Hacker News Reader

Comment by codegeek | Hacker News Reader

My wife and I argue over this all the time. She wants the kids to enroll in soccer, swimming and what not, all at the ripe age of 2+. I have been like "whats the hurry. Let them grow up naturally and we can always do those things". I guess it is a difficult topic but there is never really a right answer.

View on HN

I put swimming lessons in a different category than other activities, because being able to swim can save you from drowning. (Whether 2 is the right age for your kid, I don't know. But I'd like to see all kids get them at some point. I got them in elementary school, during the school day, and I think that was a fantastic use of tax dollars and school time.)

My wife and I were not big activity pushers. Besides the swimming lessons that I insisted on for safety reasons, our kid did some gymnastics, and some music lessons. Didn't really like either, and we let her stop doing both.

I agree. Swimming is definitely a must for me too. It is just that I wasn't sure if we need to start that early.

In the Netherlands it's almost mandatory, and almost every parent takes their children to swimming lessons. I started learning when I was perhaps 3 or 4 years old.

It's not only good for the kid, it's fun too. I fondly remember the Saturday mornings of my early childhood as the best time of the week, because I got to spend my morning swimming in the pool. By the time I was eight or nine years old I was a proficient swimmer and the visits to the pool stopped :/

It actually helps quite a lot earlier just from an activity point of view. Plus it opens a lot of possible activities.

Team sports is actually pretty good young. They get used to some structure and get to be with other children they normally don't play with. Winning and losing at that age isn't quite the problem it becomes if they start later[1] in life experiencing those concepts.

Plus, you might find some problems with certain skills that could lead to earlier treatment when the child is still developing.

1) and for the love of $DIETY do not let it bother you

My wife is the same way, and so the agreement we have is only a single activity/class/camp at a time. You can play soccer in spring, but not baseball, for example. The child gets to pick which activity they choose. For our younger child the conversations are simpler "would you like to take an art class or a dancing class" but still let the kid pick.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com