to expect parents to supervise their children whilst in a swimming pool?

[juicychops]

a child was face down in the water in the deeper end of the pool and pulled out by a life guard unconscious. it was horrible to see. it wasn't until the life guard had got the child from the middle of the pool and made it back to the side of the pool that the dad came along and said 'he's mine'.

the dad was doing laps. the mum was in the shallow end with their younger child.

luckily after about 40 seconds of being lifted out the water the child coughed up water and started screaming and crying.

He was no older than 6.

far too young to be left alone in the deep end without an ounce of supervision. what is the matter with people

I know, merci .

THis couple, where we were, sat in the bar to drink their drinks. We couldn't understand why any would do that.

I would be more concerned about the lifeguards than the parents to be honest.

I simply cannot believe what I am reading. If I take dd swimming she is my responsibility. There may have been paid life guards ( who by all acc

a 6 year old shouldnt have been unattended. YANBU, I keep a close eye on both of mine (age 6 and 9 who can both swim) just in case they get out of their depth and panic

Whoops! ... Did their job and child was ultimately unharmed.
Why the fuck anyone does a (low paid!) job these days where you are looking out for other people only to get the blame when you do it correctly I will never know.
I do not know the full story and wasn't there but a small child is the responsibility of the parents in a pool- yes things go wrong very quickly, we've all turned round and had those moments where ourchlldren have gone from sight , it doesn't mean it's the life guards fault - who by ghe sounds of it raised the alarm and situation was sorted.

The OP knows what she saw - that she and a lifeguard identified a child in trouble and it was only after the child was out of the pool that dad noticed the situation. That's not great.

I am typing this in our holiday cottage that we leave tomorrow. There is a pool here and we've been in it every day for two weeks. dd3 is 6 and a non-swimmer though she's made huge strides in floating and swimming this holiday. So when we've been in the pool with her she's either had armbands/ring on or she's been at the shallow end with dh or I or one of our older (good swimmer) daughters. Every single time I've relinquished responsibility for her it's been by saying to the relevant person 'you've got dd3 ok?' and we did the same last week when niece and nephew were in the pool. It's jut what you do. WHat happened in the Op's pool today is not ok. Thank God it wasn't worse but the OP is not unreasonable to be shocked by the parent's actions.

By six both my DDs would happily escape from me at regular intervals and neither of them would have thought twice about jumping in the deep end or going down adult water shoots.

In an area where many DCs learn to swim very young, they were far from the only very confident small swimmers. Our life guards might look exasperated at the absence of parents, but they'd not assume the DCs were in any great danger.

My brother once had to grab a child who was struggling under the water during one of those simulated wave things and pull her to safety. Her parents, who had not been close by and keeping an eye on her, thanked him. A while later, during another simulated wave, there she was again struggling in the water. This time he picked her up and handed her straight to the lifeguard who had a sharp word with the parents. By the way, my brother had his own three kids with him but still noticed this child was in danger while her parents didn't.
Some people just seem to be really stupid when it comes to looking after their children in water.

And I do realise that sometimes you can take your eyes off your child for a second and an accident can happen. But some parents aren't anywhere near their child when danger strikes.

The situation might not be as it seems, my youngest brother almost drowned as a child and from an outside perspective my mother would have look incompetent.

We were on holiday at a Haven holiday came and my middle brother and I were on and off the large twisty water slide. My youngest brother (age 3) begged to go on.

Knowing he was under both the age and height restriction and that he would simply be send away when he got to the top of the steps as lifeguards had been doing all day to other children my mother took off his arm bands and sent him up with us to stop him going on about it.

My other brother and I went on first, my youngest brother was behind us. My mother stood at the bottom of the stairs waiting for him and watching him at the top of the slide. She couldn't see him past a certain point though because he was shorter than the side barriers.

My middle brother and I came down and swam to the side, my mother was vaguely aware of a lifeguard diving in. It was only when he shouted 'whose baby is this?' while holding my brother over his head that she realised he had been allowed down the slide and the lifeguard had dived in when he didn't come up.

Weirdly she doesn't actually remember most of this, she only remembers the near drowning, she doesn't remember why she let him on the slide that was too old for him, why she didn't see him come down and why she was so far away from him when he was in the water.

I think she is a bit traumatised, I filled her in with my own memories of the even recently when we were discussing water safety for my own three year old. All she remembers was she took her eyes off him and he nearly drowned.

She completely blames herself whereas I think she is only partially responsible, I should have insisted he went first so I knew they were sending him back down the stairs (I was eight so old enough to keep an eye out for him) and the life guard in charge of the slide obviously didn't follow the height restriction, the age restriction or the rule about asking kids if they could swim before letting them down.

Not everything is always as it seems, I am glad the child was ok. It must have been shocking to see.

I used to lifeguard. I fished kids out weekly.y own have had close shaves though.
Dd2 is aged 2 and swims like a fish.
I get judgey looks as she jumps in with no armbands then shocked faces as she swims off! Tis funny.

Reading this thread makes me think too many people set too much store by the presence of lifeguards. Take a look at them. They're usually.just kids themselves.

I hate it when the first thing someone wants to do is find someone to blame. I'd find a little compassion.

DD2(4ish) had been on the rapids in Centre Parks all day. Come night time a much more cautious life Guard came on duty. She happily swam in the strong current at the top for him and he waved her through.

She always went down between me an DH as there was a very strong current at the bottom.

That same night there were parents trying to get a terrified small DC in armbands (strictly forbidden) to go down them.
Fortunately the life guard said no!

DD2 did water shoots because she wanted to, I've never forced her and she has come down off very high open ones when she was older and slightly more easily scared.

I was about to say YABU, then I saw how old the child was - at 6, regardless of how competent a swimmer is, they still aren't really aware of their own limitations and definitely need supervising. I know there are lifeguards there, but they're not babysitters.

Lilicat I would totally blame your DM for taking off your brother's armbands and sending him up the stairs with you onto a slide that he shouldn't be on! What an irresponsible thing to do

Unpleasant OP.

My older DC's have been on the school swimming team since year 1 so at age 6 would have been more than capable of doing lengths themselves.

You have no idea what happened so stop being so judgey.

ledkr I had a lecture from a smug mum at the pool just last week about allowing my 2 year old DD near the edge without armbands. She looked a little less smug when my DD lept in and swam past her own school aged DD who was flapping about in armbands - 8 know I shouldn't but

And thank god the child was ok - who knows why he came to get in difficulty.

I was surprised whilst on holiday that another couple allowed their 8 and 5 yos in the pool on their own. They could swim, but it only takes a min to slip and bang your head or have an accident jumping in.

platinum isn't it funny? Mine all swam early but not this early. Some yummy mummy's were slating me too, they didn't realise I was sat next to them untill I thanked them for their concern
I don't always get in with her (brrrrrr) but sit on the side in my shorts n bare feet ready to grab her if I need to.
It's a small outdoor pool which she is in her depth all over.
I have to say I do tv look away for a second though.