To think it’s a bit negligent to leave your DC in a water park for hours at a time?

[Rainallnight]

We’re on holiday at a place with an on site water park. DD has made friends with a little boy who’s 5, with an older brother who is 8.

Their parents routinely leave them unattended in the swimming pool for 3-4 hours at a time, just showing up to get them for meals etc.

The 8 year old is a good swimmer. The five year old has an enthusiastic doggy paddle.

DP and I are quite anxious about water safety generally so I am wondering if I’m being uptight or if this is genuinely weird.

YABU - of course it’s ok to leave kids this age unattended in pools/water parks

YANBU - of course it’s dangerous.

For the person saying you can't leave an 8 year old - wrong.

Our local pool allows 8 year olds to go without parents and this is common in our area - ie. they go in groups of friends. Once a week there is a kids disco evening with music and floats and adults arent even allowed!

It's a small pool in a quiet neighbourhood and kids walk without adults - I love it.

However - I would be alert to the fact that a small community pool where lifeguards are expecting lone children is VERY different to a busy water park.

The 5 year old - that will be against rules.

Appalling negligence by the parents. It’s insane to leave children unattended.

I was on the beach on Friday and was paddling in the sea with my 2 year old, a younger child appeared behind me (18 months?) and was by herself for about 5 mins until mum came down from the beach, strapped a flotation vest to her and then went back to sit on her towel to chat to her friends

That is incredibly dangerous

I’d remove the kids from the water, report to the hotel, and be clear with the hotel you will report to the police if they don’t manage the parents to make sure this doesn’t happen again.

I am not at all a worrier. I used to teach swimming and this breaks every guideline there is.

Yes. This is different.

Good lord, I wouldnt leave the 8 year old, never mind the 5 year old. Extremely negligent. Shocking 'parenting'

Christ and its not just the health and safety drowning risk either, child abduction on holiday is not exactly unheard of. This makes me so angry, those poor kids. Definitely inform the staff. Xx

If you're absolutely sure that they're by themselves, how the hell have you not informed the lifeguards?!
I couldn't live with myself knowing that if something happened to either of them.
Oh and to previous posters it is NOT Ok to piss off and leave an 8 year old by water for hours by themselves either!

Most pools have 11 at the very youngest age children can be unsupervised. That's not safe at all. The park must be unaware but the lifeguards there are responsible for saving anyone in distress. They will be assuming both kids have an adult around and therefore they are unsupervised and no guard can ever give them enough attention.
I would alert the park to this immediately so they can remove the children unless their parents can come in with them.

Appallingly neglectful parents. I hope you have spoken to the staff by now. If something awful happened to those kids, you would never forgive yourself. 8 is still too young to be left and definitely miles too young to be looking after a 5 year old.

I wouldnt leave my 5 and 10 year olds unsupervised at home for 5 minutes let alone for hours by water
Ridiculously shit parenting please flag to someone

So risky. Definitely report to the hotel.

I wouldn't leave my children that age unattended full stop, let alone at a pool.

Aged 10, I almost drowned in a holidat swimming pook when I went down a slide, was out of my depth and couldn't touch the bottom with my feet. Fortunately,my family were at the side and my 13 year old brother jumped in and pulled me up. There were lots of people splashing around and nobody else noticed.

This is massively irresponsible of those parents.

This is scary. Aside from the water risk, what if someone walks off with their kids.

I won't be letting my 8 and 12 year old go to the pool on their own on holiday, even though they are both good swimmers and the 12 yo goes swimming on his own in the UK. I'm never convinced in big hotel complexes how enthusiastically the life guards are monitoring, there often seem to be a lot of people in the water. I might let my 12 yo take my 8 yo to the games room for a short period but at 5 and 8 I wouldn't be leaving them alone anywhere.

YANBU but I'm not surprised.

Back in the olden days (80s) I was a lifeguard at a busy pool. It was very common for groups of young children 7/8ish to be dropped off at the pool when it opened in the morning with the entry fee and 20p for a hot chocolate from the machine.

They would be left all day and leave when the pool shut.

While they could mostly swim there were the inevitable slips, trips, cuts necessitating a call home (if they could remember their phone number) as the beloved child needed to go to hospital.

They were a menace as they mucked about in the changing rooms and in the pool.

I bet they have decided that you are looking after them. Have they spoken to you?

Its too young.

Mine are 14 and 10. This year at the water park I did let them go off by themselves. We sat by the pool so could see them if in swimming. The rest of the park was slides with tons of lifeguards.

8 and 5 is too young IMO

I remember being on holiday and was 8 months pregnant (the size of a bus at this point)
my ds (then aged about 11) walked round me,(I felt him walk past,he was that close) slipped and fell in-I cannot fault the lifeguard-he was on it straight away
if it hadn’t been for him ds might have drowned-and he is a strong swimmer,he just panicked at hitting the water and the fact he was fully dressed and not in his trunks

its amazing how fast these things can happen

I was thinking the same. Pp's think it's fine to leave an 8 year old swimming unsupervised for up to FOUR hours. It's a young child.

Let's be honest... the children haven't been left unattended as you're there and they know it!

They are CFers.

Report to management. Lifeguards aren’t there so that parents can duck their responsibilities.

Just don’t understand some people.

I wouldn’t let my 8 yr old go to the pool by himself, never mind a 5 yo. Definitely will be against the rules.

im just about thinking it’s ok for him to go to different parts of a water park/ pool (so out of my sight) with his 13 yo and extremely sensible sister… Because you have to respect water, and you never know.

I agree you have CFs here though who will have ear marked you as babysitters. Definitely speak to staff.