Yes, your kids go in the water when they're swimming

[raw456]

Most parents should be banned from swimming lessons. It can be hard enough on the child without the parent putting extra pressure on them.

My first water experience was at about 3 months of age. Some of the earliest photos of me are in or around pools/beach/lakes. Swimming was second nature to me. I dont swim much now (and I miss it) but I was damn good in my day.

Our kids will be taught as early as possible.

[Erin]

I used to swim all the time when I was younger. Then when I was about 14 or 15, I had a bad experience at Oceans of Fun in their wave pool.

I was in the deep end, and got tired, and could barely make it to the side of the pool. Got to the side of the pool, and couldnt pull myself out of the water, and the waves kept knocking me back and I kept losing my grip on the ladder.

I was almost directly below a (clueless) lifeguard. I was yelling and calling for help, but he was paying more attention to a bikini clad girl than watching his water. Another visitor to the park happened to notice me, and grabbed my hand, and yelled at the lifeguard that I was in trouble and got him over there to help pull me out of the water.

I was exhausted, couldnt move, and I'd swallowed half the pool. Ended up with some sort of bad cough from breathing some of the water in. Was sick for a week or two after that vacation.

I dont like crowded pools now, and I dont like open water in lakes or the ocean.

I did have a bad experience when I was 8 in a local YMCA swimming pool. kid that everyone had nicknamed "Fat Albert" jumped into the pool without looking and landed right on top of me. Stunned me out for a second and knocked the wind out of me. I "woke up" just as the lifeguard pulled me out of the pool. Couldnt breathe right away because the kid had pretty much kicked/hit me in the stomach with a knee/elbow when he jumped in. Scared the crap out of me, but for some reason then, it didnt bother me as much as the Oceans of Fun experience did.

[WhiteRose]

maybe it's because there was a responsible caring adult (read: lifeguard doing his/her duty) about?

[Teskeria]

My oldest daughter had this little round life jacket. (Basically the way it sat, it kept her upright in the water.) she would toddle (yep, barely walking) to the deep end, JUMP in, wiggle her way all the way to the shallow end, climb out, toddle to the deep end, repeat all day long.....
People would be a little worried the first time they saw her jump, until they realized, 1. I was right there, & 2. She was having a wonderful time.

[Lace Neil Singer]

My parents took me and my brothers into the pool with them, then after we could paddle on our own (ie, without inflatable swimming things on our arms), we'd be booked in for swimming lessons.

Not that they did me much good; no, I'm not afraid in the water, in fact I regularly swim forty lengths at the pool and will go into a rough sea fearlessly... just that I don't swim strokes, I doggy paddle. XD Crawl sends the water into my face and I never got the hang of breast stroke.

[fireheart]

Fortunately, the education department in SA provides swimming lessons for kids in Reception-Year 5 (so about 5-10? years old) and Aquatics in Years 6 and 7 (so around 11-13?). As parents weren't at the lessons, they were a lot less harassing.

When my sister and I began extra swimming lessons on the side, the parents had to sit on the benches or chairs, no walking around near the pool whatsoever. This was partially because some of the lessons were conducted with the instructor in the water, others weren't.

Needless to say, I can still swim these days...never quite got the hang of butterfly, but I can do the other strokes fine...

[Geek King]

Not that they did me much good; no, I'm not afraid in the water, in fact I regularly swim forty lengths at the pool and will go into a rough sea fearlessly... just that I don't swim strokes, I doggy paddle. XD Crawl sends the water into my face and I never got the hang of breast stroke.

Might I suggest the Sidestroke or the Backstroke then? Both keep the water out of your face if you are doing it right.

Video links for easier understanding:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYJ9kXbi-WI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CmM_Z3Zt5U

There is also a stroke you do on your back that has you moving both arms in synch, but I can't find video of it due to not being able to name the thing. Any of these will move you along faster than the doggie paddle, and probably give your muscles a better workout, besides.

[PepperElf]

No big deal, except she was holding her child under the water

that is scary. like CPS level scary

[Andara Bledin]

Crawl sends the water into my face and I never got the hang of breast stroke.

Nobody really taught you how to crawl, then. If you're doing it properly, your head is down, with your crown facing the direction you're swimming. You turn from side to side as you stroke, and pull your face up out of the water every other or 4th stroke, as necessary to breathe.

That's why lane markers are marked in different colors at different distances from the end of the pool; so you don't run head-first into the side while doing a crawl, or while doing the backstroke.

I used to be on a swim team in the summer. I specialized in backstroke, but also did some really basic diving.

^-.-^

[Bright_Star]

Whatever happened to putting a flotation device on a kid & letting them learn to swim at their own pace? I know a lot of people who learned to swim that way.

[Difdi]

My Mother insisted on making sure my little sister and I could swim. It took me an inordinately long time to learn, however. I owe my current swimming skills to this one swimming instructor though, who managed to figure out that I was allergic to chlorine. One pair of goggles later, and I learned quite rapidly...

[Sliceanddice]

*points to he rlocation tag*
i still dont believe there are people in the world who dont know how to swim or dont learn until age 13 or higher. when its 120 outside in the sade you like your pools.

[LadyAndreca]

I used to swim all the time when I was younger. Then when I was about 14 or 15, I had a bad experience at Oceans of Fun in their wave pool.

I was in the deep end, and got tired, and could barely make it to the side of the pool. Got to the side of the pool, and couldnt pull myself out of the water, and the waves kept knocking me back and I kept losing my grip on the ladder.

I was almost directly below a (clueless) lifeguard. I was yelling and calling for help, but he was paying more attention to a bikini clad girl than watching his water. Another visitor to the park happened to notice me, and grabbed my hand, and yelled at the lifeguard that I was in trouble and got him over there to help pull me out of the water.

I was exhausted, couldnt move, and I'd swallowed half the pool. Ended up with some sort of bad cough from breathing some of the water in. Was sick for a week or two after that vacation.

This happened to my sister while we were living in Germany--she couldn't swim but was happy to splash in the shallows, but the waves dragged her too deep. I TRIED to lie on the side and grab her, but she was just out of reach. Dad was too far and not looking our way (I did look!), and the lifeguard DIRECTLY ABOVE US was German so I couldn't explain what was wrong. I could swim (I'd had some lessons before we moved), so I figured if I could just grab her, I could pull her to the wall and she could edge back to the shallows.

Yeah, no...she panicked, latched onto me, and nearly drowned us both, except Dad was watching us closer than I thought. One minute I was fighting to get my head above water and the next Dad had each of us under an arm and was hauling us out of the water for a lecture and a time out.

Come to think of it, he's hauled two of my three brothers out of the lake our cabin is on too. Steven will be forever teased for telling him "Thank you! I was almost done drownding!"

But I think Dad taught us kids to swim the same way he taught the dog (poor thing was afraid of everything, including water, because her first owner abused her...we named her 'Phobia' for a reason!). Throw 'em in, watch to make sure they don't drown.

[tropicsgoddess]

Damn....from the way those parents act those kids would have some serious hydrophobia.

[Primer]

My first three years in existence were spent swimming in Puget Sound. I was born in Seattle, and my parents were sailboat nuts. We moved to Texas when I was 3, where I swam in Lake Worth, back to Washington, then back to Texas when I was 6. I did not dip a toe into a swimming pool until I was 6 and we lived in an apartment complex in Fort Worth. To this day, chlorinated water just doesn't feel "right" for swimming!