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Every parent wants their children to be safe and unafraid of the water. I see wonderful, proactive parents attempting to start swimming lessons very early for their toddlers, and even infants, on a daily basis. It’s not the intentions that aren’t accurately examined for starting swimming lessons early: it’s the expectations that need to be fleshed out.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m all about water exposure, which in itself is an entirely different form of approaching the water, as well as the act of teaching a lesson itself to a very young one, which I will classify between 4 months and 2 1/2 years of age. Some amazing things can take place when you start your child that early (and by the way, a good common age for starting swimming lesson is 3, 3 1/2 years of age.) But there are pros and cons to starting earlier — some very unexpected pros and cons, which is why we need to take this topic in parts.

Let’s start Part I with a very common and expected question parents ask me: When will my child be ready to swim on his own? That is a very loaded question with very unpredictable answers. I cannot, with honesty and accuracy, ever quote a parent on the number of lessons it will take for a child to be totally secure in the water. The answer extends beyond swim lessons.

For your child to swim on their own means to me you being comfortable enough to turn your concentration away from the pool for a phone call or allowing him/her to attend a pool party without your attendance. Personally, if it was my kid, I wouldn’t allow these situations to happen until the child was around the age of 7 or 8. Let me explain why.

Aside of being able to swim well, for a child to be safe enough to swim in the water with little adult supervision, the child needs to have the three following skills:

1. Ability to tread water. The child needs to be able to get a good and safe view of the pool situation. Also, treading takes a lot of strength to perform. A great way to test their ability with this skill is to see if they can have a rather long conversation with you while doing it, and from a distance.
2. Physical strength to push a person away. When a child is in distress, no matter how much you and I tell them to never do it, they are naturally going to grab for someone else. Multiple drowning situations are very common, and I’ve personally had to break up several of them. Your child has to be able to get out of a panic hold and swim away.
3. Sense of judgment & control over emotions. People don’t drown because they cannot swim; people drown because they panic. Your child need to be able to talk him/herself out of panic. Even better yet, use their sense of judgment to stay away from situations that can create panic. This is why horseplay is often not allowed at public pools. Horseplay (ie. dunking, grabbing, throwing) has a way of turning bad, fast. Come to think of it, any situation where you cannot breathe has a way of turning bad fast.

From dealing with all age groups, it’s the 7 and 8 year olds that have the best mastery of the above skills. So, you can start your child swimming early, but the con here discussed in Part I is the fact you cannot necessarily turn your attention or control away once your child can swim until certain skills, or what I feel a certain age, is obtained.

This criteria isn’t engraved on the back of a Red Cross manual, although I am combining Red Cross safety standards. This opinion is formed from the collective experience of my peers, which include both instructors and lifeguards. This tallies up to be a lot of years of combined experience.

Whenever a family wants to start a child out with lessons earlier than the common age recommended above, if I don’t get asked first about when the child will be able to swim, I carefully ask the question to the parent: What is your definition of swimming for your child’s current age?

It begins a conversation about realistic expectations. There is a lot that goes into waterproofing, both in and outside the water. Like I said, kids can do amazing things in the water, but it’s important that parents can also see the child for the age they are, not just for the ability they want them to be, as sincere of a wish it is.