Anonymous wrote:My kid(8) is on the swim team and I still look up from my book to check in him. Its called parenting.

My kid(8) is on the swim time and I still make sure to stay in arms' reach. It's called parenting.




Ok, not really, but why are you so convinced that you are at the perfect level of supervision, and therefore what you are doing is parenting. Someone else may think their child needs more or less supervision and guess what? They are parenting too!

my 6 year old can swim the length of the pool, is comfortable in deep water- etc. I let him swim whereever and check on him every 5 minutes or so.
My 4 year old cannot swim the length of the pool, but can stand in the shallow end. I am always within arms reach.

My son just turner 7 and I find myself watching him a lot less closely than I used to (will talk to friends, look at a magazine, go to a different area of the pool with little sibling, and look up to check on big brother every once in a while). He can swim the length of the pool okay, but I don't completely trust him not to exhaust himself and freak out. I watch a lot more closely when the pool is crowded, he's been swimming in deep water for a long time, or he's playing with older kids.

My 5 year old is a decent swimmer for his age, but I watch him much more closely. Just last week I jumped in to "rescue" him when, after 30 minutes of diving for toys in deep water he apparently "forgot" how to swim to the wall and started freaking out.

It's not so much about age as it is about ability and confidence. My dd was 6 when she started winter swim team, By the next summer, she was a strong swimmer and I didn't watch her.

My son is now 7 and he can swim the length of the pool, but barely. I still watch him.

Anonymous wrote:I went to a birthday party recently for a 7 year old and I was the only parent who stayed to watch mine at the pool. There was no one else besides lifeguards at the crowded pool area.

Exact same thing happened to me. And these were not strong swimmers at all.

My kid(8) is on the swim team and I still look up from my book to check in him. Its called parenting.

When he passed the patch test at our pool, so age 6. Sort of. I would sit near the pool and keep an eye on him for the next year looking up occasionally. By 8, I was out

My kids grew up in Florida with a pool at our house. They were swimming really well by about 3. They were able to swim the length of our pool and back and tread water for a minute with no problem. I could relax at a pool with a lifeguard easily when they were 5 or 6. I had to watch them more carefully when they were not in the water.

Mine are 8 and 10 and good swimmers who follow the pool rules for the most part. I watch them when the pool is crowded but less and less this summer when the pool is not crowded. I am also a former lifeguard and think the guards at our pool are terrible (eating and sleeping on the stand, arranging themselves to get the best tan rather than for the best view of the pool, etc.).

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I went to a birthday party recently for a 7 year old and I was the only parent who stayed to watch mine at the pool. There was no one else besides lifeguards at the crowded pool area.

It isn't just about swimming laps - if someone pushed them under, could they get up? Do they horse around with friends? Will they follow rules?

I was a lifeguard for years, and I still watch all pools I am near - can't help it. Even when they are filled with string swimmers.

My kid started going to camps with swimming at age 7, so there was no ability to watch her. I still watch when she is with me though, and she is 9.

When I knew they could swim a whole length of the pool.

What age did you stop watching your DC in the pool (think crowded summer pool) and leave it to the life guards to watch?