Teaching Your Child to Swim When You Can't Swim Yourself: What You Can Do

You are sitting on a bench by the poolside, your child waves from the water, and you pretend to follow everything. But you cannot swim yourself. What do you say when your child asks if you will go into the water with them, and how can you support a swimming journey where you never get in the water yourself?

You are not alone. In 2024, 46 percent of the Dutch population never swam, and in England nearly a third of adults cannot swim the length of a pool. Parents who cannot swim themselves are therefore more common than the average swimming lesson trajectory suggests.

There is more you can do than you think. A child learns to swim from an instructor, and you arrange the rest: understanding the trajectory, following progress, practicing small things at home, and agreeing on supervision with everyone who accompanies your child near water. Below, each part is explained in practical terms.

How often it occurs and why it usually remains unspoken

Almost half of the Dutch population never swims

The National Sports Survey by the Mulier Institute shows that 46 percent of Dutch people aged 16 to 80 never swam in 2024. In 2019, that was 30 percent. Those who do swim go on average eight times a year, mostly during holidays or on sunny days. Someone who goes into the water with children once a year is not a swimmer and cannot demonstrate the breaststroke to a child.

Drowning is one of the biggest risks for children worldwide

The World Health Organization lists drowning as the fourth leading cause of death among children aged 1 to 4 years and the third among children aged 5 to 14 years, with about 300,000 deaths per year. Children under fifteen account for nearly half of that number, and between 2000 and 2021, the number of drownings worldwide decreased by 38 percent. Swimming skills are therefore a basic skill in every country, even in countries without a diploma system with A, B, and C levels.

It is also normal outside the Netherlands for parents not to swim

Swim England researched how many adults in England cannot swim the length of a pool and found 14.2 million people, 31 percent of the adult population. Helen Mbaziira from Uganda decided to learn swimming at age 43 after her daughter got into trouble in a pool and she could do nothing from the side. She said she was mainly worried about what others would think of her. This barrier appears in every country where swimming lessons are not taken for granted.

What parents' swimming skills have to do with their child's

Researchers from the Mulier Institute write that learning to swim becomes less obvious in a family if the parents themselves have limited swimming skills. VeiligheidNL states in the swimming safety guide for newcomers that parents literally not being able to swim contributes to delays in their children's swimming skills, and that parents who do not swim themselves also less often take their children to a pool.

The CBS showed in July 2026 what this can lead to: children under ten born outside Europe drown more than eight times as often as children with Dutch origin. Between ten and twenty years old, that is almost fourteen times. Children born in the Netherlands with parents from a non-European country have four times the risk. Swimming lessons are therefore not an extra that these families can postpone.

What you do not need to be able to do yourself

Demonstrating in the water is the instructor's job

A swimming teacher sees hundreds of children learn the same thing and builds an exercise step by step. That is exactly where a parent without swimming experience gets stuck: you cannot let your child feel how the breaststroke works. What a child does need from you is someone who goes to the lesson every week, stays on the side, and asks at home how it went.

Someone else can go into the water

If your child is young and likes to play in the water with a familiar person, that does not have to be your role. A partner, grandparent, another parent from the group, or the lifeguard during free swim can fill that role well. Agree in advance who does what, with names and tasks. Without that agreement, supervision sometimes falls to no one, and that is when things go wrong.

Shame keeps parents away from the poolside

Many parents linger in the changing room, skip viewing days, and do not ask questions when something is unclear. Mbaziira's story reveals exactly that mechanism: what held her back was the idea that she should have been able to do it long ago. The questions parents skip are precisely the ones that provide clarity. How long does this trajectory take, what is my child learning during this period, and where can I see that?

Seven things you can do

1. Learn about the trajectory your child follows

Most Dutch swimming schools work with the ZwemABC diploma line. Diploma A belongs to a pool without attractions, B to a pool with a slide, wave pool, or current, and with C you meet the National Swimming Safety Standard, the level at which you can also manage in calm open water. Of the Dutch, 78 percent do not know what that standard entails. If you do, you can attend a parent evening without guessing what the conversation is about.

2. Follow the progress, even if you are not at the poolside

Ask your swimming school which exercises your child is learning this period and how you can see if it is going well. An increasing number of schools use an app that shows per level and exercise what has been achieved. In the Swimmigo app, a parent sees the same levels and exercises as the instructor, and an update appears after the lesson is updated. For parents, this side is free. So you do not have to settle for the answer that it is going well.

3. Ask for explanations in the language you think in

A swimming lesson is full of words you need to know: water acclimation, water treading, floating, back position. If Dutch is not your first language, that makes the conversation at the poolside unnecessarily difficult. Swimmigo is available in Dutch, English, German, French, and Spanish, and notifications arrive in the recipient's language. Better ask twice for an explanation than go home with a half-understood answer.

4. Practice at home without getting into the water yourself

Water acclimation starts small: splashing, wetting the face, looking underwater with goggles, and blowing bubbles in the water. This can be done in the bath or shower, with you next to the edge. You do not have to get in, but stay within reach as long as water is involved. Also practice things that happen on dry land, such as squatting, standing up with wet feet, and grabbing the towel yourself.

5. Stay nearby when your child swims freely

Supervision does not replace swimming skills, but it is the difference between intervening in time and being too late. Stay close to children under twelve, even if they have diploma A, and count on one adult per child if you go to the water with multiple children. If someone gets into trouble, the idea is that you can get help or throw a rescue device without going after them yourself.

6. Keep the rhythm and celebrate every step

Children who have swimming lessons every week on the same day and time find it easier to keep going than children whose lessons keep shifting. This also applies to celebrating milestones. A certificate per completed level and a diploma at the final levels give a child a reason to get back in the water next time. In the Swimmigo app, your child receives a certificate as soon as a level is fully completed, and you can share that with family.

7. Dare to learn swimming yourself if you want

You do not have to, and it is not a condition to guide your child. If you want to, it is possible at any age. Swim England highlights people who learned to swim later in life, often motivated by a child who got into trouble. In the Netherlands, more than a quarter of municipalities have their own scheme to promote swimming skills among adults, and for people with low income, the Adults Fund for Sport and Culture contributes. Check with your municipality before walking into a school yourself.

Supervision is different from being able to swim

Why your swimming skills are not a rescue plan

Parents who cannot swim sometimes panic and enter the water anyway. Then there are two people in trouble instead of one. The safer order is: show your child you are there, throw a rescue device or a stick, and call for help from the lifeguard or bystanders. This applies doubly in open water, because cold and currents disable an adult who cannot swim within seconds.

Open water requires more than diploma A

In 2024, nearly 40 percent of children aged 6 to 12 had all three diplomas, and 14 percent had none. Diploma C is the starting point for open water, while a large part of children stop after A or after A and B. Of the residents who drowned in the Netherlands in the past ten years, 78 percent died in open water. Among residents born outside the Netherlands, that was 93 percent. These figures are not a reason to panic but to know what to do when you are on holiday by a lake, river, or pond.

Agree on supervision when others take your child to water

Holidays, sleepovers, and family visits are moments when children end up near water without clear agreements. Agree in advance who watches, who says out loud when someone goes into the water, and how far children may go. Name the people involved, even family you see once a year, and repeat the agreement when new people join.

For swimming instructors: how to reach parents without swimming skills

Recognize parents who drop out

Interviews with parents with a refugee background show that language, unfamiliarity with the Dutch swimming lesson system, and a wrong idea about the duration of the trajectory are the biggest barriers. Parents think a child is done after half a year or withdraw their child from lessons because the child manages in the water. If parent and school do not share the same view of the trajectory, it stops naturally.

Communicate in the parent's language and without jargon

Send updates in the language the parent reads and keep messages short: what was done, what succeeded, what comes next. With Swimmigo settings, you determine per student which updates are sent, and the notification arrives in the recipient's language. Two pictures of an exercise say more than half a paragraph of explanation, especially for a parent who never had swimming lessons themselves.

Make parents' swimming skills a topic of conversation

A swimming instructor often first notices that parents do not swim themselves. Mention it neutrally and offer something concrete: a trial lesson for adults, a referral to the municipal scheme, or a parent-child moment in the shallow pool. Also visibly promote adult lessons on your website and socials, because the barrier is usually shame, not the water.

What the Swimmigo app costs

Parents use Swimmigo for free. For a swimming instructor or school, there is a subscription with a 30-day free trial starting at the first linked student. There are no costs per student, instructor, or invoice: you choose one fixed amount per month.

Swimmigo is available in five languages and is used by swimming schools in multiple countries, from sole proprietors to schools with multiple locations.

What is not possible without swimming lessons

A diploma and an honest judgment about swimming safety

Giving swimming lessons is a free profession in the Netherlands and there is no legal regulation for swimming education. Anyone may teach and issue their own diploma, while only license holders of the National Swimming Safety Council may issue the National Swimming Diplomas A, B, and C. So ask a school which diploma your child will get and what that level counts for. Some apps and schools work with their own certificates per level; these help with motivation but are separate from the National Swimming Diplomas.

Conclusion

You do not need to be able to swim to guide your child well through the swimming trajectory. What works is knowing which trajectory your child follows, being able to see progress, practicing small steps at home, and agreeing on supervision near water with names and tasks.

For swimming schools, there is a group of parents currently out of sight. Multilingual communication, explaining the trajectory without jargon, and visibly offering adult swimming lessons require little effort and gain students who otherwise would never have started.

Discover also

• Teaching your child to swim yourself and practicing at home: is it possible without swimming lessons?
• Complete overview of adult swimming lessons: learning to swim at a later age
• Is the A diploma enough? Why your child also needs the B and C diplomas
• Swimmigo for parents, the levels and skills, for swimming schools and the subscriptions

Sources

• CBS: higher risk of drowning among children not born in the Netherlands, news item 2026/30, July 2026
• WHO: drowning fact sheet, updated May 1, 2026
• WHO: global status report on drowning prevention, 2024
• Mulier Institute: more and more children in the Netherlands obtain all three swimming diplomas, swimming skills of vulnerable children lag behind, 2024
• Mulier Institute: factsheet swimming and swimming safety, trends in swimming participation and opinions on swimming safety, 2024
• Mulier Institute: barriers to learning to swim for children of refugees, November 2022
• Swim England: new statistics reveal more than 14 million adults in England cannot swim, October 2019
• VeiligheidNL, GGD GHOR Netherlands, Pharos and NRZ: swimming safety guide for newcomers, May 2023
• Municipality of Papendrecht: council letter about the motion Every child a swimming diploma, May 2024
• National Swimming Safety Council: stimulation of adult swimming skills by municipalities, Mulier Institute research, March 2021
• Senate: initiative proposal Swimming Skills Act (36.473), consulted September 2026