Reply to Unsupervised pre-k kids in floaties at pool

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I was a pool manager back in the day, and always required parents to be within arm’s length of their child, regardless of the floatation device.

I’ve seen kids somehow get stuck upside-down with poorly-inflated arm floaties, or had a styrofoam bubble slide up just enough to press a head down and panic the kid so they can’t right themselves.

In a perfect world, a lifeguard would get to them in time, of course. But if the parent is right there, the guard can blow the whistle and get their attention to grab the kid much faster than they can jump down and navigate a crowded pool to get to them.

But I can also tell you, I got a ton of pushback on this every year. Especially from parents with several small children, who didn’t want to force all of them to stay in one area. I was fortunate that our board always backed me up on this rule, because it wasn’t always fun to enforce. [/quote]

I would never stay with a pool that always required me to be in arms length of my child!  That’s over the top unless you are talking about like, toddler age.[/quote]

That’s a pretty common rule.  If your kid is not tall enough to stand on the bottom of the pool with their head above the water, you absolutely should be within reach of the child.  [/quote]

My pool makes you stay withing arm's length until your kid passes a swim test.  My kid is 3 and absolutely no way would I let him be in the pool without me.  I am an experienced swimmer, including ocean swimming, and false confidence is deadly. [/quote]

I think we all agree here and I’m going to assume the pool manager’s policy had to do with very young children (although it’s unclear given the parental pushback experienced).  Huge differences between a toddler, 3 year old and an 8 year old, and kids have to learn to swim independently which can’t happen if you are constantly within arms’ reach.  [/quote]

Of course you can teach your kid how to swim while staying close.

You learn to swim, and then they pass the swim test, and then you give them more distance. [/quote]

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