To those who don’t like the kid’s name, a warning: now that Hayden Panettiere’s a big star with Heroes (and being an attractive blonde), the name’s probably only going to get more popular.
Of my 4 sons, 3 loved the water and loved their baby swimming lessons (and, in case the non-parents don’t know, a swimming lesson in the morning guarantees a nice long nap in the afternoon). They did not cry, and they did not take official “swimming lessons” until they were 3 or 4, and those lessons started at square one, in the baby pool. But they were never uncomfortable.
My youngest was not comfortable in baby swim classes, screamed the one time I tried to do the underwater dip, and so I didn’t do it. He sat on the side for swimming lessons until he was about 7. Then, suddenly, he got over it, and went from the beginner swimming class to the advanced swimming class in about 8 months. Up to that point he did seem to have more fear of the water than his brothers, but he’s over it now.
Do you consider “releasing crocodiles into the pool” awful?
Hey man, I can’t tell you how many times the crocodile defense classes I had as a toddler have saved my ass. So, don’t judge, ok?
That’s what I thought. The idea was good, the execution seemed a little off.
That’s one baby that isn’t going to like swimming when he grows up.
She’ll spend her life wondering why she likes the desert so much.
I might have given the kid a bit more cooling off time, but did you see her flip right over on her back? I’m impressed. I could slink into my grave without ever caring for another catastrophic near drowning, you just don’t even want to know.
Well, the kid must not have been too terrified. At least she didn’t unleash the dreaded “brown cloud” into the pool.
On watching the video, I don’t think that was a regular swimming lesson, it was a water survival test on a kid who had learned all those skills over a period of time.
The woman in the water wasn’t the mother but the instructor, and I think the whole point was to have the kid upset, frightened and later tired, but to still be able to right themselves, get to the side, or get wet clothes off their face and body.
It was hard to watch, but the kid did amazingly well and didn’t panic - she did everything she was supposed to do. I think that if she had really panicked the test would have ended there, and she’d have gone back to the regular classes for a while.
If you’ve ever actually attended swim lessons, as I have, you’ll see kids of all ages who are terrified of the water. I’ve seen it all – kids crying, shaking, screaming, and clinging to their mothers as as if the water was some sort of monster. Should all these parents simply abandon the lessons because junior is irrationally afraid? No. Swimming is an essential skill for everyone and the earlier they learn, the better.
Wow, she really can swim and float. I’m impressed. I was expecting to be outraged, but I’m impressed. Accidents do happen even with supervision, and I think these skills could help her in a scenario where she only needs to float long enough to be reached by a supervising adult.
The kid floated - that means it’s a witch, right? Burn the witch!
If a kid is that panicked by water, the answer isn’t to just keep throwing them in. You modify the lesson to take things at their pace. My oldest son started lessons at 1. They started with a parent in the pool with them, just getting used to the water, having it dripped over their faces, etc. When the kids were about 2, the instructor took off their flotation bubbles and had them jump in off the side. It scared the crap out of every single kid. Obviously, they weren’t ready for that, so the instructor modified her lesson, got the kids back to being happy they were in the water, and a few months later, tried them again. By that time, they were almost all ready for it and the lessons moved on. The one kid who wasn’t ready was allowed to do modified jumping until he was comfortable.
You don’t have to torture people in order to get them to learn. I don’t think “tough love” has to be applied to every aspect of a kid’s life. If my kid was “crying, shaking, screaming, and clinging to [me]”, you better believe I wouldn’t allow his lesson to continue. I wouldn’t necessarily abandon all lessons, but I’d either change the nature of the lessons or wait until my child was a little older.
A few *months * later they were ready to try again? You’ve got to be kidding me.
I’d agree with that. For starters, that kid was seriously upset on a number of occasions during the “test”. 3’29" - Crying for help, 3’42" - calling for her mummy, 4’02", calling for her mummy again.
I’ve got a daughter the same age. We go swimming twice a week. We do a few little exercises and routines to build confidence. I’d say the ones in that video are counterproductive, and quite cruel.
Yes, as the credit at the beginning of the video said, it was her final test, not a regular lesson.
Personally, I don’t see anything wrong with teaching really little kids how to swim and float.
From my days teaching swimming lessons, one of the factors in which kids were terrified of the water was which kids had their mothers watching from the side of the pool. Time and again, the ones who freaked out the most were the ones who knew that mommy was watching. It was a PITA having mommy watching on the sidelines, and lessons were much more calm and effective in the pool I taught at that had no poolside seating (parents got to watch in a lobby from the other side of a big window). But kids occasionally freak out about everything; you just let them get over it, then move on.
However, this video? Empty outrage, here. I think the OP is projecting from her own experiences.
Nope. Not kidding. My kid (now 4) is a great swimmer now, is in the pool almost every day, and loves it. I don’t regret for one minute that swimming wasn’t turned into a traumatic event for him. My own mother, 63, still remembers her swimming lessons - her father repeatedly threw her in until she started swimming. It didn’t scar her for life or anything, but she still believes it was cruel and the wrong thing for her father to do. She’s never liked swimming, either.
I don’t know if it matters, but my son had his swim lessons in Australia (in a coastal town), where swimming is more of a sacred right of passage than a casual hobby. Surf clubs, water safety, and competitive swimming are things everyone is involved in. I have no doubt that the instruction my child received was designed to have the best outcomes for a lifetime of water enjoyment and safety.
Clearly some kids do take to it easily - this summer I saw a kid who couldn’t have been more than 3 yrs old dive off the board into the deep water and then swim to the side. That’s great.
And I won’t say kids should never be traumatized even briefly - you bet my kids cried when they got their vaccinations.
But the return on investment for this particular endeavor is pretty low, from what I’ve read. Both the American and Canadian Academies of Pediatrics caution that small children are not safe in water, even when they’ve had lessons. Given how many children drown in retention ponds each summer, is it really a good idea to get them over their fear of water? Seems to me like a healthy instinct.
What I think must be particularly baffling to a little 'un is the way everyone else is calm and smiling and clapping while she’s in an absolute panic. That’s how it was in the other video I saw, I don’t know if that’s what this video shows, but it’s my impression that’s how these lessons go. I REALLY don’t get that. If your kid was in trouble in the pool, you can bet your ass you’d be terrified and responsive to the child’s fear. How must it feel to be frightened and have nobody care.