Pool party for 7 year old safety worries.

[Snowwhite83]

Hi,
my son has been invited to a pool party (my son can swim)later this year and I've been told it's a drop off but I'm not comfortable leaving him. I think there's about 20 kids going and I worry about kids getting excited and jumping on each other , running and slipping or hitting their heads whilst in the pool. I wanted to decline but my son really wants to go.
There will be two parents supervising and presumably some kind of lifeguard. I wanted to ask if others would be happy leaving their kids or if I am being reasonable insisting on staying and watching?
Thanks in advance.

DD went to one a couple of months ago.

There were about the same number of kids, 4 lifeguards, every kid had to swim a length to show they could before they were allowed on the inflatables, there were 4 lifeguards and they had a safety talk before letting them loose on the pool.

Everyone had a grand time and it all felt very safe.

Agree with others about need for 1 adult to 2 children supervision. I would be surprised if a public leisure centre didn't have this rule. Just arrange with LC to go in with your child.

If it’s in the leisure centre can you google and see what kind of parties they are offering to get a better idea?
You don’t need permission to stay at the leisure centre, you can sit and wait there.

YANBU, I wouldn't be leaving either. There was a horrific case in Ireland recently where a 7yo died at a pool party (hotel pool rather than leisure centre). On the day just cheerily say you're going to stick around in the viewing gallery as he's not the strongest swimmer.

I remember having similar worries so asked a few questions and it turned out that they were in the splash area rather than the actual pool so, whilst there was a pool, it was knee high. It was also just by the viewing area so a few of us stayed and had a coffee there.

How many parents are staying? I would ask close parents and our friends to supervise DS's as I would want to know a) they were responsible and b) could swim themselves.

I reckon that the party parents have told the leisure centre that all attendees are 8- certainly around here, children have to have an adult in the water with them at birthday parties until they’re 8… and therefore nobody does pool parties for under 8s as nobody wants to get in their swim gear in front of a load of other school parents 😂