When Should You Teach Your Child to Swim?

Summer is coming and that means your family might be spending some time near the water, whether it’s a swimming pool, a river, the ocean, a lake, whatever’s convenient to you.

Are your children good swimmers yet?

Swimming is something I consider to be a vital skill for children even if you and everyone in your family does not have a swimming pool available. Just because you don’t have easy access now doesn’t mean your kids never will, and it’s good for them to be able to cope if they get a chance to go swimming.

How Young is Too Young for Swimming Lessons?

I’m all for teaching kids of any age to swim. I don’t believe there’s such a thing as too young. And it would appear that National Institutes of Health agrees with me. Despite fears that swimming lessons for very young children (ages 1-4) increases the odds of drowning, a study has shown that this isn’t the case.

With a very active toddler and inlaws with a backyard swimming pool, you have no idea how comforting this is to me. Sweet little rascal is going to learn to swim as soon as possible.

It’s important to keep in mind that swimming lessons don’t guarantee your child won’t ever drown. In fact, the NIH report found that many of the older kids who drowned were in fact fairly skilled swimmers. Swimming lessons still appeared to help limit drownings, but they were not a guarantee.

Always Be Vigilant Near Water

It doesn’t matter how well your kids swim, you should always be careful when your family is around a body of water that someone could drown in. Younger kids should have one adult whose sole responsibility is to know where that child is and what he or she is doing at all times.

No leaving the area without assigning another responsible adult to keep watch.

You’ll still need someone watching older kids, as accidents can happen. Kids who are confident in the water are likely to enjoy some horseplay or test their limits.

My oldest tests her limits all the time when we go swimming. Sometimes she needs a little help.

Use Proper Water Safety Gear

This is one area where I’ve had to disagree with my inlaws a few times. They always want my kids to wear floaties on their arms.

These are a really bad idea.

Floaties give kids who can’t swim the idea that they’ll be just fine in the water. They don’t realize how much they’re relying on them.

Worse, floaties can come off with little warning. Kid arms are often skinny things, and the floaties just don’t stay on that well when the kids get to playing a little rough.

I’ve been told that they also teach bad swimming habits. I’ve talked to swim instructors who really hate floaties.

If you need to put your child in something to help him or her stay afloat in the water, use proper floatation gear such as a life vest. These still present the problem of letting a child who can’t swim feel more comfortable in the water, but a properly fitting life vest isn’t going to just pop off. They’re much safer, but don’t relax your vigilance.

Know How to Swim Yourself

If you can’t swim, there’s only so much you can do if one of your kids needs help in the water. And if you can swim, make sure to take the time to build up your endurance. Even a small child is very hard to carry through the water when you have to swim. After all, both of you need your heads out of the water regularly, possibly constantly if the child is not comfortable holding his or her breath underwater.

Take some time throughout the swimming season and build up your swimming skills. It’s great exercise and has a shot at being a benefit to your family. Hopefully by just making it so that your kids can have a little more fun in the water, but it’s nice to have a shot at being able to help someone struggling.

CPR lessons are a good idea too. CPR is one of those skills you hope you never need, but if it comes up necessary you’ll be extremely grateful you took the time to learn it.

Are You Tired of Being Green?

Admit it. Sometimes being eco friendly is just a wee bit frustrating. It’s challenging even when you’re used to it. There are only so many parts of being green that can really feel routine when you know there are easier but less eco friendly choices out there.

I think we all feel the temptation at times to skip the green solution and do things the easy way. To drive where we could walk or ride a bike. To skip the search for organic or local produce. To shop without worrying about where the products came from, what they’re made from or how they were made. To give in and let the kids have whatever random plastic toy they’re begging for that you know will be forgotten in a week if you buy it.

Most of us will give in at one point or another on these things. We don’t have perfect willpower. But sometimes it’s all just so overwhelming that we want to just quit for a time.

How do you get past that?

Take a Hike

You heard me. Take a hike. Get outta here!

Seriously, go reconnect with nature. Head out to a favorite hiking trail, favorite beach, whatever really helps you to enjoy nature at its finest.

If you can do this regularly so much the better, but that isn’t possible for all of us. Get out into nature as often as you can to help yourself remember just why you want to be eco friendly in the first place.

Figure Out What isn’t Working for You

Often frustration with being green isn’t so much the whole being green thing. It’s one particular thing that just isn’t working for you. Maybe you’re one of the unlucky ones who just doesn’t do so well with CFLs. Maybe buying organic produce and free range meat is adding a stress you just can’t quite cope with on your budget.

Whatever is causing the problem, think if you really need to continue it. For foods, look at which ones are really a priority to get organic for you. It matters more on some foods than on others.

If you just don’t like the light quality from CFLs, think about other ways you can save energy. There are lot of choices out there. Maybe something else would work better for you, such as drying your clothes on a clothesline or remembering to completely shut down your computer at night.

You can always come back to the frustrating parts later. You could make more progress overall by skipping things that aren’t going too smoothly at the moment.

Slow Down

How many changes have you tried to make recently?

Much like figuring out what isn’t working for you, you should be noticing if the changes are coming too fast for you. Most people don’t do so well with a ton of changes being made all at once. Take it a little bit easier for a while or even stop adding new eco friendly habits.

It’s okay to feel frustrated with eco friendly living. It’s a difficult process for most of us. But try not to let frustration stop you. Take a deep breath, then another, and figure out what’s going wrong. Once you know where the problem is, you can start working on the solution.

Why Aren’t You Using a Clothesline?

There are many simple things you can do to be more eco friendly. Hanging your clothes out on a clothesline may not sound at first like a simple thing to you. But it’s really not that hard.

The Eco Advantages of Using a Clothesline

Buying and using a clothesline to do most of the drying of your laundry makes a lot of sense when it comes to the environment. It’s one of the easiest forms of solar power to use. It’s even fast on hot days. And it keeps you from using gas or electricity to power your clothesdryer.

The environmental advantages go beyond the gas and power bill, however. Line drying also helps most clothes to last longer. Dryers can be pretty hard on clothes; that’s why you get so much lint in the dryer.

The sun doesn’t cause that damage. It’s much kinder to your clothes. This means your clothes will last longer and you won’t need to replace them as often.

The Advantages to You

I know, hanging clothes on a clothesline sounds like a lot of work. It certainly is more work than tossing clothes into the dryer and taking them back out later. But it may not be as bad as you think.

I prefer to use clothespins to hang my laundry, but some other people put damp shirts, dresses, pants and so forth onto hangers to dry on the clothesline. It saves a step. If you’re in an area with a lot of wind it’s not so good an idea to use hangers because the wind can blow them right off the line.

You can still make doing your laundry more efficient with a clothesline. It may take time and effort to get the clothes up, but once they’re dry you can bring the hangers out and the clothes are easy to pop onto the hanger, as they aren’t all tangled up from being in the dryer anymore.

You also quickly save money with a clothesline. How quickly depends on the clothesline you bought, how much laundry you do and how much it costs you to run your dryer for each load. It’s likely to pay off in well under a year for many families.

Hanging out laundry is also pretty good exercise. You’re out in the fresh air and sunshine (might want to wear a hat!) and hanging up heavy, damp laundry. If you aren’t used to it, you will feel the effort.

The Disadvantages

It’s not all wonderful with a clothesline. You probably don’t want to let your jeans and towels dry completely on a clothesline – they end up kind of crunchy. But you can let them dry most of the way and then finish the job off in the dryer. They’ll come out feeling great and you will still have used your dryer less.

If you have a Homeowner’s Association to deal with, you’re likely to be facing rules against clotheslines. There are groups trying to change that, but it’s slow going. If you’re discreet about it and don’t get a huge setup that can be seen over your fence you can probably still get away with using a clothesline.

Clotheslines are also more challenging in apartments and condos. You likely just don’t have a great space to install one. However there are many good clothes drying racks you can buy and put in a space that gets plenty of sunshine and where you can open the window for fresh air.

They’re of course quite subject to weather. You’re not going to get much benefit from a clothesline on a rainy day. But even on cloudy days clothes will often dry reasonably quickly, depending on the moisture in the air that day. And when the sun goes down, the laundry’s not going to dry fast at all.

Overall, I find the advantages of using a clothesline to well outweigh the disadvantages. Give it all some thought and you might find that hanging the laundry out is a step you’re willing to take to go green.

How to Make Your Wardrobe More Eco Friendly

Green is a great color for your wardrobe, whether you like to wear it or not. But I don’t mean the color. I mean having a wardrobe that is the eco friendly kind of green.

It’s really not that hard to make your wardrobe be kinder to the environment. This may not sound ideal to you, especially if you love buying new outfits, but you can make this work.

Thrift Store and Consignment Shops Are Your Friends

One of the easiest ways to have an eco friendly wardrobe is to focus on buying used clothes. It may not sound appealing at first, but you might be amazed at what you can find that has belonged to someone else first. An amazing number of people replace clothing in their wardrobe after very few wearings. You can buy used clothes that look as good as new.

Thrift store shopping can be an adventure. It’s not the easiest way to shop sometimes. Some stores are better organized than others. You may find clothes from many years ago. Some outfits may look as though they’d do better as a Halloween costume than everyday clothing. Bring your sense of adventure and sense of humor when you head out to the thrift stores to shop.

When you’re done with an outfit, it can head back to the thrift store. If it’s still in good condition they’ll probably just sell it on.

If it’s not in good condition, find out if it’s welcome first. Some thrift stores sell torn and stained clothes in bundles as rags. Others just throw them out. It’s better if you are certain you aren’t just moving something from your trash to theirs.

And you could always make rags for yourself.

Find Eco Friendly Retailers

You can find all kinds of shops online and in some areas that offer eco friendly fashion for those times when you do need something new. Fair trade is a good option to look for.

You can find companies that make clothes using organic materials and use natural dyes. You can find vegetarian and vegan fashions. Just look around and see what suits your eco choices.

A tragic number of retailers still use sweatshop labor. That’s why it’s so important to pay attention to where your clothes are coming from when you buy them new. Being green isn’t always just about the environment. You should be thinking about the human factor too.

Should Happy Meal Toys Be Banned?

I’m not a big fan of the toys that come in children’s meals at fast food restaurants. Actually, I’m not a huge fan of fast food restaurants in general or rather, the really unhealthy food most of them serve. But I don’t think the ban of toys included with Happy Meals and other kids meals that Santa Clara county is enacting is the answer.

I just don’t think making them drop the toys is the answer to the obesity issue that they’re focusing on.

I understand that they will allow restaurants whose kids meals meet certain nutritional guideline to continue to offer the kids toys. Fine, whatever. I’d be much surprised if that changed the menus.

You see, I don’t think the toys are enough of the attraction. This is something I’ve discussed with my daughter, who is about to turn 8.

She tells me that the play areas are an even bigger part of the attraction for her. We talk pretty often about health, eating right and being active, so she knows that fast food isn’t good for her. But those play areas!

I can’t say I blame her for loving them. Many times I’ve wished I could fit in them comfortably. What kid doesn’t love climbing around?

Aside from my rather quiet son, that is.

Of course, no one is going to suggest that they can’t have play areas unless their food is healthy. No one wants to make things even worse by saying that if you want to eat unhealthy food then you can’t be active at the restaurant because play areas aren’t allowed there. That’s just silly.

I do understand that other kids do go just because they want the latest cool toy that is included with their Happy Meal. McDonald’s and other fast food restaurants are great for getting in toys that kids will want for at least 5 minutes after they actually receive them. But I think it’s important to remember that the toys aren’t the only draw.

Besides, fast food places aren’t the only ones serving junk to kids. I found this link to a Cupertino School District lunch menu for April. Looks rather problematic to me. Now who’s promoting unhealthy eating habits?

Parents Need to Step Up

But the simple truth of the matter is that kids can’t get fast food when they’re young without the help of parents. Parents who are often in a rush and just want something quick and easy for lunch or dinner when they take the kids for fast food.

The first thing to do is focus on healthy eating at home. Think about the snacks you provide. Think about what you cook and how often you eat out. These are things you have control over.

I don’t have a problem with eating unhealthy food some of the time. It’s when it’s a constant thing that it becomes a problem. You don’t have to go to a fast food restaurant just because the kids start begging for it.

Schools try to teach kids about healthy eating to a limited degree, but then they mess it up with menus like the one I linked to above. They’re stuck too, with tight budgets for food and the only cheap enough stuff isn’t that good for you.

That’s why parents need to take the time to learn these things themselves. The schools aren’t going to teach enough about healthy eating. You can.

You can start a garden with your kids. Have them help prepare meals. Take them grocery shopping and focus on the fresh foods, not the convenience foods. Find healthy recipes online.

Just work with them on really thinking about their food and what goes into making it healthy.

And don’t forget to send them outside to play every day possible. Food is not the only cause of weight problems.

Don’t Focus on Obesity

My oldest daughter is the only one of my kids who is really aware of the social pressures to not be obese. I’m working hard on teaching her and my son that it’s not about your weight, it’s about healthy habits. I’ve talked to her about people we know who are probably considered obese, but who are probably in better shape than others who are thinner.

It’s hard to give kids a realistic view of weight, healthy eating and fitness when society focuses so much just on obesity. And while obesity is certainly a problem, you can’t tell just by looking at someone if they eat healthy foods and exercise, but happen to have a metabolism that is just at a particular weight.

You can’t tell by looking if someone who is skinny really eats well and exercises or just has one of those really fun metabolisms.

I’d rather teach good habits than teach my kids to obsess over numbers on a scale. It’s hard, when the rest of the world tells them otherwise, but I think that’s a better lesson.

But What About the Toys?

I said it at the start, I’m not so much a fan of the toys. How many kids play with them much at all the next day? I know mine don’t.

My mother decorated her Christmas tree last year with Happy Meal toys she got from her various grandchildren. Probably the best use I’ve seen for them.

But wow, all that plastic!

I don’t favor making laws getting rid of them, whether the reason is environmental or to discourage kids from wanting unhealthy kids meals. I cringe to say that, but it’s true. I don’t think legislating the problem away is a real fix.

Cheap plastic toys, no matter the source, are going to be with a for a while. And while they may attract kids to unhealthy food, it’s up to the parents to say no. I can handle that.

If you want to do your part, convince your kids to reject the toys even if they do get a Happy Meal. Difficult, but they might surprise you sometimes. This is something you can do on your own.

I know the commercials can make this difficult. Kids see the current toy offerings on television and sometimes that inspires them to beg for a trip to Mcdonalds for that toy.

Don’t just say no. Take a moment and discuss why you’re saying no. Point out the many other toys they have if that helps with your kids.

Or just say no, not today. You’re the parent and you can do that.