Your family weekend trip is coming up and everybody’s excited to take a dip in the pool and soak in the sun. But you’ll be travelling with your little tykes, along with a few adolescents and adults who aren’t exactly pro swimmers.
Here are pool safety tips to ensure that the family takes precaution during your swim.
Guidelines For A Safe Swim With Kids
1. Life Vest, Feet First, Never Swim Alone
This first tip should be specially reinforced with your kids. They’re non-negotiable. Some parents even go to the lengths of having their tots sport life vests the moment they arrive at the pool location, even when they aren’t hitting the pool yet.
In addition to this, separate individual floatation devices won’t suffice. Yes, you can throw them into the water and have them float there. Nonetheless, kids should never be without working life vests.
Likewise, remind them to always go feet in first, and there’s no other way than that. Next, reiterate that kids are to never swim on their own, and that counts kids swimming in a group. If there’s no adult watching over them, then swim time can be postponed for a few minutes until a guardian can be there with them.
This automatically means that parents and guardians, you are to constantly watch over your kids. We can’t overemphasize it any more than this.
2. Stay Clear Off Drains
Another non-negotiable. This is important to note because drains tend to have a suction mechanism and for a child, its power is enough to drag him or her to it. At the same time, if you’ll be hanging out in the pool in your backyard, be sure that all drains and fitted with standard covers to further safeguard your little ones.
3. Security Alarms
There are tons of security alarm gadgets you can now purchase at a fraction of their original cost. Install them near and around the pool area, along with the enclosures and doors that lead up to it.
4. Barriers Around The Pool
Here’s a tip that will be life-saving during times off-days when nobody’s using the pool. A slip-free pool deck is recommended. So if a pool deck resurfacing is needed, do so, by all means.
Second, pool, spa, and jacuzzi covers. If they’re lockable, all the better. The reason behind using such apparatuses is to avoid any mishaps in case a child trips and falls over the pool itself.
Over and above this, it’s crucial to reinforce instructions that barriers are off-limits. Once they’re up, there’s no getting past them. Adults should follow these rules, too, to set an example for children.
5. Search The Pool First
In the unfortunate event that your child is suddenly no longer in your line of sight, search the pool first. Before your eyes dart towards the playpen, the picnic grounds, the swing area, head towards the pool. This will prove to be a life-saving tip as well.
6. Swimming Lessons
Now’s the time to teach your children how to swim. Enroll them in swimming classes and be there in every session. Not only will it be a way to keep an eye on them but it will also serve as brush-up lessons for you and your swimming skills.