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Original poster

Please please please watch your children at the beach

109 replies

listsandbudgets · 19/08/2021 20:38

I'm staying in Devon at the moment and decided at about half past four to go for a swim. I'm a reasonably confident swimmer and know that at this particular beach its quite easy to go quickly out of your depth.

I was treading water talking to another woman I vaguely know when she suddenly said "I think that little girl just went under over there" Luckily we were fairly close, swam as quickly as we could and were able to grab her and haul her out. She was coughing up sea water and obviously terrified but she was OK. We took her back to the beach and her parents hadn't even realised - understandably they were extremely upset :(

Please watch your children and make sure for yourself before they go in how quickly it gets deep some beaches you can walk out for ages and its barely past your waists but not all of them.. I'm only processing now what could have happened if the lady I was with hadn't spotted her.

OP posts:

TableFlowerss · 19/08/2021 21:15

Thank god you guys were there!!!

eeyore228 · 19/08/2021 21:16

Its generally parents thinking they know better. I watched multiple children walked behind red flags at the beach with no parent. Lifeguard approaches and a few minutes later a parent saunters over to question them.
I overheard the lifeguard talking to a colleague and was bewildered by the blase attitude. Very sad really, i wonder who they would blame if something happened.

Original poster

listsandbudgets · 19/08/2021 21:21

@garriet that's absolutely petrifying

OP posts:

RestingStitchFace · 19/08/2021 21:22

Well said Op.

When I was 7 a daughter and father local to us both drowned in the sea. She got caught out of her depth, he got caught by the current trying to get to her. It was 40 years ago and I've never forgotten it.

megletthesecond · 19/08/2021 21:23

Yanbu.
Mine are teens but we only swim in stretches of beach watched by lifeguards and even then I have my eye on them.

Invisimamma · 19/08/2021 21:26

Thank goodness you were there.

There have been so many tragic deaths in open waters this summer, I live in Scotland and I think there were 9 deaths in one weekend. Its given me the opportunity to speak to both my children about the dangers and how to stay safe. They are young and won't be near the water along for a while yet but I will keep reinforcing the importance of water safety because I never ever want to be the parent who gets the phonecall (or witnesses) such an avoidable tradgey.

HelloDaisy · 19/08/2021 21:27

Dh saved a young girl in a swimming pool on holiday once.

She was moving around the pool near us with her young brother on her back. Dh said he saw a look of terror in her eyes and hauled her up by her armpits. She took a huge gasp of air and burst into tears.
It was quite frightening for everyone really. She was slightly out of her depth in the pool and wasn’t strong enough to keep her nose above the water because of the added weight of her brother.

We spent a lot of time with them during that holiday as ds made friends with her despite neither speaking the other’s language! We found out afterwards that she was a really good swimmer which is why her parents weren’t watching her closely.

Valhalla17 · 19/08/2021 21:30

Yep I had to help another child like this recently. About 7yrs old, went under and was throwing up loads after I pulled her out. Was after 7pm and parents nowhere to be seen her little pal ran up the beach to find them while I helped her. Absolutely terrifying and many people are pretty complacent about the dangers unfortunately.

FortunesFave · 19/08/2021 21:30

I live in Oz and being a Brit, I'm a fair bit more cautious than the locals about the sea. They're really relaxed about it....too relaxed. I was at the beach last year and a lot of DD's school mates were around also with parents. They had got hold of an inflatable tyre thing....you know those oversized black ones? Well they were bobbing around on it far too far out and I couldn't relax at all! I kept envisioning them being swept out to sea.

QueenHofScotland · 19/08/2021 21:30

Thanks goodness you saw and were able to help her. Well done OP.

Last year in Woolacombe my two girls asked me to walk down to the wet sand to get some for their buckets. They would have been 10 and 6. We were at a beach hut and I was watching them digging happily in the wet sand. I looked away for seconds to grab something and when I looked over they had vanished. It was scorching weather and the beach was packed. They had ran to the waters edge to get water. The tide was so far out so it was so far away, and so busy that I couldn’t keep them in my line of sight. I swear I have never ran so fast in all my life. I know they wouldn’t go in - we’ve drummed that into them. But imagine a wave came or kids knocked into them etc. It can happen so fast.

FortunesFave · 19/08/2021 21:31

@frazzledfragglefromfragglerock

We are sailors and paddle boarders. My kids never swim in the sea without bouyancy aids. If we're paddling without them they're only allowed into their knees.

My eldest is 14 Asda string swimmer and the rules still apply!

I think that's very sensible.The sea is just too unreliable.

Babynames2 · 19/08/2021 21:31

*Perhaps they just relaxed because they were on holiday’

I think this is what happens. My mom is usually quite cautious but last month we went on our first holiday with them, DD1 had just turned 4. My mom took her down to the sea to jump in the waves and fill up some buckets a few times and then for some reason the next time she decided to let 4 year old DD run back to where I was sitting by herself. DD appeared from a completely different direction to the sea shouting ‘oh there you are, I’ve found you’. My mom followed probably a couple of minutes after, not long at all but long enough that DD had run off parallel to the sea and looped round to find us, rather than ran straight in the direction we were sitting. No idea why my mom suddenly decided it was okay for a 4 year old to be running off near the sea alone, or running off anywhere alone actually!

Goingdriving · 19/08/2021 21:32

It takes a Moment
Years ago I was walking with my two three year olds and I let them run ahead. We were next to a water channel covered in green algae. They were only just ahead of me
And suddenly I saw my daughter on her back in the water just her face looking out from the agae - as she breathed out her face began to drop down under the green.
The water was so shallow. She could have stood up in it. But she had no idea how to orientate herself in water she was so young
I waded in abs pulled her out.
Thank you for rescuing the child today

OrtolanVeil · 19/08/2021 21:35

My eldest dc is having swimming lessons but it's clear he won't know what to do with himself if he gets in too deep (he might "know" but he'll panic). At the moment me and DH are super serious about one of us being right with them in the sea and not to go out past paddling stage. They're not interested in swimming in the sea yet but I know when they get older it'll be different.

I can't actually relax on the beach if they're near the water!

christinarossetti19 · 19/08/2021 21:37

This sent a shiver down my spine.

I find being at the beach so anxiety-provoking because of exactly this.

I think this year has been particularly dangerous as many people used to swimming in the warm, calm water of the Med are now on British beaches, which are very, very different.

FortunesFave · 19/08/2021 21:38

@Goingdriving

It takes a Moment Years ago I was walking with my two three year olds and I let them run ahead. We were next to a water channel covered in green algae. They were only just ahead of me And suddenly I saw my daughter on her back in the water just her face looking out from the agae - as she breathed out her face began to drop down under the green. The water was so shallow. She could have stood up in it. But she had no idea how to orientate herself in water she was so young I waded in abs pulled her out. Thank you for rescuing the child today

This is horrifyingly well described. That image is terrible! You must have been so shaken up.

FortunesFave · 19/08/2021 21:40

@christinarossetti19

This sent a shiver down my spine.

I find being at the beach so anxiety-provoking because of exactly this.

I think this year has been particularly dangerous as many people used to swimming in the warm, calm water of the Med are now on British beaches, which are very, very different.

this is probably true. I live in Oz right next to the beach...it's beautiful coastline here but it's not Bondi so there's no rescue, no lifeguards, only signs advising people where to swim. I think there's been one fatality a year since I moved here....it looks so calm but there are odd currents and sudden changes in temperature here.

FedUpAtHomeTroels · 19/08/2021 21:41

Ours all had to wear life jackets in the water when young. Once they were young teens and excellent swimmers we let them loose but I used to still be on edge. I fear the sea/lakes and drowning.
Thank goodness you and the other lady were there OP.

DartmoorDoughnut · 19/08/2021 21:42

@frazzledfragglefromfragglerock

We are sailors and paddle boarders. My kids never swim in the sea without bouyancy aids. If we're paddling without them they're only allowed into their knees.

My eldest is 14 Asda string swimmer and the rules still apply!

@frazzledfragglefromfragglerock can you recommend a bouyancy aid? Have an almost 7yr old who is desperate to go swimming in the sea (with us!) and would like some additional security for him,

Flatdisco · 19/08/2021 21:43

God that must have been frightening for you all. So glad you were there as it could have been a very different outcome. I totally agree with what you are saying as accidents can happened so quickly.

soupey1 · 19/08/2021 21:49

When we were children our father was assiduous about being with us if we were more than paddling and I remember one time when there were two children who got trapped on a sandbank. We could both swim (we went to lessons from an early age) so he told me to swim back just in front of him, my older brother swam alongside the older child helping him from time to time and my father towed the younger child back. When we got to the beach we went back to my mother (a very poor swimmer who only ever paddled) and he had to walk the length of the beach trying to find their parents.

Evenstar · 19/08/2021 21:50

I was on honeymoon in Tenerife in the late 80’s, DH and I were dozing in deckchairs on the grass in front of our hotel room, we roused just enough to see a tiny toddler, around 18 months, get into a fish pond in the centre of the lawn. She almost immediately fell face down in the water, DH ran across the lawn and scooped her out. Her parents had fallen asleep in their room with the patio door open and were totally unaware that she had gone outside.

It takes seconds and you can never let your guard down near ANY water with little ones.

Well done OP and thank you for raising awareness.

Caramelsmadfuzzytail · 19/08/2021 21:51

What I find sad is, every year, people are warned of rip tides, notices are up, life guards are there, but still people take no notice. This year there has even been a "if you see squares in the sea, avoid it" notice. Still people will swim outside the flags.

seemenow · 19/08/2021 22:00

My parents live by a lake, and I holiday there every summer. There’s a beach where the camping site has kindly supplied a few long boards to use. These boards are left on the beach and anyone can use them. My children love them, and use them to paddle out to the buoys, and then dive off and play there. The water is spectacularly deep there. My children are confident swimmers, and I still keep an eye on them when they go there. There was a couple next to me, speaking in a language most people on the the beach wouldn’t have understood, worrying about their children, who had taken a long board and followed my children to the bouy. The parents were saying to each other “I cant swim’ and neither could their children. I was frantically worried and tried yelling to my children to get them all to come back, but they were too far away. So I swam to the chi,dren and dragged them back to the beach, but blow me, if one of them had fallen off the long board, they’d have been done for. Please don’t think your child can be safe in water if they can’t swim.

MobyDicksTinyCanoe · 19/08/2021 22:00

We've always been extremely careful and even we made a stupid mistake a few weeks ago having a paddle in a popular, open water swimming spot. (( fell foot for anyone who's familiar with the lakes)) ds was grabbed by a current. Luckily he had the sense to stand very still so we could get to him and he wasnt out of his depth but I felt bloody stupid.

We also live on the coast and again, ive always been careful. But even I wasnt aware of different bodies of water and that what I thought was a stream left by the sea was in fact a bleddy channel!

Id be lying if I said I spent loads of time at the beach but I'm definitely educating myself more as I can see exactly how incidents and deaths happen.

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