Hellobee Boards

I would second the drop-and-run idea above I feel like once kids know they're not getting "rescued" quickly by mom or dad, the upset stops pretty quickly and they often find they're enjoying themselves! He certainly won't be the first kid to be nervous, and most instructors at places we've been are well versed in dealing with this fear (and well equipped with toy/game strategies to make kids forget they were scared).

If your son is one for logic, you can also maybe try spinning it as "learning to be safe in the water", which I'm guessing for you is non-negotiable (it is for me - I'd feel differently about one of my kids being scared of, say, ice skating lessons and not wanting to take them, but I personally need them all to know at least on a basic level how to swim, because there are three of them and one of me). You can patiently tell him "If our family wants to have fun at the beach/pool, it's very important that everyone learn how to be safe in the water. Swim lessons will teach you to be safe in the water so that our family can play at the beach and have fun. You need to do swimming lessons, and once you try them, I bet you might even think they are fun."

The only thing that worked for my kids was us just going to the pool a bunch, getting in with them and not pressuring them to do anything, just splash around and we would hold them if they wanted. After a couple times of that, they naturally started doing more, wanting to put their face in, jump to us, dive for rings etc.

We finally did this after a couple years of battles around swim class! What a rollercoaster.

My 4yo has been in lessons for about a year now and still hates going. Though when he's actually in the water, he seems so happy. The one thing that DH did that I'm not happy about is that he totally bribed him. There's a Dollar Store right there so DH promised to take him to get something. And now that's turned into a ritual. I hate all of the plastic crap! And the expectation.....

@LemonJack: yeah, I had an ongoing fight with my 3 year old's daycare/preschool about this. They wanted me to leave her in a full on panic. She did stop crying fairly quickly, but she wasn't happy, she was in "freeze" mode because she didn't feel safe. When I stayed for 5-10 min and gave her big hugs and reassurance, she entered class happily on her own. Same with any classes like swimming or dance.

@HappyBaker: yay! You must be relieved. I bet he'll gain a ton of confidence as he goes. O just started her second session, so she's done 11 lessons after today. The first 2 weeks it was really too cold and she participated very reluctantly. Today she was hesitant to go in but got into it quickly and was showing off her going under and jumping in skills in no time. Then she refused to get out when they were done, until the teacher told her she wouldn't be able to come back tomorrow unless she got out.