re: Is teaching your kids how to swim one of the basic fundamentals of good parenting?

Absolutely!

You don’t need some country club private lessons to teach your kid to not drown. My welder father taught me at some hotel pool.

quote:

---

Until the mid 70's, public swimming pools didn't let black people swim. So today's kid's grandparents never learned to swim, therefore never taught their kids to swim, therefore today's kids aren't being taught to swim.

---

Maybe some places, but if you can't find anywhere to swim in Louisiana, you must not have ever left your house.
Bayous, rivers, marshes, swamp, lakes. Hell, New Orleans had a segregated beach specifically for African Americans on Lake Pontchartrain called Lincoln Beach.

The manufactured "everything is racism" narratives are just getting more and more laughable.

Implying that blacks can't figure out a way to swim anywhere without the government helping them is the true racism.

It is a cultural thing, for sure. No hatred. Just for safety's sake, though, I'm of the opinion it is a good idea to teach your kids to swim.

I learned on base and was swimming by 3-4 years old. Got taught by a Navy swim instructor since pops was always overseas. It is absolutely a fundamental skill for survival.

My niece is almost 9 and still wears floaties. She’s still scared to put her face under water. I’ve talked to her mom multiple times about her needing to learn and she says she’ll learn when she (the child) decides she’s ready. It’s downright dangerous as they have a pool at their house she could possibly fall in.

quote:

---

why is it that most black kids cant swim? Ive never understood that

---

Knew many black Marines and very few white Marines that couldn't swim a lick. Yep, I was one of those guys to pull their drowning asses out the water.

Yes, one needs to teach their kids to swim. It's a must that all people learn this.

Swimming is a survival skill. You teach kids so they know what to do if they fell in water. Then you teach them it’s fun. My kid was 3 and learned in a few days.

Yes you’re a shitty parent if you don’t.

Yes, it is. No excuses accepted.

Essential good parenting sign.

I held mine out of swim lessons until they were like 10-11 months old. Geaux Crawfish Aquatics.

They are very comfortable around the water.

It seems like a lot more parents today put their kids into swimming lessons, yes this applies to black parents as well.. Well, my nephew had a few black kids in his class.

When I was a kid, it seemed like the rich kids were the only kids that went to swimming lessons. It seems like a lot of people, I grew up with all learned how to swim in the bayou. One set of my grandparents lived across the street from "the bayou" and then there were other people, who lived along or near it.. And people would go to their houses and they would go play in the bayou..

But to answer your question, I think it is a parent's responsibility to make sure their kid learns how to swim just because of the simple fact it could be the difference between life or death..

Yes, especially if you live in a state like La. with all the waterways all over the place.

If a kid can't swim, that isn't going to keep him/her out of the water, and it only takes one time getting in over their heads(no pun intended) and they will be gone.