to think that the local swimming pool is the perfect place to splash?

[willthisdo]

took DD1 to the local pool this morning, she's always a little hesitant so we start in the shallows with some gentle splashing etc til she's warmed up a little.

A while later another girl (prob about 4?) was being repeatedly told by her mum to stop splashing. Was a little as surely that's what the pool is for? About 5 mins later a slightly older boy was given a warning then taken out of the pool by his dad for splashing him in the face.

Just felt a bit sad. If they can't splash in a swimming pool where can they?

If you go at a fun session with children you expect to get splashed! If you want to do serious swimming without getting splashed you need to go at a time when they have lane swimming.

I don't want to do lane swimming. I can't even swim properly. I just want to take my dcs to the kids pool and not be deliberately splashed in the face. I don't mind being splashed accidentally by children playing and jumping about. When I take ds to football I wouldn't mind if he accidentally hit me in the head with the ball but I would mind if he stood 6 inches away and repeatedly threw it into my face.

Try and go at a quiet time then-it can be unpleasant if crowded.

lol @ bag.

lol shybaby me and my sister are scared of baloons.

dd1 hates water going in her face but if people are splashing near her i tell her to move away. tis a public pool kids are going to splash its fun.

i would like it if some one was deliberately splashing dd1 though and i would expect thier parents to step in.

I can see both sides, my DS is terrified of the swimming pool and it has taken me months to persuade him to venture into the pool with his sister but once he had only just got in and he was splashed in the face by some other children and it scared him, it put us right back to the begining with trying to get him to be more confident about going in the pool

I wonder if it's the same mum I heard telling her daughter you should only poo in your own toilet, not communal ones !!!

Agree seashells.

Some kids though cant be content with splashing and having fun, they seem to feel the need to actually throw a whole heap of water in ds's face, repeatedly. Ive also sat in the little shallow beach type bit and had much larger kids kicking water straight at dd who was very small then. There's no need for that.

I think splashing in puddles with my kids is great fun...but I certainly wouldn't do it if there were other people passing by!

When you swim underwater you should not hold your breath (according to my mum who swam competitvely in her younger days). You breathe in and very slowly exhale whilst underwater.

I hate being splashed and so would tell my children off for splashing in a pool if I was with them or other people were nearby.

Sorry but I completely agree with the OP. If you can't splash in a pool then where can you? Its what children do in water Splashing can help dcs to get used to having water on their face and mine get dunked regularly and I allow my dd2 to get splashed gently by dd1 and don't move her totally out of the line of fire when other children do it, she is 4mths. She has always had water on her face and is consequently not bothered by it.
Precious parents breed precious under confident children. If they see you hating water on your face then they will also start to think there is something awful about it and won't want to put their face in/ get hair wet. FGS, if you don't want hair wetting then don't go swimming!

I meant to say that I do have etiquette where other peoples dcs are concerned and would move dd1 away if she was splashing someone who was frightened and didn't like it.

Like I said, people/kids have irrational fears. Ds's fear of water on his face is not down to me. I am not scared of water in the slightest. I can't swim brilliantly but used to love going underwater doing handstands, rollovers etc. He is dyspraxic so im never sure how many of his fears are down to that.

If he gets splashed he really freaks out, starts gulping for air and crying. I realise this is noone else's problem but if you can see your child is causing another distress then you should tell them to back off. What is fun for another kid is a nightmare for mine!

Let them splash, just not near anyone else!

I had a mindee who was terrified of water initially and screamed for 3/4 of an hour age 18mths. I couldn't get out as it would have been unfair on the other 2 dcs who loved it. Every time she cried I gave plenty of reassurance and looked her in the face saying 'no, need. You are fine.' After 3 weeks she was happy to walk around the pool and no screaming. After 9mths she was happy to be thrown into the water and jump in from the edge.
Fear is more often than not generated by the response of the carer to the childs behaviour for lots of different reasons. It isn't necessarily fear passed on from the parent. It can be as simple as learning that if someone splashes their face and he cries, lots of sympathy i.e. attention follows and eventually turns to true fear iyswim.
Because screaming in the water did not mean my mindee got removed from the water, she realised very quickly that it was pointless. She also got to watch the other 2 dcs as good role models having fun and started to immitate their behaviour.

It's about boundaries and tolerance. Some people are fine being splashed with water, others hate it. If you splash someone who likes it there's no problem but it can spoil the pool 'experience' for someone who's particularly sensitive.

I have always taught my lad (now 9) to be careful in the pool and to take notice of who else might be around before he splashes or jumps in the pool. I personally hate being splashed or having kids almost jump on top of me as I'm swimming, and I know a lot of adults who feel the same way, so for me it makes sense to assume that there may be others out there who dislike it just as much. I don't stop my boy splashing but I teach him that there have to be boundaries so that everyone is comfortable.

I don't think it hurts to teach children to respect other people's variable sensitivities. It's not doing them any favours to let them grow up thinking that other people's views and comfort doesn't matter as much as their own.

I hate having pool water splashed in my face. It is NOT fun or amusing or pleasant and if my kids did it when I've told them not to, of course I'd haul them out and tell them off. Just as if they did anything else I'd repeatedly told them not too (like they did all bloody day today....sigh).
I spend hours and hours drilling into my Aspergers child that a shared activity is only fun if BOTH people are enjoying it, so look for signs like wincing and crying and moving away or saying 'stop it' and use that as your cue to stop whatever you are doing.
I am stunned that this needs to be explained to NT adults.

I agree MsDemeanor. Many people (myself included) take their children swimming because the kids like it, not because they do. Having someone splashing in my face is unpleasant. I do not have an irrational fear, I just don't find the sensation in any way pleasant. So I tell my kids not to do it. Fine to splash in open space. Fine to jump in when they have checked no one else is close by. They love doing these things, and I want them to have fun. But not at anyone else's expense.

hm...couldn't care less about being splashed myself....but ms and ys would go mental....so...maybe it was just force of habit for those parents...

admittedly, we would just move away from splashing...but who knows, those parents might have noticed little one in the pool and wanted to protect them.

maybe you should have said something along the lins off....oh, my lil one doesn't mind getting splashed, if that is what you are worried about!

lol at prettycandles post about not holding breath....