Water Safety for Your Children

Swimming is one of the most popular summer activities for your children, but it can potentially be dangerous if you have not explained a set of rules to your children. So what rules are reasonable and what should you expect your kids to behave like? This article will list a few basic rules that will make your pool or local pool a much safer environment for your children.

Never Go Alone

The most important advice you can give to your children is to never swim without proper adult supervision. Explain to them that they can get seriously hurt and possibly even drown, even if they are being very careful. You need to explain to them who’s an acceptable authority, such as parents, grandparents or a lifeguard. While explaining to your child the dangers of swimming alone, it’s important that you don’t scare them away from swimming. Being cautious is a good thing, but you need to explain to them that everything will be okay if someone is there watching them.

Watch the Weather

Something that not all children understand is how weather plays a role in whether they are able to swim or not. You need to explain to them that at the first sign of thunder of lightning that they need to get out of the pool as fast as possible and take refuge inside. This is a very easy rule to enforce if you’re at a public swimming location because everyone will be escorted out of the pool by the lifeguard and staff. Once your child sees that everyone agrees that it’s too dangerous your child will understand that this isn’t just some rule that you’re making up.

Slow Down

Going to the pool is often an exciting experience for most children and as such it’s very easy for them to get too excited. Overexcitement leads to pushing and reckless behavior like running near the pool. You should explain to your child that it’s very easy to slip when running around the pool and that they can be as excited as they want once entering the water.

Diving and Pool rules

The last thing you should explain to your kids is the safety rules that they need to obey when entering the pool. If your child is extremely young it may be needed to explain to them that swimming in the deep end of the pool can be dangerous because of potentially getting tired. More importantly tell your child that diving is okay in specified locations but they need to be absolutely certain that the water is deep enough before entering.

When taking your child to a pool safety is important, but don’t overprotect your child. If you spend the entire trip explaining rules and telling them to calm down they won’t have any fun. Lighten up and have a little fun and your child will see that going to the pool is a great experience.

Photo Credits: freeloosedirt

Originally posted 2009-10-09 03:02:43.

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Posted by Bike Swim Run on July 27, 2011 in Safety, Swimming. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.