My 2 year old neice was standing next to me at the pool. I turned around to pick up a toy for her and heard the splash as she just jumped right in. I was right there so it wasn’t a big deal, except that it freaked everyone out. She had two more near pool jumping experiences that same day. There was always an adult near by but my god was it stressful keeping an eye on her.

I was at the pool this week and there was a little girl who seemed to be 3 who was in the shallow end of the regular pool. Her Mom was on her cell phone, reading. We had to tell the little girl to get out, it was adult swim, because the Mom wasn’t paying any attention. There was no life guard out, because it was adult swim time.

I was sitting on the edge of the pool last weekend watching my almost 5 year old in the shallow end (3 ft). I looked away for a few seconds and when I looked back, my child was bouncing up and down out of the water trying to get breaths with a panicked look on her face- I think she was panicking and couldn't think straight to just put her feet down. I was only a few feet away from her and jumped right in to get her, but she was pretty scared, and didn't make a sound when it happened.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The kid is 3.5 in the baby pool. We're not talking about watching a 1 yr old here

My kid was 3, wearing a chest floatie thingy in a baby pool. Totally safe, right? Nope, she decided to go under a large mat type floatie, got stuck underneath it and couldn’t get out - I had to run in and get her out. It was really scary - you just never know with water safety!

Just as an FYI, she probably got stuck BECAUSE of the floatie. Kids really shouldn't be wearing these.

Anonymous wrote:The kid is 3.5 in the baby pool. We're not talking about watching a 1 yr old here

My kid was 3, wearing a chest floatie thingy in a baby pool. Totally safe, right? Nope, she decided to go under a large mat type floatie, got stuck underneath it and couldn’t get out - I had to run in and get her out. It was really scary - you just never know with water safety!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the bigger concern is social events where everyone assumes someone else is keeping an eye on a young child. That’s the higher risk scenario.

I agree. Chatting is way worse than phone surfing.

Yep. Big family pool party last week and this was my nightmare. We designated a pool watcher and took 15-20-minute turns.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the bigger concern is social events where everyone assumes someone else is keeping an eye on a young child. That’s the higher risk scenario.

This happened in our family 30 years ago - big family party, suddenly realized no one knew where the kid was (I think he was 4).... he was stuck under the solar cover on my uncles pool. Apparently he went in (assume he didn’t fall since someone would have heard that) and slipped under the solar cover and it was too heavy for him to get out from underneath. I don’t know how they figured it out so quickly but he was totally blue when he was pulled out and luckily had no lasting injuries. So scary and something that has stuck with me as I became a parent.

That’s amazing that he was okay. I used to live in NY where there is a small chain of specialty grocery stores called Stew Leonard’s, and the family lost a small child that way during a party. I was always haunted by their story. They have a foundation focused on preventing such accidents in the future - https://stewietheduck.org/

Anonymous wrote:I think the bigger concern is social events where everyone assumes someone else is keeping an eye on a young child. That’s the higher risk scenario.

This happened in our family 30 years ago - big family party, suddenly realized no one knew where the kid was (I think he was 4).... he was stuck under the solar cover on my uncles pool. Apparently he went in (assume he didn’t fall since someone would have heard that) and slipped under the solar cover and it was too heavy for him to get out from underneath. I don’t know how they figured it out so quickly but he was totally blue when he was pulled out and luckily had no lasting injuries. So scary and something that has stuck with me as I became a parent.

Anonymous wrote:I think the bigger concern is social events where everyone assumes someone else is keeping an eye on a young child. That’s the higher risk scenario.

I agree. Chatting is way worse than phone surfing.

I think the bigger concern is social events where everyone assumes someone else is keeping an eye on a young child. That’s the higher risk scenario.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The kid is 3.5 in the baby pool. We're not talking about watching a 1 yr old here

They can still drown if they do something stupid, and kids are stupid. If you would rather look at your phone it's up to you.

Parents will always make an excuse not to parent.

Anonymous wrote:The kid is 3.5 in the baby pool. We're not talking about watching a 1 yr old here

They can still drown if they do something stupid, and kids are stupid. If you would rather look at your phone it's up to you.

Anonymous wrote:The kid is 3.5 in the baby pool. We're not talking about watching a 1 yr old here

I agree. Not the same as the big pool. Flame away people, but it’s not the same.

And I totally read my phone at the pool now. My kids are 8 and 11 and have been on swim team since age 5. They swim competitively year round.

The kid is 3.5 in the baby pool. We're not talking about watching a 1 yr old here

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was talking to a doctor last weekend who does pediatric heart transplants at a top transplant hospital - he said offhandedly "It'll be a busy weekend because we always get a few kids' hearts over Memorial Day weekend due to drownings." Chilling and true. WATCH YOUR KIDS.

That is horrible.

Yes. And they should use that soundbite to make a PSA.

Anonymous wrote:I was talking to a doctor last weekend who does pediatric heart transplants at a top transplant hospital - he said offhandedly "It'll be a busy weekend because we always get a few kids' hearts over Memorial Day weekend due to drownings." Chilling and true. WATCH YOUR KIDS.

ugh
this makes me sick