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Relationships Parents would you do this with your kids?

Floating is supposed to be easy and effortless. Meanwhile the kid is looking like he's having a panic attack the entire time. Doesn't look like he got enough training and confidence to graduate to this step. Experienced kids will voluntarily jump in the water and start swimming around. This one she had to throw in like a demon being exorcised in holy water. Must be some sort of almond mom variant that gets a kick out of putting their children through unnecessarily stressful situations "for their own good." The ideal in any kind of swimming learning is 0 trauma, otherwise they just won't touch the water at all as adults.
 
Renard said:
The ideal in any kind of swimming learning is 0 trauma, otherwise they just won't touch the water at all as adults.
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IMO it's a tough but necessary life lesson. You sink or you swim.

My biggest worry is that the kid will be terrified of water and will avoid swimming for the rest of his life, and losing his ability to swim when he needs it.
 
pugilistico said:
IMO it's a tough but necessary life lesson. You sink or you swim.

My biggest worry is that the kid will be terrified of water and will avoid swimming for the rest of his life, and losing his ability to swim when he needs it.
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It is absolutely true that you can just throw a kid in, trigger the trauma, and allow the kid to sink or swim and most will swim.

But it is also absolutely true a percent will go from scared to panic which can trigger a life long phobia that may prevent that child ever enjoying water or wanting to swim.

So while many will say 'it works for the majority... so why not do it', we can counter that with the method used in our volunteer swim club:

- get the child to love the water by holding them and playing with them in a pool
- get them to the point they gladly jump from the side in to the parent or instructors arms and allow them first to dip below the water (for increasing amounts of time) before bringing them up and playing
- now they love the water and are comfortable being submerged, get them floating on their back with help
- now they can jump from the side and flip to their back themselves with no trauma

And it is not like this took weeks. This was a day one program which did not teach the kid to swim, but how to survive a fall into the pool. Teaching them to swim came in the lessons that followed and depending on the child could take much longer.
 
As somebody who actually drowned as a toddler, I would have been fine with my parents doing this a couple of times before that.
 
Get To Da Choppa said:
That's weak sauce. Dropping him gently into the pool? Should've done it the Spartan way

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ChosenOne said:
It is absolutely true that you can just throw a kid in, trigger the trauma, and allow the kid to sink or swim and most will swim.

But it is also absolutely true a percent will go from scared to panic which can trigger a life long phobia that may prevent that child ever enjoying water or wanting to swim.

So while many will say 'it works for the majority... so why not do it', we can counter that with the method used in our volunteer swim club:

- get the child to love the water by holding them and playing with them in a pool
- get them to the point they gladly jump from the side in to the parent or instructors arms and allow them first to dip below the water (for increasing amounts of time) before bringing them up and playing
- now they love the water and are comfortable being submerged, get them floating on their back with help
- now they can jump from the side and flip to their back themselves with no trauma

And it is not like this took weeks. This was a day one program which did not teach the kid to swim, but how to survive a fall into the pool. Teaching them to swim came in the lessons that followed and depending on the child could take much longer.
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How to take a really simple teaching opportunity and turn it into a DEEPLY seeded psychological trauma and lifetime of anxiety and trust issues.
 
Simple Southerner said:


I wouldn't i mean damn there's gotta be better ways to teach your kids to swim right ?!
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It’s necessary if you own a pool. 350 kids a year drown in pools, and if you don’t own a pool, you don’t need to worry, but if you do, accidents happen.

This is not much different than how a swimming class would teach young kids how to swim. All of my kids have been through this from their swim instructor’s
 
This is psychopathic.
I could see the benefit of this in a post-apocalyptic Water World where it was a matter of survival because there was a great chance that child could find himself in some deep water. Or maybe some village in a very poor country where child drownings were a reality due to the conditions there.

But for this? There shouldn't be any situation where a child that young would be alone around a pool of water, if they are, you already fucked up majorly.
Whether or not this method is effective or not isn't the question. You can teach a child to properly swim without the trauma. Makes no sense why this would be your first choice to teach. Just comes across as lazy and attention seeking.
 
Renard said:
Floating is supposed to be easy and effortless. Meanwhile the kid is looking like he's having a panic attack the entire time. Doesn't look like he got enough training and confidence to graduate to this step. Experienced kids will voluntarily jump in the water and start swimming around. This one she had to throw in like a demon being exorcised in holy water. Must be some sort of almond mom variant that gets a kick out of putting their children through unnecessarily stressful situations "for their own good." The ideal in any kind of swimming learning is 0 trauma, otherwise they just won't touch the water at all as adults.
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In fairness most get over the trauma, via that method and do swim, but a good percent do not and while you may get them to a point they can save their own life, if they fall in a pool, they never want to go in water again, if given the option.

In our volunteer, 'toddler swim group', we had kids his age jumping from the side into the instructor or parents arms, in the pool usually within the hour. And as they were jumping in to a 'safe space' they really learned to enjoy it. Then the instructor would start to catch the kid jumping in but they would dip under the water as the kid also went under the water, before they pulled them up. You would give the kid a 'shocked face' and then laugh to acknowledge the shock the kid felt from going under water the first time. Then you teach them to float on their back while held. Then you take the hands away.

At that point you could get the kid to jump in and flip to his back and float and the entire lesson was an hour long one. that was it. That is if the kid did not show up terrified of water already.
 
pugilistico said:
IMO it's a tough but necessary life lesson. You sink or you swim.

My biggest worry is that the kid will be terrified of water and will avoid swimming for the rest of his life, and losing his ability to swim when he needs it.
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So do you think all the parents and swim programs that do not use that method and instead teach the kids to swim without putting them to the 'sink or swim' deliberate trauma test are somehow failing their kids?
 
SmilinDesperado said:
This is psychopathic.
I could see the benefit of this in a post-apocalyptic Water World where it was a matter of survival because there was a great chance that child could find himself in some deep water. Or maybe some village in a very poor country where child drownings were a reality due to the conditions there.

But for this? There shouldn't be any situation where a child that young would be alone around a pool of water, if they are, you already fucked up majorly.
Whether or not this method is effective or not isn't the question. You can teach a child to properly swim without the trauma. Makes no sense why this would be your first choice to teach. Just comes across as lazy and attention seeking.
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I think some parents, see it a parent flex. They feel it makes them look like an old school disciplinary, no coddling nonsense throwback, in opposition to today's 'weak', 'coddling' parents.

And while i do believe there are absolutely way too many 'weak' 'coddling' parents, i think do not think these people are the reasonable counter to them. They are the opposite problem in the spectrum, imo.
 
ChosenOne said:
I think some parents, see it a parent flex. They feel it makes them look like an old school disciplinary, no coddling nonsense throwback, in opposition to today's 'weak', 'coddling' parents.

And while i do believe there are absolutely way too many 'weak' 'coddling' parents, i think do not think these people are the reasonable counter to them. They are the opposite problem in the spectrum, imo.
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maybe it is, maybe it isnt, the local swim schools in california do this, and it's to teach the kids to float. A backyard pool is just as cruel when a kid accidentally falls in, sinks, and drowns.

part of the swim lesson is to get accidentally bumped into the pool and float, it is explained, and all of the parents are in on it, the instructor will make it happen, and this was before phones and recordings got really prevalent, 2010's
 
My youngest son is 5 and we just put him in swim classes since he was a toddler. Seemed like the better route but to each their own.
 
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