When did you stop using life vests around water?

[Anonymous]

I was just thinking about this because my sister's kids, age 11 and 9 wear them at the beach. I have a 9 year old who has never worn a life vest except a few occasions on a boat. He learned to swim in a pool at age 4/5. We started going to the beach around that time and until last year was in arms reach of an adult while in the ocean. Last year and this year he goes in on his own with and adult watching (and lifeguards on duty).

It seems like anxiety or lazy parenting to me.

[Anonymous]

We had a summer home on a deep lake (30 miles long × 2 miles wide).

Everyone wore life jackets on boats. You could use the more comfortable zipper up life vests when you knew how to swim well enough to rescue yourself if you fell overboard wearing the lifejacket.

My family never wore life jackets on docks. Young children were watched at all times and usually kept in the wading area at arms' reach. We were all prudent children and in this low-wake, no tide, freshwater environment, we were allowed to play and swim around the dock without life jackets once we were confident in the water (after mastering armstroke technique). Max depth was probably around 10 feet as far out as we usually went. So similar to a large public pool.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have never done life jackets for active swimming but we were just at the beach and I was surprised how many I saw. The ocean is a different beast. If I had this to do over with my kids I think I would do life jackets in the ocean until they were able to pass our pool’s swim test — for our kids that’s 6/7, but they’re great swimmers.

This is really dumber because people die in freshwater at a vastly greater rate. I grew up in the south and have a pool, I don’t think bodies of water are inherently dangerous with the proper precautions. In lakes, that includes a life jacket at almost all times. Even as an adult I use one.

Thank you for the criticism. We’ve never swum in fresh water though. Just pools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have never done life jackets for active swimming but we were just at the beach and I was surprised how many I saw. The ocean is a different beast. If I had this to do over with my kids I think I would do life jackets in the ocean until they were able to pass our pool’s swim test — for our kids that’s 6/7, but they’re great swimmers.

This is really dumber because people die in freshwater at a vastly greater rate. I grew up in the south and have a pool, I don’t think bodies of water are inherently dangerous with the proper precautions. In lakes, that includes a life jacket at almost all times. Even as an adult I use one.

Lakes can be huge drowning hazards because many have trees and vegetation not far below the surface that can trap you and pull you down even if the surface is calm. For example, the lake the actress Naya Rivera drowned in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was just thinking about this because my sister's kids, age 11 and 9 wear them at the beach. I have a 9 year old who has never worn a life vest except a few occasions on a boat. He learned to swim in a pool at age 4/5. We started going to the beach around that time and until last year was in arms reach of an adult while in the ocean. Last year and this year he goes in on his own with and adult watching (and lifeguards on duty).

It seems like anxiety or lazy parenting to me.

In an ocean your kid could easily get caught in a wave or what ever it is called and pulled out. It’s smart.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was just thinking about this because my sister's kids, age 11 and 9 wear them at the beach. I have a 9 year old who has never worn a life vest except a few occasions on a boat. He learned to swim in a pool at age 4/5. We started going to the beach around that time and until last year was in arms reach of an adult while in the ocean. Last year and this year he goes in on his own with and adult watching (and lifeguards on duty).

It seems like anxiety or lazy parenting to me.

In an ocean your kid could easily get caught in a wave or what ever it is called and pulled out. It’s smart.

By this logic no one should ever not wear a life vest. I've been swimming in oceans for more than 40 years without one. OPs question is valid, when does it make sense?

For our family it was never, but I know some that still wear them in upper elementary years.

[Anonymous]

Never stopped. As adult I always wear one on the water, and my kids do too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Never stopped. As adult I always wear one on the water, and my kids do too.

You always wear a life vest on the beach?

I am not asking about in or near boats, or about in the water. I don’t do flotation with little kids when we are intentionally in the water because I want them to learn how it feels to swim and to sink. And it works because my kids are good swimmers.

But playing on the beach with a 2 and 4 year old, we make them wear vests because they like to run and it’s too easy to make an impulsive decision to chase the big kids or something.

I also make the 4 year old wear a vest when we are watching his sibling’s swim meets, or having a swim team social event by the pool. It would be too easy to lose him for a moment. Having said that I have had several kids wearing life jackets at pool gatherings and no one has actually gotten wet in one.

[Anonymous]

My 6 yo wears one for boogie boarding/swimming in the ocean (vs going in to his ankles or knees to fill a bucket up). When he goes in and swims we stay close. My 11 and 13 don’t wear them- I can’t remember when they stopped, but it’s been a couple years.

I think by 4 my kids were done wearing them on docks.

[Anonymous]

I feel like this is very similar to the car seat thing. You will have people who have their 12 year olds in a 5 point harness (because they still fit in to the weight/height for it!) and people who don’t even use boosters anymore for their 5/6 year olds.

Water is always a risk. IMO it’s less about the vest and more about making sure nobody-no matter how strong of a swimmer is ever alone in any kind of water.

[Anonymous]

No jackets at pools at any age. That's where they become strong swimmers.

In lakes, we will probably stop around age 12, even though they are strong swimmers around age 7-8. We do let them swim around the dock without them if we are in the water and actively watching. On boats, tubing, horsing around with friends, paddle boarding or when there is a large group without anyone specifically watching them... all of those require life jackets.

[Anonymous]

My 3.5 year old begged my husband to take hers off today and then proceeded to jump directly into the deep end of the pool. Thank god she was being watched, had had swim lessons and an adult jumped in right after her and she is okay.

Unfortunately vests can actually provide young kids with a false sense of security about their abilities. You need to be really certain they can swim well before removing them. My kids are not allowed to swim in the ocean at 6.5 and 3.5. The pool is horrifying enough.

[Anonymous]

My kids are both on swim team so can swim 500m without stopping. They're 9 and 11 yo now and it's their third year on swim team, so they've been swimming well for a while.

For us, life jackets at the ocean really depends on what the waves and current are like. Some beaches are perfectly calm and I'm fine with no life jackets. Others have strong waves and are prone to riptides. Then we do life jackets for sure. It's super beach dependant for us.

We do visit a deep, dark lake and up until last summer there was a rule that if kids headed out of the house towards the water they needed a life jacket on. Literally anytime they were behind the house, even if on land and not on the dock. We loosened up a bit last year and let them swim off the dock while watched without life jackets. I'm sure we'll keep heading in that direction.

This summer I think we're at the point where the kids can also fish, read a book, or watch the sunset off the dock without a life jacket, possibly without being closely watched by an adult. They'll always have one on with a moving boat or tubing/water skiing. That's non-negotiable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kids are both on swim team so can swim 500m without stopping. They're 9 and 11 yo now and it's their third year on swim team, so they've been swimming well for a while.

For us, life jackets at the ocean really depends on what the waves and current are like. Some beaches are perfectly calm and I'm fine with no life jackets. Others have strong waves and are prone to riptides. Then we do life jackets for sure. It's super beach dependant for us.

We do visit a deep, dark lake and up until last summer there was a rule that if kids headed out of the house towards the water they needed a life jacket on. Literally anytime they were behind the house, even if on land and not on the dock. We loosened up a bit last year and let them swim off the dock while watched without life jackets. I'm sure we'll keep heading in that direction.

This summer I think we're at the point where the kids can also fish, read a book, or watch the sunset off the dock without a life jacket, possibly without being closely watched by an adult. They'll always have one on with a moving boat or tubing/water skiing. That's non-negotiable.

You have your middle schooler wearing a life vest to read in the backyard near a lake? Did I misread that?

[Anonymous]

These posts always baffle me because everyone here seems so cautious around water, but then in real life I rarely see kids over 5 in life jackets, including at the beach or a lake. At our local pool most parents are allowing their kids to wander unsupervised starting around age 6 assuming they’re generally competent swimmers. And at the lake my entire extended family lets the kids swim off the dock without life jackets starting around the same age.

Is this another case of DCUM is not real life? Or am I surrounded by people in the minority about water safety?