is Better.)

Those tend to be about £4 per lesson. We did those for years. We also did the expensive £20 ones. Same quality, really.

Everyone actives pricing for Queen Mother Centre Victoria

I do think it's worthwhile getting babies and toddlers used to water but you need to keep going at it, a minimum of once a month.

DS2 had a reasonable amount of confidence as a 2 yo in water, then beween colds over the winter & lockdown. He was hardly in a pool for 18 months, Scotland and stupid crazy rules, booking pools and no changing facilities.

I could get him into swimming lessons, in May 21, when he was 4, he had absolutely zero confidence. Took me a year, between lessons and eventually taking him weekly to get confidence back up to a point where he could actually learn.

3rd child didn't get baby swimming, got shoved in the council lessons as soon as he was old enough to do them without an adult. Can swim lengths aged 5.

Baby swimming is a nice thing for the parents, only do it if you enjoy it.

I think when they are babies it's nice if you can take them swimming and get them used to the water. DD1 didn't have swimming lessons until she was four or five, picked it up quickly and gave up when she could swim lengths comfortably. DD2 I signed her up for toddler classes, just because her big sister was learning really, but she still didn't pick it up really until she was the same age as DD1.

TBH I really fucking hated parent and toddler lessons and the whole stress of getting two of them ready plus me and then changed again. It was knackering, frantic and the pool had such ridiculously hot changing rooms that I'd feel like a melted jelly even in winter. It was better when it was just DD2 going and I didn't have to get in, and on a Saturday morning, and a different venue, instead of Friday afternoon.

If I had my time over again I'd just let them learn separately and start DD2 off at the same age as DD1 started- and not at that venue, and not on a Friday afternoon.

At my local leisure centre (Freedom leisure if anyone cares) for £44 a month would get baby swim classes, soft play, use of creche and adult classes for me as well as unlimited swimming and gym use. If I were on maternity leave I would think that was a good deal.

I did the council ones with one baby and not the other. Both are excellent swimmers now at 8 and 10 , got chosen for schools swimming gala.

Did baby swimming classes with first child. By the time #2 and 3 came along we couldn't manage the logistics ( or the price)
Very complicated doing lessons with 3 children and no support ( weekdays then, their dad at work)
We'd potter about at the pool/beach together at weekends.
All adults, all swim well. Granddaughter has done weekly lessons since she was tiny. Absolutely loves it and as a (so far) only, she'll continue I expect. We often go as a family at other times as well.
It's only a scam if you fall for the notion that if you don't start them as babies, they'll never learn

They might be some benefit for the mums but they are expensive money making schemes.

Yes. The pools run them because they are an income generating service that helps them to keep the pool up and running for the whole community. This is a good thing. Do you know how much it costs to operate a swimming pool?

No one is forcing anyone to use the service. Or claiming they are a necessity.

Nail salons are also expensive money making schemes and I can choose to just have short nails i do myself (do being cut when required). Maybe I’ll paint them if I can be arsed. But that doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with people who choose to spend their money on regular nail appointments. Or that it’s some sort of scam.

This is really interesting thread. Thanks for taking me out of mum guilt land. Have an 18 month old and didn't take her at first as they'd only let one parent go and she was such a wiggly baby the thought of changing her and getting myself dressed at the same time filled me with horror. Then the weekend classes are either full or in the afternoon which means we can't go out anywhere or meet friends or family for lunch etc. But she has been to the pool lots as her grandparents have a pool. I felt so bad she didn't have specific lessons but if it's just exposure to the water that's not an issue for her at all (she loves the water).

Thank you!!

I find the baby swim classes invaluable, mostly in terms of knowing what to do with a baby in the water and safety skills.

The first time we took my child swimming was on holiday aged 3 months and I was terrified, worried she'd drown, no idea how to hold her in a pool, certainly wouldn't have dreamed of putting her under the water.

Baby swimming classes mean that she goes underwater every week, and my husband and I are now very confident doing underwater with her when abroad etc.

We know different holds, we've got some fun rhymes to do with her, she's confident coming up to the surface, and she can hold onto the edge (now aged 1). She's great at kicking, and so confident in the water.

But also she loves it. It's her favourite thing of the week, and we both really look forward to it. She gets really excited whenever we get to the pool. We've made good friends with the other mums, we have a nice lunch afterwards. Also definitely there is the brilliant long nap after swimming (although nursery get the rewards of that now, but when she was tiny it was great).

She started at about 4 months, and we still go now even though she's at nursery and it's at an awkward time. It's super expensive, but would be one of the last things we gave up.

I never bothered with the underwater photoshoot though.

Yeah this is complete bollocks! I did expensive lessons with my first because we could afford it and it got me access to a lovely warm pool (a hydrotherapy one closed to the public). Swimming with a baby can be chilly for an adult as you’re not moving around much, let alone a baby. Later on with my younger children we went as a family to the municipal pool (lockdown permitting) and adults could tag team a length or two to keep warm. Being mollycoddled in a warm pool as a baby hasn’t held back my eldest at all.