The Day I Learned About Water Safety
When I was just 12 years old, I attended a neighborhood pool party with a few families from our street. There were kids of all ages, with the youngest being around the age of 2. As the adults gathered in the shallow end of the pool, one mother was with her young toddler. She placed the young girl on a pool noodle as a floatation device. Her mom had a false perception that with so many people around, her child would be safe.
Sadly, she was wrong.
While the mom was in the middle of an engaging conversation with the other adults, the toddler slowly and silently slipped into the pool water unnoticed by her mother or other adults. Luckily, I noticed that the child’s head was fully submerged and pulled her out of the water. I’m scared to think what would have happened if I didn’t glance that way.
That day taught me so much about being safe around water. I learned that water safety isn’t only about vast and unpredictable bodies of water like the ocean but can also occur in smaller, tranquil settings like your home pool where adults may let their guard down due to a false sense of control. I also realized that drowning scenes portrayed in the movies, with screaming and splashing, are not accurate. In reality, drowning is silent and doesn’t come with an alarm.
The truth is, drowning stands as the leading cause of fatal unintentional injuries in children ages 1-4; so, it is important to implement safety precautions to ensure your child’s safety around any water. Here are a few tips that could help ease your mind and keep your child safe:
- Be sure that all children are wearing USCG approved life jackets or using approved floatation devices.
- Always have an adult watching kids in or around water, and with their full attention. You can use the free Safe Kids Water Watcher Card to help.
- Learn CPR and basic water rescue skills to learn how to respond to an emergency.
- Install 4-sided fences with self-locking and self-latching gates around home pools.
- Empty tubs, buckets, and kids pools immediately after use. Store them upside down. Children can drown in water as shallow as one inch.
- Remember to safely store all pool toys after playing so that the children are not tempted to go retrieve their toys from the pool.
