Child Safety

[Uhblackhawkmtp]

I am attaching a link that I recently saw on Facebook. Does anyone out there have experience with the Infant Swimming Resource or comments regarding this topic.
My wife and I have a pre-schooler and a 13 month old, plus my 18yo is having my first grand daughter this Monday (Yeah, I know I'm too old to have babies, but no one likes a quitter). Both little ones are becoming good swimmers and have a strong desire to be in the pool.
As added precautions, I have put up a "fence" which restricts (slows down) access to the pool, we have a safety cover and we have an alarm on the back door. With all that said, I still think it is a good idea to train our "little swimmers" and give them the resources to save themselves and avert a possible tragidy.
Comments, suggestions or recomendations?

 

[jblizzle]

One of the Mods, just put their kid in a class:
http://www.troublefreepool.com/threads/76421-Infant-rescue-swim-classes

 

[Uhblackhawkmtp]

I should have searched harder, but I think it definitely bears repeating.

 

[AimeeH]

I can't comment on the quality of lessons. My pool was installed 3years ago and at that time my children were 6 and 8. At the time, my six year old was not such a good swimmer. This year he has come in first at swim meets in his age group for at least two strokes (butterfly and free) time and time again. Both are great swimmers and the older one will be on the school swim team this year (I don't think any of this would have occurred had we not put in our own pool).

With all that said.......I still think the most important thing above swimming lessons is adult eyes on the kids. Having rules that are enforced......no kids in pool without adult eyes period. My children know this and obey this......even though they are competitive swimmers.

I can endorse the very early swim lessons that taught basic principle of learning to float and doggy paddling etc. have value to a toddler but is likely not to be life saving in the event of an accident where adult eyes are not on children. I haven't done a comprehensive study by any means on accidental drownings in private home pools but I would suspect many occur out of stupid behavior as much as lack of swimming ability. You can teach a child to swim but you can't stop childish stupid behavior (like jumping in too close to another person and whacking heads.....). Rules.....and rules and rules. Everyone here just knows....no kids in pool without an adult present.

Ok so there is my safety rant. I think basic swim lessons are great but by no means a life saver.

 

[duraleigh]

I am closing this thread.

I have seen very similar threads devolve very quickly into "How I think you should raise your child" and there may be a forum for that somewhere but it is not here.

Please review the forum rules and notice that links are restricted to members with more than 200 posts.