Anonymous
Post 05/31/2026 13:25     Subject: Kids being bad swimmers
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I prioritized swimming and had both kids pool safe by 3. If you kid is going to die, drowning is a very likely cause. It's like not using a carseat to not make sure they can swim.


Eh, it’s pretty easy to completely avoid unsupervised exposure to water. After watching friends do it with their toddlers I decided I didn’t want to spend the time it takes to do ISR swim classes. So instead I was fanatical about avoiding water. We never went to an Airbnb, hotel, or friend’s house with a pool or body of water during the toddler years before swimming lessons. Ever. It was an easy risk to just avoid.


I took them to the pool myself a ton when they were little (Irish twins). Some swim lessons, but mostly I taught them myself. For me, that was preferable (and more fun--kids like swimming) to avoiding water. It's also empowering to teach kids things. It makes them more confident. I was never in the camp of protect them and wait -- potty trained by 2, swimming by 3, flying alone on airplanes by 14, etc. Helping my kids achieve independence has been a preferred way of parenting to protecting them from the world or any negative feelings at all....Call me Gen X. Kids are older teens now and can do things many of their more coddled friends cannot, and they routinely thank me.
Anonymous
Post 05/31/2026 08:14     Subject: Kids being bad swimmers
Anonymous wrote:I prioritized swimming and had both kids pool safe by 3. If you kid is going to die, drowning is a very likely cause. It's like not using a carseat to not make sure they can swim.


Eh, it’s pretty easy to completely avoid unsupervised exposure to water. After watching friends do it with their toddlers I decided I didn’t want to spend the time it takes to do ISR swim classes. So instead I was fanatical about avoiding water. We never went to an Airbnb, hotel, or friend’s house with a pool or body of water during the toddler years before swimming lessons. Ever. It was an easy risk to just avoid.
Anonymous
Post 05/31/2026 08:14     Subject: Re:Kids being bad swimmers
My kids have taken swim lessons during the summer at our neighborhood pool for 3 years, but they don't do it year round. The indoor swim lessons are crazy expensive, so we don't do it. They are 6 and 8 and both are good enough to not drown. Last year, my 8 year old could swim the length of the pool, but she's forgotten how now and will need a few weeks to warm back up to swimming.
Anonymous
Post 05/31/2026 08:00     Subject: Kids being bad swimmers
Anonymous wrote:My kids grew up in DC, which meant riding a bike meant riding on city streets before there were bike lanes. They still learned to ride by 2nd grade because learning to ride a bike was a unit in gym class. Wish swimming was a gym unit too, but most schools around here don’t have swimming pools.


And sometimes it is about the kid. One of mine learned at 3 or 4 motivated by older sousins on vacation, the other tried but didn't get the hang of it until almost 13. Both learned water safety before they could walk, but that's because we prioritized it and had the time to do it.
Anonymous
Post 05/31/2026 07:55     Subject: Kids being bad swimmers
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote: Mine are 5 & 7, and can both dive and swim across the pool and granted I swam year round for 10 years but no one else I know with kids similar ages can do this yet. And pools are so shallow! Our country club does has a deep end with diving boards (as did mine in the 90s) but are kids just more wary of water now? I feel like it’s not only a safety thing knowing how to swim well…. But it’s also summer fun! You used to get teased if you couldn’t dive by the time you were 7 or 8.


I'm big on water safety and was reading this-but I totally tuned out when I got to the part about your country club pools.


You should have tuned out when OP said they swam year round for 10 years: a skewed perspecitve for sure.
Anonymous
Post 05/31/2026 07:54     Subject: Kids being bad swimmers
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Not everyone learns at the same pace. Neither do we all have access to the country club pool, or even a pool in general. Good swim lessons are expensive.
Typical post of clueless DCUM...


Doesn’t everyone in DC have access to pools through DCPR?


Kids of working parents are in day camp.
Anonymous
Post 05/31/2026 07:50     Subject: Kids being bad swimmers
My kids grew up in DC, which meant riding a bike meant riding on city streets before there were bike lanes. They still learned to ride by 2nd grade because learning to ride a bike was a unit in gym class. Wish swimming was a gym unit too, but most schools around here don’t have swimming pools.
Anonymous
Post 05/31/2026 07:36     Subject: Re:Kids being bad swimmers
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:It's just a matter of exposure, and micro culture in terms of what the other kids and parents put emphasis on in your immediate neighborhood. For example, when I was growing up, riding a bike without training wheels was a milestone you hit around age 6 or 7. In my current neighborhood, the majority of 4 year olds are riding two wheelers easily, and by 6 they're riding on mountain biking paths in the woods or going over ramps they built in the yard. I was fascinated when I moved here with my 5 year old who was still on a balance bike (who quickly realized he looked like a baby and learned fast to ride a 2 wheeler). In contrast, my kid who was only 2 when we moved here was riding a 2 wheeler before he turned 4. If other kids were not so hyper interested in biking in this neighborhood (tons of parent bikers around here which fueled it I'm sure), he'd have happily not learned to ride a 2 wheeler until 6 or 7.

I guarantee if you lived in a neighborhood where everyone could swim laps at age 5 and go off the high dive by age 6, then that's what all the kids would do. Like when you were a kid. But the kids in your current neighborhood apparently don't see the rush, which is also fine. Same could be said for literally any sport out there. I'm sure many areas of the country would be appalled at the idea of a U8 travel soccer team with 3 levels. The kids are babies, what's the rush? And then around here, if you aren't doing club soccer by 8U, you're behind the curve.


+1

Really good comment. Growing up, learning to ride a bike without training wheels was a HUGE milestone in our neighborhood. It was part of day to day life for kids and socially important (ability to keep up with the neighborhood pack of kids, and you might get made fun of if you didn’t learn by a certain age). We all learned early. But swimming? There was one public pool in our small working class town and it was open for maybe 3 months at best. No one had a pool or took expensive beach trips etc. Kids learned a bit later (more the age 7-9 range? Not age 4-5).

My current area is the opposite. It would be unusual for a kid not to be able to swim fairly well by age 4-5. Pools and swimming are a part of day to day life nearly year round. Most families we know have a backyard pool (warm climate). But bike riding? Really not a big thing. Most kids learned eventually but was not a priority. Kids don’t roam the neighborhoods on their bikes like we did. They are at organized activities or are driven everywhere.


Yep, nobody rode bikes in my town— I never saw kids riding bikes and still don’t. My middle school and high school had bike racks but they sat empty and I don’t remember a single person who rode a bike to school and there bike racks at the park and mall were also empty. I don’t think any of the kids on our block had a bike besides me.

But on the other hand everyone knew how to swim very early, even though nobody biked.
Anonymous
Post 05/31/2026 07:19     Subject: Kids being bad swimmers
Anonymous wrote: Mine are 5 & 7, and can both dive and swim across the pool and granted I swam year round for 10 years but no one else I know with kids similar ages can do this yet. And pools are so shallow! Our country club does has a deep end with diving boards (as did mine in the 90s) but are kids just more wary of water now? I feel like it’s not only a safety thing knowing how to swim well…. But it’s also summer fun! You used to get teased if you couldn’t dive by the time you were 7 or 8.


I'm big on water safety and was reading this-but I totally tuned out when I got to the part about your country club pools.
Anonymous
Post 05/31/2026 01:09     Subject: Re:Kids being bad swimmers
Anonymous wrote:It's just a matter of exposure, and micro culture in terms of what the other kids and parents put emphasis on in your immediate neighborhood. For example, when I was growing up, riding a bike without training wheels was a milestone you hit around age 6 or 7. In my current neighborhood, the majority of 4 year olds are riding two wheelers easily, and by 6 they're riding on mountain biking paths in the woods or going over ramps they built in the yard. I was fascinated when I moved here with my 5 year old who was still on a balance bike (who quickly realized he looked like a baby and learned fast to ride a 2 wheeler). In contrast, my kid who was only 2 when we moved here was riding a 2 wheeler before he turned 4. If other kids were not so hyper interested in biking in this neighborhood (tons of parent bikers around here which fueled it I'm sure), he'd have happily not learned to ride a 2 wheeler until 6 or 7.

I guarantee if you lived in a neighborhood where everyone could swim laps at age 5 and go off the high dive by age 6, then that's what all the kids would do. Like when you were a kid. But the kids in your current neighborhood apparently don't see the rush, which is also fine. Same could be said for literally any sport out there. I'm sure many areas of the country would be appalled at the idea of a U8 travel soccer team with 3 levels. The kids are babies, what's the rush? And then around here, if you aren't doing club soccer by 8U, you're behind the curve.


+1

Really good comment. Growing up, learning to ride a bike without training wheels was a HUGE milestone in our neighborhood. It was part of day to day life for kids and socially important (ability to keep up with the neighborhood pack of kids, and you might get made fun of if you didn’t learn by a certain age). We all learned early. But swimming? There was one public pool in our small working class town and it was open for maybe 3 months at best. No one had a pool or took expensive beach trips etc. Kids learned a bit later (more the age 7-9 range? Not age 4-5).

My current area is the opposite. It would be unusual for a kid not to be able to swim fairly well by age 4-5. Pools and swimming are a part of day to day life nearly year round. Most families we know have a backyard pool (warm climate). But bike riding? Really not a big thing. Most kids learned eventually but was not a priority. Kids don’t roam the neighborhoods on their bikes like we did. They are at organized activities or are driven everywhere.
Anonymous
Post 05/30/2026 23:09     Subject: Kids being bad swimmers
Anonymous wrote:[/b]We swam because it was cheap and easy. [b]The high school pool offered swim lessons for $5/session in the 90s and free swim was $.25. My mom had us there daily with all the neighborhood kids.

My own kid has a million other options. I made sure he swam well enough to not drown, but swimming for fun is not something he’s ever had interest in.


This. Plus I grew up in Florida where learning to swim at a young age was a safety issue.

My kids are strong swimmers but it has not been cheap or easy. It’s because we prioritized it and spent thousands on swim lessons. Many of our peers have different priorities. I don’t judge them for it.
Anonymous
Post 05/30/2026 22:47     Subject: Re:Kids being bad swimmers
It's just a matter of exposure, and micro culture in terms of what the other kids and parents put emphasis on in your immediate neighborhood. For example, when I was growing up, riding a bike without training wheels was a milestone you hit around age 6 or 7. In my current neighborhood, the majority of 4 year olds are riding two wheelers easily, and by 6 they're riding on mountain biking paths in the woods or going over ramps they built in the yard. I was fascinated when I moved here with my 5 year old who was still on a balance bike (who quickly realized he looked like a baby and learned fast to ride a 2 wheeler). In contrast, my kid who was only 2 when we moved here was riding a 2 wheeler before he turned 4. If other kids were not so hyper interested in biking in this neighborhood (tons of parent bikers around here which fueled it I'm sure), he'd have happily not learned to ride a 2 wheeler until 6 or 7.

I guarantee if you lived in a neighborhood where everyone could swim laps at age 5 and go off the high dive by age 6, then that's what all the kids would do. Like when you were a kid. But the kids in your current neighborhood apparently don't see the rush, which is also fine. Same could be said for literally any sport out there. I'm sure many areas of the country would be appalled at the idea of a U8 travel soccer team with 3 levels. The kids are babies, what's the rush? And then around here, if you aren't doing club soccer by 8U, you're behind the curve.
Anonymous
Post 05/30/2026 22:25     Subject: Kids being bad swimmers
I prioritized swimming and had both kids pool safe by 3. If you kid is going to die, drowning is a very likely cause. It's like not using a carseat to not make sure they can swim.