Why I Thought We Didn’t Need Toddler Swimming Lessons

Apr 9, 2018

5 min read

Looking for the best toddler swim lessons in Calgary? Check out my post here with my recommendation. If you’re looking for a review of the YMCA lessons as well as a list of available options around the city, see below!

**Updated September 2018**

When I first wrote this post, I didn’t know too much about toddler swimming lessons in the Calgary area. This post focused largely around our personal experience. Since then I have discovered a plethora of options for getting children used to swimming and heard advice from dozens of parents. Because of that I have updated this post to include all of the swimming lessons options I know of in the Calgary area. If you see one that is missing please leave a comment and I’ll be sure to add it!

Additionally, after a summer of not being involved in swimming lessons, I’ve changed my outlook on whether Clara should be involved or not.

Swimming lessons for kids in Calgary

When Jane and I had Clara we knew there were some lifeskill that were a must and one of those was swimming.

As I mentioned in 6 Dangerous Things You Should Let Your Kids Do, I was a lifeguard and swim instructor in my younger days (holy crap I did the math and I started 18 years ago!) Initially I felt like – having taught toddlers and parents before – I could just teach Clara to swim on my own.

Then came Halloween 2017.

Clara helped us greet the kids at the door and hand out candy, but every time kids came up to the door she tried to leave with them. When we wouldn’t let her she would cry and it quickly became apparent that she wanted and needed more interactions with other toddlers her age.

Trico Centre

So I started looking for lessons to sign us up for. I first started looking at Trico Centre as this was where I had worked when I was younger. As I glanced through the schedule I was disappointed to see that many of the classes (though none of the swim classes) were labeled “mommy and me,” or “mom and tot” classes. I’m sure I could have signed up for them and no one would have cared, but it certainly does not make you feel welcome to do so. The whole time I would feel like an outsider that was allowed to join.

But I digress.

A learning experience for both of us

We signed up for a Bubble Blowers class however, registration for the class was quite low so it ended up getting cancelled. This left me scrambling at the last minute. Fortunately our local YMCA had room in one of their classes so we quickly signed up.

Which is lucky because I had been working on my beach bod

On our first day I was definitely more nervous than Clara. I’m not particularly social and while I can be outgoing once you get to know me, I struggle with new people. This wasn’t going to stop me from Clara getting the lessons she needed and the interactions with other kids though.

There were about 20 babies and toddlers in the class and of the 20 parents, 18 of them were moms. The other dad in the group was able to take Fridays off from work so he could take his daughter to lessons. I was the only stay-at-home-dad. I chatted with a few parents on the first day, but it quickly became apparent that most had signed up with friends so already had their established groups. This sort of soured me on the experience and to make matters worse Clara hated the water. She would cry and cling to me for most of the lesson. She didn’t like being splashed, putting her face in the water or being in any position other than koala-clinging to me.

This lasted for the first seven weeks.

During those seven weeks our house came down with colds so there were a couple weeks we didn’t attend lessons, and the fact that neither Clara nor I was enjoying it didn’t entice me to go. But as I mentioned, swimming is a life skill and if I gave up on her learning now it could set a poor precedent for the future.

On the eighth week, miracle of miracles, Clara loved it. I have no idea what changed – perhaps it’s because she was 7 weeks older, but suddenly she was giggling, putting her face in the water and even opened her eyes underwater. It was great. As she enjoyed it more, so did I. No longer did I feel like I was dragging her to something she hated, but instead it was a fun bonding time for the two of us.

Toddler Swimming Lessons at YMCA

I had never been to the YMCA and I must say I was quite impressed with their facilities and employees. Our swim instructor was great with the kids and great with the parents. Our future lessons will all be through them.

The new Rockyridge YMCA has amazing looking facilities for toddler swim lessons

Assessing our goals

When we started the lessons we had two goals: 1) get Clara comfortable with being in the water and 2) get Clara to socialize with other kids.

We were, eventually, successful with goal number one. Goal number two, however, I would say was a bust. While yes there were other kids around, due to the nature of the lessons there isn’t a lot of interaction.

That being said, finding a public swim time that worked for our schedules has proved to be nearly impossible. This past summer we have spent time at splash parks and Sicome Lake, however we haven’t made it to a single swimming pool because the public swim times prohibited us from doing so.

I’m a doer, I love to be getting out of the house with Clara for a planned activity, so having a place to go once a week – is great to have. Whether you sign up for lessons or not when your children are young, I suppose will largely depend on your personality. But we will continue to do so, and who knows maybe Clara will be an olympic swimmer one day!

List of toddler swim lessons in Calgary

City of Calgary – The city has 14 indoor pools that offer lessons across the city
Calgary Jewish Centre
KK Swimming School – offered in a variety of hotel pools around the city
Mount Royal University
Okotoks – while not technically in Calgary, Okotoks has been recommended to me several times
Repsol Sport Centre (formerly Talisman Centre)
S.A.I.T
Swim Kids Calgary – Shawnessy Super 8 Hotel
Trico Centre
University of Calgary
Vecova
YMCA – multiple locations across Calgary