Simmärke Scam

When I took swimming lessons, we had little cards when we had achieved certain goals - Beginner, Advanced Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced Intermediate (I think) and Swimmer (which wasn't available until you were 12.. or 14...). That's it. Low cost - like free. 5 levels.

Benjamin just finished his swimming lessons (school sponsored - ain't Sweden great?) and he qualified for 7 (that's seven!) medals. Each at 35 SEK, of course. So we could purchase the Blue Lifering, the Bather, the Silver Frog, the Gold Frog, the Silver Fish, the Gold Fish, and the "Back-Frog" Blue. He has also previously qualified for the Dunker, the Turtle, the Blue Crab, the Red Crab, the Silver Penguin and the Gold Penguin - 6 more medals. If I bought all 13, it would cost 455 SEK, about $54. 

The medals are designed to be encouraging, I guess, though some children are clearly more motivated by them than others. Some pools require you to do lessons to qualify for medals (at an additional cost) while others just let you prove your case when the lifeguard has extra time. Annika, who is both motivated by the medals and a good swimmer, had an expensive summer last year at our local pool. The lifeguard had lots of free time, and she qualified for 2-3 new medals every day. 35 SEK here, 70 SEK there...

The medals are also designed to progress - silver frog for 10 meters in shallow water, gold for the same in deep. The first medal - the Dunker - you can get just by putting your head under water, the next one - the Bather - is doing the same five times. 

In the end, we settled for just three - the gold frog (10 m in deep water), the gold fish (25 m in deep water) and the blue lifebuoy (swim with clothing). And summer hasn't even started...

Of course, the best moment during the whole swim school "showing" (picture parents on their way to work, padding around barefoot with business trousers rolled up) was at the diving platforms. Each kid got to show how they could jump in and swim to the side. After the first little girl daintily jumped in and swam to the side, it was Benjamin's turn. "Cannonball!!!" and we were all just slightly more damp...