Children drowning on holiday.

We had a neat miss, DH and I took the kids swimming when we were on holiday in France. I was blowing up the water wings for the 4 yo and my 2yo was stood to the side of me waiting. Dh was carrying all the swim paraphernalia that you drag down to the pool with you and stood beside me looking for a place to pitch the gear when, out of the blue and for no reason at all, my youngest took off at a sprint between wandering people all the way to midway across the pool and launched himself straight into the pool.

Dh, who swims like a fish was able to dive and get to him in a couple of strokes and scooped him up off the bottom of the pool.

If I'd have been on my own I'd have had to tell my 4 yo to stay put, I can't dive - I'd have to jump and it would have taken me longer to get there. It was too noisy to get anyone's attention and I couldn't have got through the groups of people he slipped through to go around the side. I mean, it would have been a very different outcome, and I'll be forever grateful to my mil who spent years taking DH down to the pool everyday for years on end so he could do what he did.

On holidays it’s often less clear who is watching the children - for example if I take my children swimming, I know I am in charge of them. If we’re on holiday, my husband and I are both there. It’s worse when we’re on holiday with family and there’s more children which creates more confusion over who is actually watching them all the time (we have older primary age children rather than toddlers).

When we’re on holiday or in a swimming situation now and we’re both there, we make sure we’re absolutely clear on who is watching them.

My sister (a confident swimmer with years of swimming lessons under her belt) almost drowned when we were on holiday when she was 10 and the trauma of that memory has really stayed with me.

My DH jumped in fully clothed once as our then-toddler DC jumped out of the baby pool and straight into the deep end of the main pool that was right next to it. Who designed that layout?!
My DCs are teens now so I’m more relaxed on holiday when we go to the pool, but absolutely used to have my eye on them at all times in the pool or sea. It used to really surprise me (and piss me off) how many kids were in the pool with Jo parent in sight. There have been numerous times when I’ve ended up as the “babysitter” as kids have started to play with mine in the water, I’d ask where their parents were and be told “at the bar / round the corner” etc.

A lot of it is alcohol related. Thats why it happens more on holiday.

Don't drink when you're in charge of your children around water. Alcohol loosens your inhibitions and makes you more relaxed. Too relaxed.

There is a general lack of concern for child safety and pools in Europe generally, and a lack of education in the UK about this. In Australia, all swimming pools must have a secure fence around them, even pools at private homes. This automatically creates a culture where safety is treated as important.

There really does need to be a lot more education about the risks that pools pose for little children

Even in a kiddy pool where it's shallow, you have to watch like a hawk. A child pushed and held my head under water when I was a toddler.

It's really scary and having had a near miss myself, would never judge. Absolutely awful

I dunno, dd is autistic and loves jumping into water. I'm constantly constantly terrified.

When I took her into London, she had a meltdown because she couldn't jump in the Thames. I remember thinking, 'if I let go of your hand, even for a second...'

I imagine that it just takes one second, during a busy holiday, and it can happen to any parent.

My heart goes out to those parents, I can only imagine the pain. 🥺

Unless we know the full details, I think the pool can be a bit of a red herring. It can only take seconds out of eyesight for a child to go a long way: there have been plenty of MN threads where a poster has been distraught because their toddler / small child managed to go missing in a shop or theme park, or let themselves out of the front door and get all the way down the street when they barely turned their back for 30 seconds. As previous poster said, the same may have been the case here, and whilst parents were busy searching all the obvious places in the house, their poor kid was face down in the pool.

I am the same OP, I see these articles and feel so desperately sorry for everyone involved but wonder how its happened. Awful awful tragedy. I could understand maybe if the toddler ran off and they didn't see where they went, and were searching for them but they'd fallen in the pool. Sometimes kids can go in the blink of an eye if not holding hands or being within grabbing distance.

If they were by the pool for the day and just not watching then that's a different matter.

Even when my DC are at fully supervised swimming classes (where they have 3 adults to 10 children), I never take my eyes off her for a second, just in case she gets into any difficulty and the swim teachers doesn't notice.

I remember pre kids being at an AI and the number of parents not watching their kids in the pool was obscene. A number of kids just had arm bands on and parents were chatting with their backs to the kids or reading a book. Honestly I think people don't realise that drowning can be silent.

My kids have never been in a pool/the sea without an adult in it with them.

Im just now starting to allow eldest (nearly 9) to be in the water with me watching from the side. He's in stage 7, has done 800m badge and swimming in clothes etc. Ive still got eyes on him the whole time.

This why 'well thry are a strong swimmer' is pointless and thos ridiculous things people attach to children to float, Not saying in this case but why do people not take water safety seriously