If you’re a long-time reader, you know that the first swim of the summer with our crew is usually fraught with trauma and/or near drowning. And lots of bloggy fodder.
One of the challenges of having a large brood of young children is that it’s simply too dangerous to take them all to the pool at the same time. Even with two sets of parental eyes, we cannot safely keep them all afloat without both of us being stressed out and exhausted when it’s over.
This year, however, our kids began a campaign to be taken to the beach. And this is the first year an idea like that has seemed appealing… with the small hitch that we have no intention of taking seven chronic drowners to the ocean. We like our kids and wish to keep them. So we made the kids a deal: learn to swim (just the oldest four need to do this) and we’ll go to the beach by the end of summer.
The problem with this deal, of course, is that we have to actually take them to the pool for them to improve their swimming. (Please note: they’ve had swim lessons. But practice is what they need most.) So we have a New Plan for this summer. I don’t know if it will work yet. But I thought I would share it with you in case some of you are also looking for a solution to the Swim Issue.
We’ve decided to Divide and Conquer. We’re committing to several pool nights a week. But we’re only taking a few kids at a time. This gives some quality time with a smaller number of people, plus it keeps lifeguard duty actually doable without the need of sedation afterward.
This was the first lucky crew to get to go:
The poor sad little group left behind received pudding with sprinkles for their troubles. They suffer so…
An hour later, Andrew returned home with the swimmers. They were all happy and wet and Andrew didn’t appear to have any post-traumatic stress disorder. He reassured me that Ian still remembered most of what he learned last year and will be fine. He just needs practice. Willa never left the second step. So with her life jacket on, she was pretty safe, too.
He did notice that Ian missed having his brothers to play with. The problem with taking a contingency of boys is that they’re our “best” swimmers. That would be easier lifeguarding, whereas the parent stuck with three girls would be run ragged. Our goal for this week is to take everybody in pairs of stronger swimmer and weaker swimmer. Once we’ve seen them all in the water, we’ll try and make up groups of three that will be manageable and fun with just one parent on duty.
It’s worth a shot.
This is different for us, dividing up. It’s not ideal in some ways, but in other ways, we do get some good quality time with the kids. And we’re committing ourselves to quite a few evenings at home, which is always nice.
I’m sure it will still be a bit stressful at times. I suspect I will suffer some PTSD from all the swimsuit wearing that’s required of me. But it’s a small price to pay to help my people learn how to swim. And the promise of a beach trip dangling in front of me doesn’t hurt either!
How do all of you make the trip to the pool? Whether you’ve got one kid or twelve, I’m sure you’ve got some tips for how to make it fun and safe for everybody. (If you go to the pool by yourself, feel free to tell me, but don’t rub it in. It would make me cry. A day by the pool alone is the stuff of my dreams, people.)
my mom has a pool we go to and I also only have four kids but my tricks are to 1.) I never allow life jackets or arm floats off if they are inside the fence of the pool (unless they are the one that is practicing with me) 2) always have a pack n play and/or baby pool to get the littlest into if needed… its amazing how often they will choose the baby pool over the big pool. My oldest is 6 and none of them can swim so it is stressful… but go before naps and at least you tucker them out! Good luck… I know how you feel!
Also we went to the beach last year. In some ways it is MUCH easier than a pool because they just run in the shallows and play in the sand… no chance of falling in deep water. I would do it again in a heartbeat. So much fun.
I’ll chime in on this one…first, instead of lifejackets try puddlejumpers. They look like the traditional “swimmies” with a band that goes around the middle. They work really well to keep the kids up (they’re coast guard approved), don’t ride up under their chin like life jackets do, and they still have free range of movement and can learn to swim. We got ours at Costco for $13. My second suggestion, and one you probably won’t like is…swim team. My son went from barely keeping his head above water last summer to swimming all four strokes, and my girls (ages 6 and just turned 5) are joining in this summer. Sure I have to have them there everyday, but ours is only 45 minutes a day and it is much much cheeper than lessons. The key is they are in the water every day. I feel your pain with this, though. That’s why I bit the bullet and commited to swim team – with our 5 (ages 8-9 months) there’s no way I could have them at the pool solo unless some could swim. We just got back from FL, though and I had them all at the pool by myself while my husband attended a conference. We had so much fun; So, stick with it; once they learn you’ll be glad you did. Oh yeah, one more tip for the little ones put their goggles on and let them practice going under water in the bath tub if their afraid of that. Once my girls conquered that fear they made rapid progress.
Excuse me, but there are beaches in SoCal!!!
I second the puddle jumpers! They are amazing!! I don’t even have to have my hands on my 2 or 3 year old, they are completely safe in the water with those things one! They have completely transformed our swimming experience!
Good luck!
Sounds like a good plan!
Swimming is my nightmare. Literally. I actually have nightmares about taking all my kids swimming and something going horribly wrong. We have had our share of close calls. My 3 big kids are now at the point that they are fairly confident and safe on their own. Of course I still watch them, but they know their limits and their strengths. We really need to get our 3 younger ones in lessons. We just haven’t made time for it. We will take all 6 at one time, but with very clear guidelines about who is watching what kids and so on. And it is still so stressful. But we just fight through it, in the hopes that one day pool time will be a relaxing break for us. So I don’t really have any advice to offer. I just wanted to say I can relate to this post so much.
I think you are doing the right thing by thing them to practice often. The more comfortable they are in the water, the braver they get and the better they swim. Mine (5 & 7-year-old) started out a few few weeks ago being timid in the pool, but after several daily trips, they are swimming like fish. Maybe they’re not Michael Phelps or anything, but I’m not so worried about them actually drowning. And then they are also taking actual lessons so that they learn technique, too. Now for my two-year-old, I can’t agree with the others more – Puddle Jumpers are the way to go. She loves the freedom it gives her, and I love being able to sit on the side and just watch everybody without jumping up every two seconds to save her!
We have a pool in our backyard. Our older kids (8 and 10) are fish, so while they can’t swim without an adult present, I don’t even worry about them. Our little kids aren’t allowed in the pool without some sort of floatie: the four-year-old loves her life jacket, because she can move around like she’s swimming. And the two-year-old goes rotates between his life jacket (which is a little too big for him still, so not as comfortable), a ring floatie that has a seat and me holding him. Those rules enable me to swim alone with all four kids in the water at once.
One other thought I had: I love to swim, so the summer Kieran was a newborn, I bought a summer membership at our local YMCA. That enabled me to put him in childcare for a portion of our swim time so I could play with Teyla (who was only 2 at the time) and Connor (6 and not as strong of a swimmer as he is now). We also stayed in the children’s pool area, where the life guards are numerous.
I think some of this is what comes as the age range of your family expands. For us it happened the most when we added number five so we had 0-8 year olds. All of a sudden what the little ones needed (to stay home and have a routine) was not the same as what the older ones needed (activity and challenges). So we would divide and conquer a lot. Mike would take the older ones to do stuff and I would stay home with the little ones. Prior to that we did everything as a family.
Anyway, interesting dynamics.
We don’t much go to pools because…..eeew. But, we have done lots of successful beach trips! The beach is one million times easier than a pool, especially if you go off season when it isn’t crowded. We just used life jackets and most of the kids were content to just stay in the shallow water. But we still had peace of mind with the vests on them in case anyone got too brave. Anyone that wanted to go deeper got accompanied by a parent. You know we did it for a whole week last year. It was a breeze.
Now, my Mimi use to just tie everyone together w a rope at the beach, so there’s that. All for one and one for all, I guess? Lol!
My kids are 5,4, and 3 this summer. We just moved so I have to scope out the local pools, but if there is one with a dedicated baby pool I’d take them on my own this year. Our last pool went from a slope of a few inches to over six feet so with (then) a 4, 3, and 2 year it was a two-person job. If there isn’t a separate area this summer I’d still want two people. My oldest has had swim lessons, but he’s the only one convinced he can swim. I think it just made the situation worse!
Rachelle – I’m just so happy to see you in my comment box that I’m not going to point out that SoCal beaches are hardly within driving distance… oh, wait. I just did. Still. *waving furiously* I missed you!
Nicole – Yep. It makes my heart beat fast just thinking about walking the whole gang to the pool. Baby steps this year, Boss. Baby steps.
AmyH – I hadn’t thought about it until you pointed it out, but you are so right. This is the year, now that we’re staring at the 8-0 age range, where everything changes. The olders are more independent, more helpful, but they also require more action. Dividing and conquering is the new plan. Also: Hi! Haven’t seen you around these parts lately! *waving*
Jamey – I imagine one good dunking (with you close by for rescue) will show him pretty quickly that he’s not ready. I’m going to follow all the commenters’ recommendations and buy some PuddleJumpers for my youngers. I think it will make me feel better. And our pool doesn’t have a shallow end really, just some steps. And no baby pool. It’s nerve-wracking!
I love the swimsuits with the built in things. They have always worked well for us.
And, I want to say yay to you for being so diligent and concerned over the kids learning to swim. Every single summer, at least one person drowns around here, be it from a pool, a lake or the ocean. We live on the SC Coast, by many rivers and a power plant lake. It is very sad.
I had determined back in high school when a lifeguard I went to school with saved 2 little girls, but the rip current took the dad, that all my kids would be swimmers.
Because mine are a little more spread out age wise, we have only had one at a time that was learning.
Good luck!
Stephanie
We currently have four littles and no clue about swimming. Our safety measure is a life jacket called Puddle Jumper. These work excellently because they always keep their chest and head up. We have ventured to the beach a couple of times this spring and everyone stayed up the whole time. It seemed to be less stressful then last summer. Also, for the beach, bring buckets and shovels. This has been a fun distraction from the water and has helped keep some of ours out of the water but still having fun. I am headed to the beach tomorrow with all of them by myself, so we will see how my advice holds up! Enjoy!!
Waving back at ya. I’ve been here. Reading and enjoying and laughing (with you, not at you
. Just not a big commenter. Plus these days I’m always one handed, reading while nursing. You know how it is.