A swimming instructor has sparked an online debate after a video of her tossing a baby into the water as a part of a survival lesson has gone viral.
In the video that 27-year-old Krysta Meyer, a mum-of-two, shared on social media, a swimming teacher is seen hurling her 8-month-old son Oliver into a pool from the height of about three feet.
After the baby sinks into the water, the swimming instructor joins him whereas the toddler manages to turn himself around and float on the water without any help.
As the people cheer in the background, the instructor is seen letting Oliver float on water for several more seconds before lifting him and giving him a hug.
Speaking of her son’s swimming lessons, mum Krysta wrote:
“Oliver amazes me every week! I can’t believe he is barely 2 months in and is catching on so fast. He is a little fish.”
While many people have praised the “old-fashioned” swimming lesson and suggested that learning survival skills through such a method can help save lives, some openly lashed out at the mum and accused her of child neglect.
As the mum told BuzzFeed after her video went viral, some people have targeted her with death threats and told her her son would be traumatized for life.
“A lot of people are seeing a kid being thrown into the water and thinking, ‘That’s not good! You shouldn’t be doing that!’” Krysta expressed.
“I’ve gotten death threats. I’ve had people tell me I’m the worst kind of mom, that I’m endangering my children, that I’m traumatizing them.”
As the young mother went on to say, however, the survival class that Oliver takes helps teach babies important skills that can save their lives if ever they fall in the water.
@mom.of.2.boyssOliver amazes me every week! I can’t believe he is barely 2 months in and is catching on so fast. He is a little fish. ##baby ##swim♬ original sound – mom.of.2.boyss
Defending the technique was also Lauri Armstrong, the co-owner of Little Fins, who told BuzzFeed that babies are taught survival skills and can join their classes when they’re as young as 6 months old.
“When kids fall into bodies of water, it’s often not pretty. It’s often very disorientating. They have to learn to come up and recover on their own… But we don’t throw babies in until we know they’re ready,” she said.
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Replaced!