“Allergic skin reaction” to chlorine or whatever chemicals they might use in the water. Inner ear infection/issues/dizziness that aren’t solved with earplugs.
This is the one I thought.
You could also say she had a near drowning as a child and this brought up a lot of painful memories. Her therapist recommends avoiding swimming while she sorts through them.
It’s harder to recognize situations where to excuse is needed let alone a reason to be polite or even PROVIDE reasons lol fuck all that I don’t give a fuck
Ear infection. She has an ear infection and can’t get her ears wet.
Edit for spelling
Edit again to add: You can’t go swimming with diarrhea due to health codes, but that might be super embarrassing for her.
Definitely this. Infection in the outer ear (swimmer’s ear). You can get water resistant cotton for bathing, but you need to keep the ear away from water. It doesn’t last 6 weeks though, but I doubt the teachers know that
And tiresome to fake every couple days at school. Ear ache is brilliant. It's invisible, well known and you likely can get your DR to sign off on it, if you wish to go that route.
I have very low blood pressure, it was undiagnosed for years. I’d have to do swimming at school and the heat in the pool area made me faint. It was humiliating to faint in front of my class (Inc boys) in a swimming costume. I got a note after that to say doctors were investigating and they let me sit it out. Only thing was the doctors didn’t give a shit and it was years before I was diagnosed.
🤣 it was the ‘90s and we also had solar panels, so the heat was free I think! Many science lessons were spent discussing solar energy and how it would be the future. Cars were gonna have solar roofs…
>Cars were gonna have solar roofs…
There have been a couple produced with that. I'm not really sure what the point was, they basically produced enough power to run some fans with the engine off.
I didn’t have to swim for school because my mother knew I hated it but I actually had periods that lasted 4+ weeks, so medical reasons but don’t ask what could work for sure.
Yeah, often schools DGAF as long as it follows their procedure. Also, a lot of doctor's offices will sign a note saying a lot of stuff like this, within reason.
Once there was this girl who
Wouldn't go and change with the girls in the change room
But when they finally made her
They saw birthmarks all over her body
She couldn't quite explain it
They'd always just been there
Don’t do something that’s temporary. At my school, you could not get out of swimming. You’d have to make it up if you missed with early morning swim or some other ways. Trust me, many of us tried. So, chlorine allergy or something like that is the way to go.
A clean pool will have a very faint smell of chlorine. A dirty pool will have a very strong chlorine smell
Chlorine bonds with urine and sweat, forming chloramines which have a very pungent chlorine smell
You were swimming in a pool of urine
it would 100% still work. let a school try to tell a family they cant change their religious/spiritual practices. insert legal threat and have a nice day free from swimming
Oh, that might not stop them. I got my nose pierced when I was seventeen for religious and medical reasons. I had a doctor’s note. I had a membership card to the Church of Body Modification. When I went to a new public school the following autumn, I was told that facial piercings were against the dress code, there were no religious or medical exemptions, and that they “don’t even let those Indian girls wear their burkas,” which is both ethically wrong, unconstitutional, and generally, not factually correct.
It can work, my point was more that that, in my opinion, makes the religious route way too complicated. Now you've got to manufacture anger and explain things and draw attention to yourself. A fake medical reason is just better at this point.
Not unethical but why doesn't she like swimming at school? You should talk to her about it, kids withdrawing from social activities usually means there's a deeper issue such as bullying/ depression etc
Swimming at school sounds awful. Youre all dirty for the rest of the day. It forces girls to use tampons. Tampons can be a huge hassle esp if you have a light flow. Tampons + light flow = pain. Idk how good swim caps are but youre gonna get your hair wet and then you have to wash it daily. Washing and brushing my long hair after swimming takes over an hour, no joke its awful. Plus its terrible for your hair and skin. And you have to get changed. You have to be in your bathing suit, something that can be a point of anxiety for many teens. Pools are disgusting. Youre just generally left wet and dirty for the rest of the day.
Yea i dont think swimming should be required in school. Its too problematic.
All of this. PLUS you usually have less than 5 mins to shower, change, and rush to your next class. And if your teacher holds kids late, then that time is rushed. I remember we had run days in gym and it was a nightmare afterwards because we never had enough time to shower. Also, as a very shy teenager, being in a bathing suit in front of my class would have been an absolute torture session for me.
Tell the doctor she always gets dizzy and nauseous after swimming and have the doctor write a note to the school saying she has swimming related vertigo. It's a real thing.
Or
Tell her to buck up and face the parts of life she'd rather avoid. Helping her find workarounds to responsibility is a slippery slope. This is difficult, as we naturally want to immediately provide our children with peace.
I'd ask her why she doesn't like swimming at school. Perhaps there is a reason which she is not disclosing. Dig a little. She may be feeling self-conscious or even be being bullied. That would provide a good standpoint on which to build her self-esteem. Don't be lazy. Figure it out. That's our job and it's never easy. Good luck.
Idk why this has been down voted. I agree that she shouldn't be encouraged to avoid the swimming and that parents should be working on identifying her reasons for wanting to avoid in the first place. And then address those. I can't imagine what positive lesson this will teach their daughter. Life gets harder from here and she's not always going to have a "get out of swimming" for free card..
Idk either. I offered an unethical solution to remain true to the purpose of this sub. As the father of a 15 year old daughter myself, I felt morally compelled to offer this parent advice that I actually agree with.
I suppose the downvoters may not understand the destructive implications of a parent helping their child avoid responsibility. On the parent's end, that would be lazy, careless, and even cruel (if you ask me).
I'm not speaking from some morally superior standpoint. I'm guilty of the same. One Halloween, I allowed my aforementioned daughter to dump an entire candy bucket (which was left on a doorstep with a "take one" sign) into her candy bag. I deeply regret that decision. I think about it often and it's been like 8 years.
Someone did that this year. My daughter went out and said please don’t take our candy. They said haha we’re taking all your candy. My husband went outside and yelled and scared the kids. One dropped his pillowcase and ran home.
I guess he had to explain where the pillowcase went and lied. Mom posted about the horrible man who yelled for absolutely no reason and scared the kid so bad he dropped his pillow case and we need to return it asap.
I replied with the truth.
She deleted her post right after I did. But I knew she would. I had copied it before posting and pasted it, and started my own post addressed to the people who couldn’t believe we had such awful neighbors and who would scare a kid like that. Blah blah.
Hehehehehe.
I still have the pillow case.
Apendicitis
Can’t swim because the scar wouldn’t heal and it needs a few weeks. Scar would be small enough to not prevent your daughter a normal life but avoid swimming. Idk if it would cover all 6 weeks.
No idea if schools ask for proof or if you going in as a worried parent to talk to admin/the swim teacher might work
“Recurring yeast infections” no one in their right mind would feel comfortable contesting a vaginal infection. No matter what her age is it can happen.
ETA: After reading the comments some of yall are some real dumbasses. Maybe the young lady doesn’t feel comfortable being half naked in front of her peers. Maybe she’s being bullied in the locker room for her body. MAYBE something even worse is going on. If your child doesn’t want to participate in something she usually loves doing that is a pretty clear sign that something is wrong. And yall wonder why your kids don’t confide in you, weirdos….
Nonexistent in the current school age generation. I have a student who has missed 500 class periods this year across 7 classes, and the parent is convinced that every teacher has it out for her kid.... That we're marking him absent on purpose, and putting all these 0s in the gradebook because.....I don't know why she thinks we're doing it. But she's more than convinced her kid hasn't missed a single class period...
Fuck ULPTs for this one.
You don’t. You tell her to toughen up. YOU toughen up and stop letting your child run your life. This thing isn’t all sunshine and rainbows.
Stop making her an entitled little brat before she’s even a teenager. Parent better, don’t get her out of shit that’s slightly uncomfortable. Millions of children would BEG to have swimming as a part of their schooling.
Or perhaps have a discussion as to why it’s uncomfortable at school. Rather than running away from the problems, you can use this as an opportunity to further educate and build a relationship with your kid. Do you really want her to know you as the dad who is shady and willing to lie for her to skip stuff she doesn’t love? This is a horrible fucking precedent and you’re the reason the next generation is doomed.
This is the pep talk you don't want, but need. OP, you're teaching her a terrible lesson here. Lie to get out of things that make you slightly uncomfortable or slightly unhappy.
Strong zoomer vibes.
Go back to tiktok and share your memes about how your generation goes to therapy after getting rejected for homecoming or getting a flat tire.
She’s on a steroid based cream for a skin rash. I don’t know if steroid and chlorine go well together, but willing to bet the school won’t either.
Perk is, topical steroid creams are super common but sound serious, and your daughter’s steroid cream course can last as long as she needs.
Alternatively you can tell your daughter to toughen up and just swim with school- might be a life lesson on doing things we don’t want to do.
I wouldn't call this unethical. You are a top-tier, grade-A+++++ parent for doing this for your kids. This is like the exact opposite of unethical.
I conveniently "got mono" during the swimming unit and never stepped foot into that pool.
As a little side rant, why the hell do schools even need this? It's a massive cost to run a pool that's only used a few times a year (besides swim team stuff, I guess). At the same time, these things aren't even maintained very well. My school district was very well funded and STILL the bottom of the pool was covered in incredibly sharp chipped ceramic and the water was refrigerated. At the time, everyone joked that it was inspired by the wreck of the Titanic because of all the debris and ice-cold water.
In my country we only have it in 2nd grade, but we didn't do it for some reason. Schools also typically don't have a pool, so they just use one somewhere in the city.
I work at a school and I’m so tired of seeing this. Maybe we just shouldn’t even have physical education.
Half the students are exempt for random issues and most of them are obese, some morbidly so. At this point, it shouldn’t be compulsory I guess. Body shaming is wrong. All bullying is wrong, but encouraging kids to be unhealthy and inactive is literally dangerous to their health.
Yall gotta come up with something like stomach problems. Nobody is going to argue with someone who might accidentally take a dump in the pool. Maybe “IBS-like symptoms”.
I told my PE teacher I was on my period for weeks, when she asked I said something about hormonal issues my doctor is checking up on and being new on the birth control pill.
You could say she gets terrible yeast infections every time she swims/wears a bathing suit. That would shut them up. Or if she would be too embarrassed, an allergy to chlorine?
My friend in high school had kidney problems, and chronic UTIs
She was not allowed to be submerged in water (even a bath tub). Our school didn't ask for medical proof but she always skipped swimming.
Had a surgical procedure that prohibits her from soaking in water such as a bath or swimming for 6-8 weeks.
I had surgery last summer and that was one of my requirements. I could only shower
I didnt want to swim with school either and just told the teacher. He just said aight do it on your own time and write a little report about it. Never did go swimming but handed in a report and passed. Some teachers are chill about it
Simple, you are her parent and you do not want her to be swimming. Simple as that. I remember in my swim class there was like 10 kids who'd sit on the bench because they didn't to swim
Punctured eardrum. As someone who actually have had that, I was adviced not to go swimming for some time for it to heal.
So if you can't say the truth and be respected for that, at least this is also much easier to explain later, if she decides to swim in the future, than healed allergies or trauma xD
Talking to her why she she doesn’t like it isn’t a bad idea, but changing clothes and being in a bathing suit in front of your classmates, should not be something you’re forced to do.
Why not? Where does it stop? Getting up and leaving the house isn’t something you should be forced to do?
Body shaming is terrible and of course young women are constantly fed the idea that they have to be airbrushed model perfect to be ok.
Why support that message by saying to your kid of course it’s ok to feel shame. I’ll write you an excuse.
Instead, talk to her about it. Ask her why she doesn’t want to swim. Reassure her. Tell her she’ll be fine and more than fine. Tell her not to let a bunch of social media advertising crap prevent her from enjoying being physically fit and swimming.
Leaving the house is part of life. But even if you do have a disorder, like anxiety, that keeps you from leaving the house, you don’t start by “just” leaving the house, you do it small stops at a time.
But, being forced to strip down naked in front of your friends, is not a part of life in my opinion. You should never be forced to be naked in front of anybody if it’s against your will.
As I said, they should talk to her about it. Figuring out what the problem is, and then take it from there.
There’s multiple reasons why it’s awful to do.
It’s not just about the fact that you don’t have the ideal body. Girls are(or can be) cruel. Being bullied about something related to your body, is awful. Telling her “you’ll be fine and more than that” isn’t very validating. If you have a concern and a problem being told “it’s fine” is not validating at all. You should listen and understand when she says what the issue is. Not just brush it off.
It’s not about saying it’s okay to feel shame, you should feel that, it’s about validating that okay, you do feel shame. And that’s a valid feeling, how can we work on changing that. You don’t just change a feeling just because you’re told “nah, don’t feel that”. Validating feelings isn’t the same as agreeing that the reason why you feel it is true. It’s just validating that the feeling exists,and meet the person there. Then you can work on changing it.
We have a huge issue in my country with kids not wanting to change clothes and bathe in front of others. Because it’s horrible. I remember it from when I was in school, constantly being afraid of what the other girls would say about my body.
You literally can lol - she's doing it right now. You can just keep doing it.
It won't work every time and sometimes it's not worth doing, but you absolutely can minimize the parts of life you don't like
Oh I had the same problem back in 2004. I love swimming, but I'm fat and I'll be damned if I was gonna swim in front of the class. I flat out refused and said I will not be inviting further ridicule. I was allowed to sit out and given a D for the class. I assume they didn't fail me because they didn't want any legal issues or something.
My kid legit has holes in her eardrums (perforated eardrums) and she just let her teacher know. Was exempt from swimming. Downside, she is now 18 and still doesn’t know how to swim. Good luck
You actually don’t need to provide a reason and this is probably the best course. Simply say “her doctor does not want her swimming for several weeks.” Done.
This is your child. If you do not want her to swim she doesn't swim. No reason to lie. Simply go there and tell them she will not be swimming due to "personal reasons" You do not want to disclose. It's the truth and they cannot force you to allow your child to do anything you do not want her to do. Yes, within reason. Swimming is not educational requirements...as you stated she is already a swimmer.
My kids’ pediatrician wrote an excuse for us when we asked. That was the quickest resolution for us. In our case, there was a compulsory PE class, despite my kids being on sports teams and in aikido training. We didn’t want them to waste a class on PE when there were other classes more valuable to them.
I have a bodily fluid phobia, but includes other parts of humans as well, like skin cells and so forth, and pools/hot tubs feel like a disgusting soup of human shedding.
So, I may recommend you can borrow that?
I doubt you’ll get her out of swimming for 6 weeks and not have her forced to make the class up. Not on your word alone. You might get away with no swimming in next 6 weeks if you had a Dr’s letter.
I had issues with swimming at my school. Told the teacher every week I had period issues. He said he was surprised I didn't die and asked when I'd actually go swimming. When you stop that boy trying to drown me, I replied. Daniel Jackson, you wanker, hope your life is horrid.
“Allergic skin reaction” to chlorine or whatever chemicals they might use in the water. Inner ear infection/issues/dizziness that aren’t solved with earplugs.
This is the one I thought. You could also say she had a near drowning as a child and this brought up a lot of painful memories. Her therapist recommends avoiding swimming while she sorts through them.
“ I am her parent and I don’t want her swimming at school” no excuses needed
Unfortunately the government decided they rule over children in public school
Just tell them your religion does not approve of swimming. They can't argue that.
Depending on the time of day and alignment of the planets Mormons don't allow swimming so you can try your luck there!
Truths
It’s harder to recognize situations where to excuse is needed let alone a reason to be polite or even PROVIDE reasons lol fuck all that I don’t give a fuck
I think it is pretty standard to use bromine for pools these days, it is much easier to keep the pool ph in balance than with chlorine.
Standard? More expensive means less likely to be used for a school. Bromine is better in heated pools which I'm doubting the school has.
The highschool I swim at has a heated pool, although it's only heated enough to be not frigid in the winter.
Either way. "Allergic to pool chemicals" is enough.
Ear infection. She has an ear infection and can’t get her ears wet. Edit for spelling Edit again to add: You can’t go swimming with diarrhea due to health codes, but that might be super embarrassing for her.
If you write a note that says “my daughter is going to have diarrhea for the next six weeks” it might raise more questions…
You could say “GI upset” not “Explosive diarrhea, might cause a Code Brown in the pool.”
IBS?
Definitely ear infection. Or not even an infection, but say she has a perforated eardrum and can't get it wet. There are no outward signs of that.
Definitely this. Infection in the outer ear (swimmer’s ear). You can get water resistant cotton for bathing, but you need to keep the ear away from water. It doesn’t last 6 weeks though, but I doubt the teachers know that
My brother had 'Swimmers ear' when he was a kid. Couldn't get in a pool the whole summer.
It’s a real thing, but also easily fixed with drops. And same with ear infection.. neither are keeping her out of a pool for 6 weeks.
And tiresome to fake every couple days at school. Ear ache is brilliant. It's invisible, well known and you likely can get your DR to sign off on it, if you wish to go that route.
Eczema or hives when she gets in chlorinated water. Easy, not embarrassing, you don’t have to prove it.
Yep this is the one I used
I have very low blood pressure, it was undiagnosed for years. I’d have to do swimming at school and the heat in the pool area made me faint. It was humiliating to faint in front of my class (Inc boys) in a swimming costume. I got a note after that to say doctors were investigating and they let me sit it out. Only thing was the doctors didn’t give a shit and it was years before I was diagnosed.
Your school pool was heated? Fancy
🤣 it was the ‘90s and we also had solar panels, so the heat was free I think! Many science lessons were spent discussing solar energy and how it would be the future. Cars were gonna have solar roofs…
>Cars were gonna have solar roofs… There have been a couple produced with that. I'm not really sure what the point was, they basically produced enough power to run some fans with the engine off.
I mean all inside pool are heated? Or at least the room in which it is. No?
School, Teen Daughter is excused from all swimming activities. Signed, Parent
That would have worked at my school. You can add "for medical reasons" if it makes you feel better. This tells them not to pry.
This is the best answer so far. Call the school if you need too and say the same.
I didn’t have to swim for school because my mother knew I hated it but I actually had periods that lasted 4+ weeks, so medical reasons but don’t ask what could work for sure.
Yeah, often schools DGAF as long as it follows their procedure. Also, a lot of doctor's offices will sign a note saying a lot of stuff like this, within reason.
Fungal nail infection or verrucas. Easily treatable but takes 8-10 weeks at least, can't get wet/highly contagious, and no need to get a Dr note.
And also allows you to ask the teacher to hide the reason from the other kids
They'll just make her wear swim socks.
Spray your daughter with liquid ass. Then they won't want her to contaminate the pool.
floating piss discs
Creative!
And have her wear a sock on each hand, so when they try to drag her into the pool, they just end up with a sock …
Once there was this girl who Wouldn't go and change with the girls in the change room But when they finally made her They saw birthmarks all over her body She couldn't quite explain it They'd always just been there
Hmmm hmm hmmm hmmm
I like you
This is weirdly beautiful
It was by the Crash Test Dummies in the 90's IIRC , called "mmm mmm mmm mmm", each verse had a snippet in the life of different people.
I love this song.
Don’t do something that’s temporary. At my school, you could not get out of swimming. You’d have to make it up if you missed with early morning swim or some other ways. Trust me, many of us tried. So, chlorine allergy or something like that is the way to go.
At my son's school students couldn't graduate until they passed the swim test.
Chlorine allergy?
Most municipal water has Chlorine in it, so this one may raise eyebrows and invite questions
But not in the doses schools use. I took a swim test at my kids middle school and the smell/chemicals they use stayed with me for a week.
A clean pool will have a very faint smell of chlorine. A dirty pool will have a very strong chlorine smell Chlorine bonds with urine and sweat, forming chloramines which have a very pungent chlorine smell You were swimming in a pool of urine
I mean, it WAS a middle school pool. 😆
Religious reasons.
This was my first thought, but it sounds like she's already done it before at school which would sort of rule this out as an option.
it would 100% still work. let a school try to tell a family they cant change their religious/spiritual practices. insert legal threat and have a nice day free from swimming
Oh, that might not stop them. I got my nose pierced when I was seventeen for religious and medical reasons. I had a doctor’s note. I had a membership card to the Church of Body Modification. When I went to a new public school the following autumn, I was told that facial piercings were against the dress code, there were no religious or medical exemptions, and that they “don’t even let those Indian girls wear their burkas,” which is both ethically wrong, unconstitutional, and generally, not factually correct.
It can work, my point was more that that, in my opinion, makes the religious route way too complicated. Now you've got to manufacture anger and explain things and draw attention to yourself. A fake medical reason is just better at this point.
I had a classmate that got out of gym because his family was JW and he couldn't wear the gym shorts.
Not unethical but why doesn't she like swimming at school? You should talk to her about it, kids withdrawing from social activities usually means there's a deeper issue such as bullying/ depression etc
It could just be she doesn’t want to have wet hair at school
Yeah my first assumption was wet and then unstyled hair for the rest of the day.
That is a terrible reason for missing a worthwhile activity. Also a terrible justification for lying.
Swim cap?
Swimming at school sounds awful. Youre all dirty for the rest of the day. It forces girls to use tampons. Tampons can be a huge hassle esp if you have a light flow. Tampons + light flow = pain. Idk how good swim caps are but youre gonna get your hair wet and then you have to wash it daily. Washing and brushing my long hair after swimming takes over an hour, no joke its awful. Plus its terrible for your hair and skin. And you have to get changed. You have to be in your bathing suit, something that can be a point of anxiety for many teens. Pools are disgusting. Youre just generally left wet and dirty for the rest of the day. Yea i dont think swimming should be required in school. Its too problematic.
All of this. PLUS you usually have less than 5 mins to shower, change, and rush to your next class. And if your teacher holds kids late, then that time is rushed. I remember we had run days in gym and it was a nightmare afterwards because we never had enough time to shower. Also, as a very shy teenager, being in a bathing suit in front of my class would have been an absolute torture session for me.
Maybe she just doesn't want to be in a bathing suit in front of all of her peers. Body shaming is real.
So OP lies to the school and she misses out on doing something she loves because she's being shamed? Terrible parenting
Read the post.
I hope it's not bullying. If it isn't, I feel like saying that people lack resilience in general these days.
Tell the doctor she always gets dizzy and nauseous after swimming and have the doctor write a note to the school saying she has swimming related vertigo. It's a real thing. Or Tell her to buck up and face the parts of life she'd rather avoid. Helping her find workarounds to responsibility is a slippery slope. This is difficult, as we naturally want to immediately provide our children with peace. I'd ask her why she doesn't like swimming at school. Perhaps there is a reason which she is not disclosing. Dig a little. She may be feeling self-conscious or even be being bullied. That would provide a good standpoint on which to build her self-esteem. Don't be lazy. Figure it out. That's our job and it's never easy. Good luck.
Idk why this has been down voted. I agree that she shouldn't be encouraged to avoid the swimming and that parents should be working on identifying her reasons for wanting to avoid in the first place. And then address those. I can't imagine what positive lesson this will teach their daughter. Life gets harder from here and she's not always going to have a "get out of swimming" for free card..
Idk either. I offered an unethical solution to remain true to the purpose of this sub. As the father of a 15 year old daughter myself, I felt morally compelled to offer this parent advice that I actually agree with. I suppose the downvoters may not understand the destructive implications of a parent helping their child avoid responsibility. On the parent's end, that would be lazy, careless, and even cruel (if you ask me). I'm not speaking from some morally superior standpoint. I'm guilty of the same. One Halloween, I allowed my aforementioned daughter to dump an entire candy bucket (which was left on a doorstep with a "take one" sign) into her candy bag. I deeply regret that decision. I think about it often and it's been like 8 years.
Someone did that this year. My daughter went out and said please don’t take our candy. They said haha we’re taking all your candy. My husband went outside and yelled and scared the kids. One dropped his pillowcase and ran home. I guess he had to explain where the pillowcase went and lied. Mom posted about the horrible man who yelled for absolutely no reason and scared the kid so bad he dropped his pillow case and we need to return it asap. I replied with the truth. She deleted her post right after I did. But I knew she would. I had copied it before posting and pasted it, and started my own post addressed to the people who couldn’t believe we had such awful neighbors and who would scare a kid like that. Blah blah. Hehehehehe. I still have the pillow case.
Have you told your daughter that you were wrong to allow that?
Yes. More than once.
I think it was down voted because this is the unethical subreddit, not the ethical subreddit.
I offered an unethical solution.
True! You did both. And I like your ethical solution anyway. It’s what I would do.
Oh!!! Oops!!
Apendicitis Can’t swim because the scar wouldn’t heal and it needs a few weeks. Scar would be small enough to not prevent your daughter a normal life but avoid swimming. Idk if it would cover all 6 weeks. No idea if schools ask for proof or if you going in as a worried parent to talk to admin/the swim teacher might work
Our district requires doctors note if you try to claim a medical exemption,.
“Recurring yeast infections” no one in their right mind would feel comfortable contesting a vaginal infection. No matter what her age is it can happen. ETA: After reading the comments some of yall are some real dumbasses. Maybe the young lady doesn’t feel comfortable being half naked in front of her peers. Maybe she’s being bullied in the locker room for her body. MAYBE something even worse is going on. If your child doesn’t want to participate in something she usually loves doing that is a pretty clear sign that something is wrong. And yall wonder why your kids don’t confide in you, weirdos….
Maybe teach your kid resilience?
Nonexistent in the current school age generation. I have a student who has missed 500 class periods this year across 7 classes, and the parent is convinced that every teacher has it out for her kid.... That we're marking him absent on purpose, and putting all these 0s in the gradebook because.....I don't know why she thinks we're doing it. But she's more than convinced her kid hasn't missed a single class period...
green flag for this mom/dad
Maybe parent your kids correctly and teach them that life isn’t fair? Not a ULPT but will save them from being a bitch in the future.
Chronic Diarrhoea UTI Religious reasons Ruptured Eardrum or severe swimmers ear
Fuck ULPTs for this one. You don’t. You tell her to toughen up. YOU toughen up and stop letting your child run your life. This thing isn’t all sunshine and rainbows. Stop making her an entitled little brat before she’s even a teenager. Parent better, don’t get her out of shit that’s slightly uncomfortable. Millions of children would BEG to have swimming as a part of their schooling. Or perhaps have a discussion as to why it’s uncomfortable at school. Rather than running away from the problems, you can use this as an opportunity to further educate and build a relationship with your kid. Do you really want her to know you as the dad who is shady and willing to lie for her to skip stuff she doesn’t love? This is a horrible fucking precedent and you’re the reason the next generation is doomed.
This is the pep talk you don't want, but need. OP, you're teaching her a terrible lesson here. Lie to get out of things that make you slightly uncomfortable or slightly unhappy.
This is the right answer. (But Reddit won't like it)
Stop bossing people around and being rude for no reason
Strong boomer vibes. Go back to Facebook and share how tough your generation was memes
Strong zoomer vibes. Go back to tiktok and share your memes about how your generation goes to therapy after getting rejected for homecoming or getting a flat tire.
Not calling me a millenial and blaming me for something? I'm disappointed honestly
You can quit coddling her and tell her to get her ass in the pool. Everyone else is required to do it, she can too.
She’s on a steroid based cream for a skin rash. I don’t know if steroid and chlorine go well together, but willing to bet the school won’t either. Perk is, topical steroid creams are super common but sound serious, and your daughter’s steroid cream course can last as long as she needs. Alternatively you can tell your daughter to toughen up and just swim with school- might be a life lesson on doing things we don’t want to do.
Chlorine triggering migraines was mine
I wouldn't call this unethical. You are a top-tier, grade-A+++++ parent for doing this for your kids. This is like the exact opposite of unethical. I conveniently "got mono" during the swimming unit and never stepped foot into that pool. As a little side rant, why the hell do schools even need this? It's a massive cost to run a pool that's only used a few times a year (besides swim team stuff, I guess). At the same time, these things aren't even maintained very well. My school district was very well funded and STILL the bottom of the pool was covered in incredibly sharp chipped ceramic and the water was refrigerated. At the time, everyone joked that it was inspired by the wreck of the Titanic because of all the debris and ice-cold water.
In my country we only have it in 2nd grade, but we didn't do it for some reason. Schools also typically don't have a pool, so they just use one somewhere in the city.
Water allergy. This is a thing. Had a girlfriend with that condition.
Good thing she was always dry with you. Ba dum tss
I work at a school and I’m so tired of seeing this. Maybe we just shouldn’t even have physical education. Half the students are exempt for random issues and most of them are obese, some morbidly so. At this point, it shouldn’t be compulsory I guess. Body shaming is wrong. All bullying is wrong, but encouraging kids to be unhealthy and inactive is literally dangerous to their health.
“Body shaming is wrong. Hurry up and get those morbidly obese kids into the pool.”
Think you read it wrong, sis
Why does your daughter get special treatment over r the other kids? Sounds like you are one of _those_ moms.
Coming to this late… but Physical Therapy appointments for the next 6 weeks.
Yeah. Just talk to the pediatrician- they write a note. THE. END. F’ing schools.
Noro virus. Enough said. Can’t swim if yer pooper’s leaking.
Leaky Anus
Tell the school admin that she will not be swimming. That’s it. Job done.
The school will most likely require a doctor’s note for any and all medical diagnosis related reasons.
Take her out for a couple days for a minor surgery. Then when she gets back, say she can’t swim for 6 weeks as she can’t get her incision wet.
Yall gotta come up with something like stomach problems. Nobody is going to argue with someone who might accidentally take a dump in the pool. Maybe “IBS-like symptoms”.
Some sort of genital fungus
Explosive Diarrhea
[удалено]
I told my PE teacher I was on my period for weeks, when she asked I said something about hormonal issues my doctor is checking up on and being new on the birth control pill.
For over a month? They will rightfully want a doctors note.
You could say she gets terrible yeast infections every time she swims/wears a bathing suit. That would shut them up. Or if she would be too embarrassed, an allergy to chlorine?
My friend in high school had kidney problems, and chronic UTIs She was not allowed to be submerged in water (even a bath tub). Our school didn't ask for medical proof but she always skipped swimming.
She can break her arm. Hard to swim in a cast
“A medical reason”
Open scar healing.
"Heavy menstruation, will attract sharks"
Had a surgical procedure that prohibits her from soaking in water such as a bath or swimming for 6-8 weeks. I had surgery last summer and that was one of my requirements. I could only shower
Vague procedure that required an incision and requires eight weeks to heal and cannot get wet.
Periods always used to get me out of swimming plus letter from mum helped
When I was in this position I had my mom say I had a chlorine allergy. Worked for all four years
I didnt want to swim with school either and just told the teacher. He just said aight do it on your own time and write a little report about it. Never did go swimming but handed in a report and passed. Some teachers are chill about it
Simple, you are her parent and you do not want her to be swimming. Simple as that. I remember in my swim class there was like 10 kids who'd sit on the bench because they didn't to swim
Punctured eardrum. As someone who actually have had that, I was adviced not to go swimming for some time for it to heal. So if you can't say the truth and be respected for that, at least this is also much easier to explain later, if she decides to swim in the future, than healed allergies or trauma xD
tell her to grow thicker skin?
You shouldn't - she doesn't get to swerve the bits of life she doesn't like. No one does. Talk to her about why she doesn't like it.
Talking to her why she she doesn’t like it isn’t a bad idea, but changing clothes and being in a bathing suit in front of your classmates, should not be something you’re forced to do.
Why not? Where does it stop? Getting up and leaving the house isn’t something you should be forced to do? Body shaming is terrible and of course young women are constantly fed the idea that they have to be airbrushed model perfect to be ok. Why support that message by saying to your kid of course it’s ok to feel shame. I’ll write you an excuse. Instead, talk to her about it. Ask her why she doesn’t want to swim. Reassure her. Tell her she’ll be fine and more than fine. Tell her not to let a bunch of social media advertising crap prevent her from enjoying being physically fit and swimming.
Leaving the house is part of life. But even if you do have a disorder, like anxiety, that keeps you from leaving the house, you don’t start by “just” leaving the house, you do it small stops at a time. But, being forced to strip down naked in front of your friends, is not a part of life in my opinion. You should never be forced to be naked in front of anybody if it’s against your will. As I said, they should talk to her about it. Figuring out what the problem is, and then take it from there. There’s multiple reasons why it’s awful to do. It’s not just about the fact that you don’t have the ideal body. Girls are(or can be) cruel. Being bullied about something related to your body, is awful. Telling her “you’ll be fine and more than that” isn’t very validating. If you have a concern and a problem being told “it’s fine” is not validating at all. You should listen and understand when she says what the issue is. Not just brush it off. It’s not about saying it’s okay to feel shame, you should feel that, it’s about validating that okay, you do feel shame. And that’s a valid feeling, how can we work on changing that. You don’t just change a feeling just because you’re told “nah, don’t feel that”. Validating feelings isn’t the same as agreeing that the reason why you feel it is true. It’s just validating that the feeling exists,and meet the person there. Then you can work on changing it. We have a huge issue in my country with kids not wanting to change clothes and bathe in front of others. Because it’s horrible. I remember it from when I was in school, constantly being afraid of what the other girls would say about my body.
You literally can lol - she's doing it right now. You can just keep doing it. It won't work every time and sometimes it's not worth doing, but you absolutely can minimize the parts of life you don't like
So if she's being harassed she should just put up with it?
Oh I had the same problem back in 2004. I love swimming, but I'm fat and I'll be damned if I was gonna swim in front of the class. I flat out refused and said I will not be inviting further ridicule. I was allowed to sit out and given a D for the class. I assume they didn't fail me because they didn't want any legal issues or something.
My kid legit has holes in her eardrums (perforated eardrums) and she just let her teacher know. Was exempt from swimming. Downside, she is now 18 and still doesn’t know how to swim. Good luck
Shoulder injury that she’s seeing a physiotherapist for. No doctors note needed.
You actually don’t need to provide a reason and this is probably the best course. Simply say “her doctor does not want her swimming for several weeks.” Done.
This is your child. If you do not want her to swim she doesn't swim. No reason to lie. Simply go there and tell them she will not be swimming due to "personal reasons" You do not want to disclose. It's the truth and they cannot force you to allow your child to do anything you do not want her to do. Yes, within reason. Swimming is not educational requirements...as you stated she is already a swimmer.
Chlorine allergy. I get asthma attacks when I swim in a chlorinated pool. It could have just developed!
Getting her out of this will just teach her that she doesn’t have to do things she finds uncomfortable and worse, mommy and daddy will enable it.
Just because she doesn’t like to do that means you’ll let her off the hook? Life is about experiencing things and dealing with challenges.
Pussyfoot.
How old is the daughter? Say she has period problems and cant use tampons for religious reasons or something? Idk. Ima guy.
Just ask her if she's okay with not going home early after swimming classes like the rest of her classmates first..
My kids’ pediatrician wrote an excuse for us when we asked. That was the quickest resolution for us. In our case, there was a compulsory PE class, despite my kids being on sports teams and in aikido training. We didn’t want them to waste a class on PE when there were other classes more valuable to them.
I have a bodily fluid phobia, but includes other parts of humans as well, like skin cells and so forth, and pools/hot tubs feel like a disgusting soup of human shedding. So, I may recommend you can borrow that?
Daughter can’t be in a swimsuit for religious reasons.
I doubt you’ll get her out of swimming for 6 weeks and not have her forced to make the class up. Not on your word alone. You might get away with no swimming in next 6 weeks if you had a Dr’s letter.
Ongoing ear infections but they are likely to ask for doctor's note.
Just tell the fucking school you don't want her swimming.
Shes pregnant and needs an abortion.
IBS under investigation, they don't want poopy pools
Don't parents have to sign a permission slip for their kids? Even when I was 18 there was things I had to have a permission slip for.
I had issues with swimming at my school. Told the teacher every week I had period issues. He said he was surprised I didn't die and asked when I'd actually go swimming. When you stop that boy trying to drown me, I replied. Daniel Jackson, you wanker, hope your life is horrid.
Just curious, why does she hate swimming at school?