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

[Pagan]

*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.

Well, they could use the argument that they, like us, are in a land-locked desert. Why should they learn to swim? Of course, that would be ignoring the lakes that we have....

[EricKei]

I'll echo the "I don't remember even NOT being able to swim" thought. Granted, I haven't gone swimming in ages, but I'd like to take it up again. Used to be on a swim-team in Elementary School. I wasn't good enough to win anything, but I enjoyed swimming. Hated the loud starter guns, tho >_<

[thelastspartan]

I'm 14 and never learned how to swim

[Andara Bledin]

I'm 14 and never learned how to swim

It's not too late to do so, now.

It's actually not that hard, as long as you don't let yourself be afraid of the water. Respect it for what it is, and then learn how to work in it as an environment.

Plus, as long as you control your own apatite, swimming is the best for exercise. Water leeches heat, though, and while it burns more calories to stay warm, it also makes you hungry.

^-.-^

[BookstoreEscapee]

My aunt and uncle have an inground pool in their backyard, and as a result all 6 of their grandchildren were in the pool every summer from the time they could hold their own heads up.

We had an aboveground pool when I was a kid, and my neighbor's daughter taught us how to swim (I was about 4 when I learned). I'm not crazy about the ocean or lakes (I prefer pools where I can see the bottom), and I don't get in the water much these days, but I do know how to swim, and if I should ever have kids, they will learn early how to handle themselves in the water.

[hinakiba777]

Okay seriously someone needs to call child protective services on the woman. REALLY.

When I was in grade 5 there was mandatory swim classes. For the first few weeks everyone who couldn't swim would be learning, while the others played games. After that we would do other stuff. However, the instructors didn't specify stroke when they asked everyone to show if they could swim or not. I know how to do a front crawl, iffy on the back, but I liked to frog kick. So since they never told me what to do, I frog kicked. It was decided I couldn't swim and i had to spend nearly a month getting swimming lessons. I was very angry.

Second, story. So I learned to swim in the Atlantic ocean. So my dad had me in a life jacket at all times. Except at some of the pools, where he would let me just swim normally. His only rule was if I went into the Olympic sized pool at the high school I had to wear my life jacket. He made sure this was okay with the lifeguards. However, one day when I was seven, he didn't feel like joining me in the pool. He said I could go alone and he'd just watch form the observation room.

So I played in the kiddie poor for a while, but I eventually felt crowded and wanted to really swim. Now, always swimming with the life jacket made me awkward above water. However, if I swam below water I was like a fish. Anyway, i go to get into the deep end and the life guard informs me that you can only enter the adult pool with a life vest if you are with a parent. I point to my dad, and the lifeguard shakes his head. He explains my dad would have to be down here for me to wear the life vest. So I shrugged off the life vest and dove in. I pretty much stayed under except to suck in a breathe every few minutes. I had two life guards watching me the whole time. Dad thought it was hilarious.

[Erin]

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.

You know what tho, a few years later when I was a senior in high school, I taught about 7 or 8 inner city girls who'd never been swimming (sophomores and juniors, maybe a couple of seniors) how to swim in gym class. My high school had a great olympic sized pool, AND a dive pool. I took swimming for my gym class for the last semester of my first year of being a senior (I'd transferred from a catholic school, and they didnt tell me my religion credits didnt transfer till a month before graduation)

My 2nd yr of being a senior, I took swimming the entire year except for the one quarter of archery that I did. I cant swim in anything that has big waves, but I'm a fish in an indoor swimming pool. First quarter, my teacher let me and a few others swim in the dive pool while she was teaching the kids who didnt know how to swim.

I got bored, and offered to help her teach some of the more timid girls how to swim. My way of doing that, was the first few days, all they had to do was walk in the shallow end. They could dunk their heads, do whatever they wanted. But then they had to put their face in the water if they hadnt already. I didnt force anyone, and if they couldnt do it, then I'd just have them walk around in the water or use a float or something. My teacher said she liked how I would just stand there and talk to them while they got used to the water. I didnt just stand there, I'd be swimming around and having fun. Most of them could at least tread water by the end of the semester, and some were dog paddling or just floating on their back. My teacher just wanted them to have some basics down, didnt require that they actually swim. It was fun teaching them.

Only time that I remember liking gym classes my entire school life. Except for that archery class.