Dillards 91: Increments of Change or Not?

[viii]

Swimming lessons will only get more expensive since the Canadian Red Cross is dropping their swim program in December. It's been running for 76 years and is the majority of how kids get swim lessons (around me anyway)

[SassyPants]

I am cruising through my 60s and grew up in a hot Summer locale. I literally knew NO person my age who did not know how to swim, regardless if they had formal lessons or not. Heck my dad who is almost 90 and who grew up in the same town knows how to swim, and I can guarantee you he did not have formal lessons.

[Mama Mia]

10 minutes ago, SassyPants said:

I am cruising through my 60s and grew up in a hot Summer locale. I literally knew NO person my age who did not know how to swim, regardless if they had formal lessons or not. Heck my dad who is almost 90 and who grew up in the same town knows how to swim, and I can guarantee you he did not have formal lessons.

Oh most people know how to swim where I am, it’s a beach and surf town. But the formal lesson thing (beyond possibly a session or two through parks and rec) seems more confined to people who are fairly well off and/or a few kids who get really into Jr Guards or a team. Most of the people I’ve known learn at the beach, or at a pool with family - usually apartment complex pools or occasionally the community pool.  I had one friend growing up with their own pool - they were the “rich kids” whose dad was a Dr. I was SO jealous. 

[Alisamer]

My sisters and I took a few weeks of swim lessons each summer when we were very young, like preschool and early elementary age. After that we had an above-ground pool in the backyard because having that was cheaper than taking three kids to a pool frequently. We were in the pool most of the summer. My mom has never been really comfortable in water since nearly drowning as a child, so she made sure we had lessons (while she wore floaties in the pool with us our whole childhood). I also took a beginning swim class in college hoping to get better at actual swim strokes, but the rest of the class was largely terrified of water so I got an easy A without much effort. Breaststroke is my preferred way to swim, but I can do others except butterfly.

None of us are terribly skilled swimmers but we are comfortable in the water which is the most important thing IMO. A person who panics at the idea of putting their face in the water is more likely to drown than someone who is relaxed and knows how to float, IMO, in a swimming pool situation. If my mom fell in the deep end of a pool, I'd worry, because she'd panic and flail. If I fell in the deep end of a pool, I'd just laugh and float around or swim to the side. I don't need to be able to put my feet down to be comfortable. I can swim well enough to get from one end of the pool to the other, swim well underwater, and am happy to jump off the high dive (back in the day when pools still had those). I'm not going to win any races, but I don't have to hang on to the edge or have floats or anything either.

I'm glad the Dillard kids are getting swim lessons. And that they aren't having to swim in ridiculous street clothes like so many fundie kids. 

[Glasgowghirl]

I don’t blame them for trying to get a deal, my local council gives discount lessons to parents on certain benefits and they also get a free pass to use at swimming. Primary schools have the option as well to do 12 weeks free lessons for children in usually the last year of primary. 

[SassyPants]

In the 60s and 70s, we took lessons all summer long. The sessions were 10, 1 hour long lessons. The cost was 50 cents a session. Even my parents could afford that fee. Classes were held at the local HS and were provided by the Red Cross. Free swim at that pool was in the afternoons and cost 10 cents too-

[kmachete14]

I live in the midwest and my husband is originally from NYC. Everyone we know learned to swim at the YMCA including our parents. Now that I have a child I see there are boutique baby swim schools with heated pools and such. Could be fun (we did it when she was a 6month old), but I still think YMCA swim lessons are a right of passage and a life saving skill and she will be enrolled when she's 4. 

[backyard sylph]

According to the Red Cross, slightly over half of Americans either can't swim at all, or only a little. 

And this is for a variety of reasons, one of which is simply never being near water. You'd have to work hard to get to some where I currently live, and people here don't tend to have money to join a pool that doesn't actually exist.

I've had two houses with pools, and I've lived on the Lake Michigan shore and the New Jersey shore, but I'm still aware that many millions of people live where that's unusual and where you don't just go to the pond, lake, river, or shore, because there aren't any nearby.  

Edited April 6, 2022 by backyard sylph
Detail

[GuineaPigCourtship]

I looked into swim lessons a few months ago when my daughter was still <6 months and didn't find anything available.  You all inspired me to look again, and I got her signed up for a mommy and me class starting next week.  I am ready to die of cuteness because I had her in a pool last summer and she LOVED it.  She used her floatie to get away from me for her first tastes of freedom in a friend's above ground pool before she was crawling.

There is a great video where I make a terrible pun and she looks at me and then starts paddling away as hard as possible.  Anyway, thanks for the inspiration! I look forward to lowering her risk of drowning and also enjoying ourselves in the process.

Edited April 6, 2022 by GuineaPigCourtship
riffles

[HeartsAFundie]

My son learned how to swim at summer camp and had the good fortune to hone his learned skills at my parents' house on the weekends.  They have a small inground pool which only goes up to 5 feet at the deep end.    

Our local YMCA summer camps offer swimming lessons at each location. Plus the YMCA offers financial aid for those who otherwise could not afford the camp tuition.    State subsidized vouchers are also accepted as a form of tuition payment.

https://ymcasouthcoast.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/2021_CampFinancialAidForm_Fillable.pdf

 

  

Edited April 6, 2022 by HeartsAFundie

[Father Son Holy Goat]

I learned at the high school one town over. We had swim lessons three days a week, though I don’t know how many weeks the sessions ran I think it was 3? I also don’t know how much it cost but it couldn’t have been much. 

[SweetLaurel]

 I grew up in a very rural midwest area.  We thought pools in schools was a made up thing to haze freshmen.  We did have farm ponds, but you know, had to share them with the cows.   The occasional creek.  One public pool in a fifty mile radius.   We did go to a lake  occasonally, and my dad taught us all to swim by the time honored method of throwing us off the fishing dock.  Lessons? We didn't need no stinking lessons! Ask him! 

[urban teacher]

California kid here. Swimming lessons in summer in local pool but swam in Sierra lakes. 
However, my grandmother started swimming lessons in the bay after a child drowned from one of the local ranches. She was determined to prevent any more drownings. The program grew so much that by the time she died, she had 2 swimming instructors and a bunch of kids. 
All with chattering teeth because Norhern CA in summer can still be hella cold.

[Born Skeptic]

On 4/3/2022 at 4:20 PM, adidas said:

I agree that any child growing up near water (especially in the US where pool fence rules are non existent) should be taught to swim … and I know I’m being pedantic in my next point but swimming is very different to life saving. They should be taught rescue and survival skills too. I’ve taught both (lots of uni kids in Australia are certified with Austswim and have a bronze medallion) and sometimes the kids who excel in swimming fail the life saving course because very different skills are involved in the two disciplines.

Your point that someone who can only dog paddle and float is unlikely to be able to save themselves in an aquatic incident is spot on. 

And why do you believe this?  In the US, pool fence rules are set by either the state or local government.  The vast majority do in fact require fences around residential pools.  Additionally, it is virtually impossible to obtain homeowners insurance on a house with an unsecured pool.  While a few people may skirt the requirement by putting in an above ground pool and not fencing it in, it is generally not legal and is certainly not the norm.  Where I currently live, my pool must be fenced or screened (outside) and secured from inside the home by either a fence, locks, and/or alarms.  

[backyard sylph]

23 minutes ago, Born Skeptic said:

And why do you believe this?  In the US, pool fence rules are set by either the state or local government.  The vast majority do in fact require fences around residential pools.  Additionally, it is virtually impossible to obtain homeowners insurance on a house with an unsecured pool.  While a few people may skirt the requirement by putting in an above ground pool and not fencing it in, it is generally not legal and is certainly not the norm.  Where I currently live, my pool must be fenced or screened (outside) and secured from inside the home by either a fence, locks, and/or alarms.  

Yes! I mentioned the same thing a short time ago when someone else said we don't have any rules about that here, probably. "Alyssa doesn't appear to have a fence and thus the other 10.4 million people in the U.S. with pools don't have to?" 

[Cam]

I live in a mid-west state. During the pandemic summer of 2020, the public pool where we always get a pass was closed. So we bought an above ground 10 foot diameter pool for our backyard. It was 30 inches high. Where we live, code required us to have a fence at least four feet high around the pool. We were only going to have it for one summer so we didn’t want permanent fencing.

First, we chose a corner of the yard by the house to put the pool. Then, even tho at first my husband scoffed at my suggestion, we got chicken wire and posts, attached one side of it to our privacy fence then stretched it over to the side of the porch. This created a fenced in triangle where the pool sat. Once we started installing it, it was kind of fun deciding how to create an access point and how to properly keep the fence closed and locked when we were not using it. I insisted this part not be cumbersome but be both user friendly and safe. We were rather proud of ourselves because it worked well the whole summer. We have a pretty nice house and initially the hubs thought the chicken wire was tacky, but I just laughed about it and told him were were embracing our trashy side. 

 

Edited April 7, 2022 by Cam

[CanadianMamam]

On 4/3/2022 at 7:08 PM, Mama Mia said:

Did all of you have formal swimming lessons? Most people I know who took any kind of swimming lessons took one or two 4 week, 90 minutes, a couple days a week lessons over a summer or two — if that. Hardly enough to make anyone a proficient swimmer. And a few people did those parent/baby classes or got more into it and did Jr Guards. — but there certainly wasn’t some universal that kids took swim lessons. In my generation, or my kids, or now my grandkids. How common is this?

I took lessons from the time I was a toddler until I was a teenager. I got to the top level. I took lessons once a week in the winter (indoor pool, nearest big town) and every day in the summer (local outdoor pool). I did swim team when I was older. From grade 4-8 my school offered optional swim lessons in the winter (at the indoor pool in the net town) and I did those in addition to my normal swimming lessons. We also went swimming nearly every day in the summer as a family. I would say 90% of my classmates took the same level of lessons. 
 

My kids have been in swimming since babyhood, same schedule as I was, weekly in the winter and every day in the summer. My SIL and my mom both have pools, we live on the river and have an inflatable pool, we often vacation at places with pools, to us swimming is an essential skill. All my friends have their kids in swimming as well.

On 4/3/2022 at 7:08 PM, Mama Mia said:

 

On 4/3/2022 at 7:08 PM, Mama Mia said:

On 4/3/2022 at 7:08 PM, Mama Mia said:

 

On 4/3/2022 at 7:08 PM, Mama Mia said:

 

 

 

Edited April 7, 2022 by CanadianMamam
Posted four times

[Audrey2]

16 hours ago, SweetLaurel said:

 I grew up in a very rural midwest area.  We thought pools in schools was a made up thing to haze freshmen.  We did have farm ponds, but you know, had to share them with the cows.   The occasional creek.  One public pool in a fifty mile radius.   We did go to a lake  occasonally, and my dad taught us all to swim by the time honored method of throwing us off the fishing dock.  Lessons? We didn't need no stinking lessons! Ask him! 

You had me scared until I saw the one public pool in a 50 mile radius part. At my high school also in the midwest, we used to tell freshmen that there was a swimming pool under the gym floor and if you stopped by it 4:30 they would retract the gym floor and you could go swimming.

[MsThibodeaux]

My high school, in the SF Bay Area, did not have academic exit exams.  But we did have to pass a swimming test to graduate.  Swimming was a regular part of PE.

[theotherelise]

I'm 32 and I don't know how to swim. My mom did send me for a one week lessons thing one summer when I was about 5, but I was terrified of the diving board and after they forced me to jump off of it, I quit. I've cobbled together some very very poor doggy paddling skills since then, but I would never say I know how to swim. We were pretty tight on money growing up in St. Louis and only went to the city pool in the summer a couple times.

I've got my 2 year old signed up for an intro to water or whatever class this summer. It's 8 sessions over 2 weeks. The classes where I live fill up immediately and you have to basically have an alarm for when the registration opens to get a spot. 

As someone else upthread mentioned, the past two years has not been easy for these kinds of things. Jill and Derick were pretty respectful of covid guidelines. Israel turned 6 at the start of the US pandemic and Sam was 3 and a half. 

[libgirl2]

On 4/7/2022 at 7:14 AM, Born Skeptic said:

And why do you believe this?  In the US, pool fence rules are set by either the state or local government.  The vast majority do in fact require fences around residential pools.  Additionally, it is virtually impossible to obtain homeowners insurance on a house with an unsecured pool.  While a few people may skirt the requirement by putting in an above ground pool and not fencing it in, it is generally not legal and is certainly not the norm.  Where I currently live, my pool must be fenced or screened (outside) and secured from inside the home by either a fence, locks, and/or alarms.  

Growing up, we had an in ground pool and had to have a 6 foot fence. We ended up just installing it around our back yard.  My friend has an above ground and has a fence around the pool itself with a lock on the gate to get in. 

We are in Illinois. 

14 hours ago, Audrey2 said:

You had me scared until I saw the one public pool in a 50 mile radius part. At my high school also in the midwest, we used to tell freshmen that there was a swimming pool under the gym floor and if you stopped by it 4:30 they would retract the gym floor and you could go swimming.

that is what they used to tell us! 

[waltraute]

2 hours ago, theotherelise said:

I've got my 2 year old signed up for an intro to water or whatever class this summer. It's 8 sessions over 2 weeks. The classes where I live fill up immediately and you have to basically have an alarm for when the registration opens to get a spot. 

As someone else upthread mentioned, the past two years has not been easy for these kinds of things. Jill and Derick were pretty respectful of covid guidelines. Israel turned 6 at the start of the US pandemic and Sam was 3 and a half. 

Our local public pools (YMCA and high school) were closed for well over a year. When the Y opened back up, only the gym was available, not the pool. It's only recently that swim lessons have resumed, and it might as well be on a lottery system it's that difficult to secure a spot.

[AprilQuilt]

19 hours ago, Audrey2 said:

You had me scared until I saw the one public pool in a 50 mile radius part. At my high school also in the midwest, we used to tell freshmen that there was a swimming pool under the gym floor and if you stopped by it 4:30 they would retract the gym floor and you could go swimming.

It's a Wonderful Life!

[cacophony_grey]

On 4/7/2022 at 8:24 PM, Audrey2 said:

You had me scared until I saw the one public pool in a 50 mile radius part. At my high school also in the midwest, we used to tell freshmen that there was a swimming pool under the gym floor and if you stopped by it 4:30 they would retract the gym floor and you could go swimming.

We told freshmen the pool was on the roof, but to avoid overcrowding, the school decided to limit its use to upperclassmen.

Edited April 9, 2022 by cacophony_grey
clarity

[indianabones]

I grew up in Arizona, where everyone had a pool, and I can't remember ever not knowing how to swim. Plus all of our vacations were to the beach (either Florida or Mexico) and we'd swim in the ocean there. I was on a "swim team" (we didn't actually compete) when I was 8, but I never felt comfortable with diving so that didn't last for very long.