Children drowning on holiday.

[Nextdoormat]

Another week where in the news a poor toddler (2) has drowned on holiday. Devastating for parents. I am not casting blame or being goady, but how can we make it clearer that someone needs to watch a child 100% of the time if near water.
As a single parent I did take my kids on holiday where there were pools but they always had arm bands on when they couldn't swim properly and I never took my eyes off them, so no reading a book, snoozing, chatting and being distracted.
Perhaps it was easier when I had sole responsibility. Once my DS2 at the time aged 4 was just walking by the pool and another kid just pushed him in at the deep end. I jumped in fully clothed with sunglasses on and pulled him out, if I wasn't watching I could have been that parent grieving.
My heart goes out to the parents, what was supposed to be a holiday making memories turned on it's head.

Perhaps it was easier when I had sole responsibility.

I found that with family parties - everyone watching means no-one was - so I found IL vsist exhausting watch all three kids constantly and nonimating one person to do so when I couldnlt ie toilet breaks and cutting though any well we're all watching bullshit.

Having said that things can happen really quickly - and I'm not confidnet I'd recongise drowning - so they've only swam in pools with lif guards and in sea more paddled rather than swam. Also been told how many people drown in bodies of water not pools so they are aware - they can swim have has lessons but are aware that may not be enough.

i find the swim suit in sea post very interesting.

I used to be a lifeguard. All my rescues were in swimming lessons in shallow water. Many non-swimmers do not understand how to get themselves from horizontal to vertical - I'm not sure why. And yes, as many PPs have said, drowning is silent.

Also, do not think that because your child has a jacket or armbands that they will be safe. I have seen them deflate and I have also seen children taking them off when their parents' backs are turned. I have also seen one of those rings that babies sit in be accidentally turned upside down by passing swimmers.

When I was younger I had to rescue my younger sister who was stuck in a rapids type section of the pool and was struggling. To stay afloat. It scared me so much (I was about 11 years old). My sister was a confident swimmer, we had always gone swimming but she just misjudged how strong that current was. As a result I have never taken my eyes of my kids. Even if my husband would say he would watch them I still wouldn't lose sight of them. It can happen so quickly.

I still won't go anywhere near electricity substations or lakes (dark water) as they terrify me 🤣

In the latest accident, the yellow warning flags were ignored.

I thought people might be interested in these courses: https://swimsafe.org.uk/

My kids are booked to do it at the weekend.

People go on vacation and they're in vacation mode. That's the problem. They think they're alone.

So that means, they're chilling, relaxing etc and not watching the rampant toddler 100% of the time.

And also they don't think like a lifeguard. In the most recent tragedy, the shorebased parent had left the shore, no doubt assuming that with the other parent in the water, they would be able to keep the children supervised and safe. And by leaving the shoreline, they left their overwatch position and so wouldn't have been able to see warning signs of currents and then distress.

Whenever children are in unpredictable water, there needs to be shorebased supervision in that overwatch position monitoring them, the tides, current, hazards etc. That is much safer than having another adult in the water, who can't perform a proper lookout.

This isnt a criticism of schools, but of schools funding and changes to the curriculum before anyone pounces!

I usually disagree that schools should pick up the responsibility of teaching all general life skills to children, but as we live on a small island which is surrounded by water that also has an array of waterways, swimming lessons should still be done every year throughout primary at least and water safely should still be built into the circiculum. Again, understand this wasn't a decision to remove it made by schools themselves or teachers, and that there isnt funding nor timing as it stands to reintroduce this.

As well as children knowing how to swim and how to react in different scenarios, a lot of adults dont have any clue either which makes supervising and setting reasonable boundaries to keep their children safe challenging.

have there been more incidents this summer or am I just noticing them more? Just seems to be so many news stories recently :(

In June, during a lesson to my scouts on heat injury I said "every year, when the heat wave comes, somewhere in Britain a 15 year old boy will drown whilst wild swimming with his mates." The next week the heatwave arrived, and the next day the news story was about a 15 year old boy in Scotland drowning. I felt so sad to have predicted it.

Has there been a heatwave in recent years which hasn't had a 15 year old boy drown?
It isn't just toddlers in holiday pools.

The one and only time we went on holiday with dh uni friends, we stayed at a villa/private complex thing with a pool in a big group.

me and dh were constantly taken the piss out of for being “over protective” around the pool. All the other parents were happy to get pissed and leave the kids to it. They would fuck off to other parts of the grounds and just leave them.

What happened was, me and dh took it in turns, or together, to be responsible for 10 children under the age of 8/9 in a pool. We wanted to take our ds out and go exploring but we felt kind of stuck, one else gave a shit.

I was ready to pack up and go and find our own hotel after the first two days, but dh said he couldn’t have it on his conscience if something happened to one of the children while his mates were pissed and begged me to stay with him, he didn’t want to be the sole responsible one as it was knackering enough with two of us.

I’ve never gone on holiday in a group with anyone other than my in-laws again due to that.

This has really always been the case, I think social media/internet makes us more aware of it happening across the whole nation/world. But teenagers drowning in summer is something that happens every year if you'd go through the records and archives of local newspapers, and will keep on happening. We talk more and more about water safety now, yet community pools keep closing, summers are getting hotter and there's more people around, so the drowning numbers will remain stubborn.

I feel one aspect that doesn't get considered is thousands of teenagers swim in rivers, lakes, beaches etc with their mates and no adults every single summer, and those who don't likely know someone who does. So while the couple who drown every year is an absolute tragic event for everyone involved, it doesn't have a great deal of impact on teenagers as they know most are okay. It's really not any different to driving, the number of folks who die in car crashes/accidents are horrific, we we still drive.

I'm not trying to act as if water safety isn't important, it absolutely is! But the sort of endless alarmist of "if you swim you will drown" will go in and out of the ears of preteens/teens and young adults as it doesn't really align with their own realities often.

This is why I'm a big fan of education that is around being realistic, environment awareness, and how to approach things safely rather than a total abstinence approach (which historically will never work).