I'm enrolling in swimming lessons. Yes, learn-to-swim for the over-40s (ahem). Because it's not just young kids who drown. It's men and women just like me. Just like kids, we are out-of-our-depth and certainly out of practice.
The fact is, your kids should be able to swim 25 metres confidently by the time they've turned seven. And so should you.
![Your kids should be able to swim 25 metres confidently by the time they've turned seven. And so should you.](/web/20170104200944im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/t/l/u/4/m/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gtloqs.png/1483517900334.jpg)
Yes, you over 18s, you should also be having regular lessons. The last time you went to a swimming lesson was when you were about ten and that was at the local pool. You were a lot skinnier and fitter then. Now, whatever skills you had in the water have drained away. I know mine have.
I never learnt to swim freestyle but I'm about to learn. Breathe on both sides. Kick, kick, kick. And if I get the hang of this, then the very basic lifesaving techniques are in my sights.
But remember this: learning to swim is no magical protection against drowning.
That's the consensus view of researchers, swimming educators and swimming administrators. Water safety requires quite a few elements to come together.
Richard Franklin, associate professor in public health at James Cook University in Queensland, is an expert in drowning prevention. He says there are absolutely no sure-fire preventive measures, but swimming lessons work.
"We are talking about water familiarisation - if your child can hold their head above water and grab the edge. It's not perfect but it helps."
And he says that should be happening when your child is as young as four, or maybe even younger. He can't say how many lessons your kid will need, or how often they need to go for lessons. Some children will get the hang of it quickly, while others take a lot longer.
"Swimming lessons are important and particularly important from the age of four to young childhood and into their teens and adulthood," he says.
Kari Baynes, the director of Different Strokes Swimming which specialises in teaching adults in small groups, says she has a lot of beginners - particularly those who are first generation Australians.
"They are keen to learn and have varying degrees of aptitude to the water - there's a definitely a need. They come because they are parents and their children are learning to swim. The kids are more confident in the water than they are.
"They also want to integrate into Australia more - they see it is part of our way of life."
Both Michael Ilinsky, the operations manager of Royal Life Saving NSW; and Mark Heathcote, the chief executive officer of Swimming NSW, agree that the number of children who are competent swimmers is declining. These days, only about 50 per cent of children can swim a lap of freestyle by the end of primary school.
What's that about?
It can be costly to learn to swim (these days around $20 a lesson is not unusual. Some councils run free learn-to-swim programs, but that's unusual). It can be hard to find lessons or to find accredited teachers. It can be totally alien to your culture. It can be terrifying.
Don't knock people who find swimming scary. I'm one of them.
I'm a poor swimmer but I can do 20 laps of utterly uncoordinated breaststroke and the experts tell me that if I fell off a boat, I'd probably last long enough to be fished out. Unless I died of fright, which is likely considering the way I feel about vast expanses of water.
So as a result of the spate of recent drowning deaths, I've booked myself into one-on-one lessons. My goal is freestyle, both-sided breathing and, as above, kick, kick, kick.
I married an excellent swimmer and he's passed on that love of swimming freestyle and breathing on both sides (this impresses me no end, as you can tell) to our kids. All of our kids swim regularly. Not just on the weekends, not just over summer.
And swimming, like every other life skill, requires practice. Not just on the weekends, not just over summer. Not just at the pool but also at the beach or in rivers.
My own parents were not really competent swimmers. They too were frightened of the water.
Richard Cahalan, one of the directors of swim school Carlile Swimming, tells me he sees people just like my parents all the time. There are plenty of parents who bring their kids for lessons because they, as adults, have always been afraid of the water.
Along with every single other swimming expert I spoke to, Cahalan said that we need to think of swimming as a life skill. You have to keep learning and refreshing all the way along. Even adults need to do that to keep in the swim, so to speak.
"They are more like a piano lesson where you do them all through your life. You don't do it just once when you are three and then walk away. It's something you can do from the womb to the tomb."
With that in mind, a few points:
1. Your child needs to become familiar with water on the face. Even from three months old. That definitely won't protect them from drowning but it's one way to make sure they don't panic. Researchers argue about the value of early water familiarisation lessons.
2. Even babies as young as eight months old can learn to lift their heads out of water â but that too won't protect them from drowning. It might give them a couple of extra seconds though, heaven forbid they should ever fall in.
3. By the time your kids leave preschool, they should be able to float confidently. That also won't protect them from drowning if they fall into the water in unfamiliar circumstances, say if it's very cold or they have their clothes on or if they fall off a boat.
4. Stopping drowning deaths of kids is as much about how adults act as it is about children. So, yes to water familiarisation, yes to lessons; yes to making sure you are always watching. Yes to pool fences which are properly maintained and doors on those fences which close. And yes to endless supervision. You cannot take your eyes off your children for one minute.
5. Stopping drowning deaths of adults means all of the above. Plus, no alcohol. Water and alcohol are not a good mix.
6. And get lessons if the last time you went to a swimming lesson was in primary school. This is not like bike riding. If you ride a bike, you are likely to do it regularly and understand the road rules. Water is changeable and the environment matters. Pools, beaches, rivers, dams, they have different challenges.
7. Also, it can be terrifying. At least for me - and I know I'm not alone.
When one of my kids was five, she went on a holiday with some friends. She was caught in a rip, but didn't panic while an adult swam to get her. When I heard what happened, I swore never to let her out of my sight ever again. But I also thanked my husband's good sense at insisting they all went to Australian swimming lessons. It's never just about the water, it's about the place we live.
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