Reply to Anxiety about drowning?

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[quote=Anonymous]I am always on guard when there is water. It is an entirely reasonable and logical fear. And I generally am a 'chill out' kind of parent that doesn't get that in the weeds about extreme safety. But water kills there is no way around it.

I do use puddle jumpers, I know the reasons people say not to use them, but I have three kids and I just cannot physically keep perfect eyes on them and it gives me a clear large visual clue as to their whereabouts so I can find them in the pool, and it helps all of them get pool access time when we get that (which is not that frequent, we live in New England). I have them in real swim lessons once a week too and I have not had any delay in teaching them how to swim.

I regularly put the fear of god in them about the water too. I tell them they can die, etc. I am very chill about so much that I do think the fact that I am constantly drilling water safety with them makes them take it seriously.

With puddle jumpers...I get that it can cause delays and make them feel more comfortable in the vertical position, and that isn't great, but if they didn't have puddle jumpers they wouldn't be permitted to explore the pool because I'd have to be one on one with them literally the entire time, vs being in the pool with them and kind of tag teaming. I dunno I just think this isn't quite as up or down as people think. My kids GET to have fun in the pool and become comfortable in the water because of the puddle jumpers, and they get instruction on swimming regularly. The 6 year old is totally out of them, my 4 year old is close. My 2 year old will keep them on.

But yeah, when you have little kids you can't chill at the pool, it needs to be a highly supervised activity. I let my kids go play on the swingset outside out of my sight while I cook dinner, so I'm not a helicopter, I think my neighbor thinks I'm negligent sometimes! But in the pool, you just rotate through visual checks (kid 1, kid 2, kid 3, repeat), you have to be vigilant.

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