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Use our Travel forum for recommendations on everything from day trips to the best family-friendly holiday destinations.

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Original poster

Villas with pools - how do we stop toddlers falling in?

38 replies

drjane · 14/08/2008 14:56

Hi - we're planning to go on holiday in October with another family to a villa with a pool (somewhere that will still be warm - I'm thinking malta, canary islands crete etc).

There will be 7 of us altogether: 4 adults, an 18mo, a 1yo and a 3mo. I've been looking at loads of villas but I can't see how we're going to stop the two toddlers falling in the pool all the time. I've found very few that specifically say that the pool is fenced and all of those are in France where it will be to cold in October.

Has anyone else come across this problem? A couple said that you could restrict access by shutting patio doors, but that would mean shutting the toddlers in the house, surely! Otherwise we're going to spend the whole week shooing toddlers away from the poolside which doesn't sound very relaxing!

OP posts:

littlerach · 14/08/2008 16:20

When we went to Spain a couple of years ago we purposefully didn't book a villa with a pool.
Instaed we booke done with access to a pool, but not in our grounds.

We'd had a scare with dd1 when she was 2 in Greece and it was horrid.

cadelaide · 14/08/2008 19:05

This thread makes me clutch my stomach.

I spend far too much of my time imagining ghastly pool/sea/bath scenarios.

OneLieIn · 14/08/2008 19:10

Agreed, we were on a family friendly sailing holiday a few years ago and saw a kid drown in a couple of feet of water whilst there were lots of people around. They hauled him out and he was not breathing for a couple of mins. He came back though.

Don't take the risk. kids have no sense unfortunately.

FioFio · 15/08/2008 07:41

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

Dropdeadfred · 15/08/2008 10:35

Thats very sad Fio. Thanks for uderlining the seriousness though.

I would also tell people that toddlers, pools and relaxation just do not happen...m DH and I literally had to work a tag team system to ensureeither of us had half an hour to relax knowing the other was on 100% watch with dd3...even then we often both ended up frazzled...
Now she is 3 it's easier but we would never leave her for a second and floatsuits are fine...but if a child slips and bangs their head and ends up facedown in the water....floating won't necessarily be any help.
We didn't have a pool this year and it was sooo much easier..

elmoandella · 15/08/2008 11:02

i see what everyone saying about them not being safe.

but my kids go to swimming lessons since they got their first jags. they know they are not allowed to go into the pool before i go in. but i will have mine in the floaty jackets incase the fall in. i also have them those little grippy soled swim things for feet.

and as for those who say you cant take eyes off them.

i don't relax anyway even when there isn't a pool. so i see no problem in having a pool as at least we can all have a day by our own pool without having to pack up all kids and their stuff to go to the beach where we're all going to get covered in sand.

it's much more convient to have a pool.

and we're not gonna be there every minute of the door. at meal times we will be indoors and we'll lock the patio doors. and then there's times we'll be in village or at shops.

i watch my kids non stop as they're 2.5 and 1 yo. and if you dont have your eye on them something gets destroyed!!!so it'll make no difference to being at home.

even if we do the tag team thingy. at least i'll get more of a break than at home where it's just me.

elmoandella · 15/08/2008 11:03

day not door

Original poster

drjane · 15/08/2008 22:12

Thanks for the advice everyone - water and children certainly are a scary mix. I've found a nice place in Cyprus with a lockable fenced pool so I think we'll go for that. And we'll definitely take floatsuits!

OP posts:

elmoandella · 15/08/2008 22:26

enjoy. it'll be nice in october. sea will be lovely and warm after being shined on all summer.

jimjamshaslefttheyurt · 15/08/2008 22:32

Make sure you have something with lockable patio/back doors. DS1 cannot be in the garden unsupervised at all as he scales 8ft fences. We have 2 lockable doors to the back garden. Never more than one open at a time and keys kept away from the door. One of us therefore has to open the back door to let ds1 out so we know when he needs supervision. As he comes in the door is locked again. And so on and so forth.

It actually works quite well as a system for ensuring he is never alone in the garden.

Desiderata · 15/08/2008 22:39

At the ages you describe, it is unlikely (but not impossible), that they will launch themselves into the water unobserved.

The time to watch is when they get to three or four.

My three year old, in May, decided it would be great fun to run away from me (fully clothed, we weren't bathers), across two giant swimming pools in Italy.

He then scaled the giant slide, and launched himself down it (in the adult pool) before I could reach him.

He sank like a stone to the bottom, and I had to dive in, fully clothed, to reach him. If I'd taken my eye off the ball for one second, he would have died. No one knew he was there, in admidst all the splashing and the shouting.

Recovering from my shock, a fellow holiday-maker told me that her seven month old baby plopped into the pool unseen (hubby was supposed to be watching), and it was a man on the first floor balcony overlooking who dived in to save her.

Again, no one had seen it happen.

Deaths are unlikely providing everyone is watching. But if you don't watch, then you're in trouble.

R2G · 20/08/2008 01:38

Have you considered a villa with a shared pool. My dad has two villas side by side and then each row has a shared pool at the end of the row so you have all the convenience of the pool but they can only use it when you go with them. Also it is only £250 a week!

here's the link Larrys house in Spain facebook Group

giddybiddy · 03/09/2008 17:49

I have a 20 month old and have just got back from holiday where we stayed in an apartment set in a garden with a number of other apartments and an open pool. DD was in her float jacket and armbands the whole time we we were by the pool and whenever she set foot outside the apartment one of us was on toddler duty! Constant supervision was required and the only time we were able to totally relax was when she was in the kids club! Toddlers and pools only work if you are on constant alert is my experience to date and I have hauled a 2 year old who fell in, out of a pool before - luckily not mine. Completely agree about pool alarms my children were able to climb in and swim across without setting off the alarm but when it rained the alarm went off! What about trying a specialist operator like Simpson (link above) who may be able to find you a fenced pool or one far enough from the villa for you to have a fair chance of getting to wandering toddler before they get to the water?

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