Greatest Time To Get Swimming Lessons For Your Vulnerable Child

If you have been on the fence about when to get swimming lessons for your child, this is for you. If you have been putting them off, this is for you too! I was guilty of both. Every year since he was born I said I wanted lessons. However, my own fear around water held me back. But this fear was two-fold. On one hand, I feared getting lessons because he would get away from me. On the other, I feared not getting them because of the staggering number of drowning deaths especially for boys.

Water safety is at the top of a long list of mom struggles I’ve dealt with. 2023 is the year I let go of my own insecurities and finally set up swimming lessons for my child, and I highly recommend you do too! So when is it too late?

The Best Time To Get Lessons

According to HealthyChildren.org, by their 4th birthday, most children are ready for swim lessons. At that age, they can typically learn the basics of water survival skills. By age 5 or 6, majority of children in swim lessons master the basics plus the front crawl. We’ve all seen the videos of babies being thrown into pools and just knowing what to do. But if your child is a baby or toddler, there’s no need to feel behind. In fact, getting lessons too early could cause your child to need to be taught again later. If your child is starting school and hasn’t already started in a learn-to-swim program, now is the time!

So what does this mean for older kids? Well there isn’t an expiration date for learning to swim, as we’ll later discuss.

Where To Get Swimming Lessons

It’s not the easiest tasks to find swimming lessons near you. But it also isn’t the hardest, especially for children. There’s now places like Aqua-Tots that cater specifically to children’s need for swim lessons.

YMCA swim lessons are also really popular, especially if you already have a membership.

Adult Swimming Lessons

Let the shame go and get yourself help. It can be difficult to identify places that offer very beginner level swim lessons for adults but it’s worth the search!

Don’t forget to make time to get them for yourself as well. Often times, as parents, we try to give our kids better than what we had or have. However, as an adult, it is time to heal yourself for yourself. There’s no need to do things for your child because it’s what you would have wanted, without also doing them for yourself. According to a 2017 article from USA Swimming, as many as a staggering 70% of black people cannot swim at all. That statistic is regardless of age, and the same article suggests Black children suffer drowning deaths at a more than 3:1 ratio than their White counterparts.

Remember, though, that swimming lessons are just one of several steps to protection needed to help prevent drowning. USA Swimming has teamed up with organizations like Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc. to bridge this gap, but you can do your part on a micro scale by helping yourself and your child learn to swim.

What age were you when you learned to swim? If you haven’t learned, do you plan to?