2y old paddling in sea - safety - opinions please

[Anoriginalusername2]

Opinions please. 2y old with no life vest paddling in very calm sea. Parent is 15m away, intermittently watching. Is this ok?

No but the point is someone said you shouldn't leave them unattended in water until ages 5, by which point my child has done many things unattended at school. To me that is one of those bonkers guidelines that doesn't actually match the age of the child, I can't imagine sending my child into school for a year, or all of the other things they can do in that first year, but I won't leave them alone in the bath for 2 mins

Of course children can drown in those 2 minutes, but everything we do is risk based. My child sits nicely and plays in the bath, they also don't stop talking while they play so I know they're fine without having to be in the room. If they played silently, I probably would stay in the room. Arbitrarily saying a child could drown in 2 mins isn't helpful for parents, and I won't feel guilty for putting the washing away in bedrooms while my child is noisily playing in the bath

Absolutely. Not.

Children should never be left unattended by water let alone a 2 year old in water. Even paddling. One wave could make them lose their balance and end up face down in the water.

My 3 year old and 1 year old love swimming/water/baths but no, DH, me or both of us are with them, as in next to them in the sea holding onto them, 3 year old in armbands in a pool, an arms length away at most with eyes firmly on her.

It actually fills me with horror that people out there do this, the most I’ve done is open the airing cupboard next to our bathroom to grab a towel on the rare occasion I’ve forgot to put it on the rad, (5 seconds max) whilst my 3 year old sits in bath.

No chance. When DD was that age we were either holding her hands or stood within arm reach of her.

This.

Ok .... I'm sure you wouldn't feel guilty for putting washing away if your child drowned in the bath whilst you were doing that.

No.

Well... You're fucking crazy if you leave 5 year olds unattended around water.

I guess you're cool and let them cross the road by themselves too?

Leaving a 2 year old alone in the bath is absolutely not okay.

Do you think bath water isn't something am unattended child can drown in?

"intermittently watching"

You can't be serious?

For all those who think it's fine to leave a small child for "a minute"

22 month old dead.
https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/mia-olivia-osullivan-death-inquest-20984723

82% of drownings in bath whilst unsupervised
capt.org.uk/charity-urges-parents-to-keep-babies-in-arms-reach-in-water-as-bath-drownings-treble/

Putting washing away is not worth your child's life....

A 2 year old needs to be within arms reach. I would never leave them unattended in the bath either, it's such an unnecessary risk to take.

I always felt like i was a bit lax in some areas, but others you don't take any chances with:Water, heights, roads.

Nope
If a 2 year old is in the sea the adult watching them should

1. Always be within arms reach of the child
2. Not take their eyes off the child for one second An adult who breaks these rules is deeply and dangerously neglectful of the child. (i.e. doesn't care of the child drowns)

No. Rip currents exist in deceptively calm waters.

Nothing ridiculous about this. the fact that if you can't breath air for a few seconds you will possibly asphyxiate and die is a very specific piece of knowledge. It's nothing to do with what they may be learning in terms of other stuff they learn in school or whatever. Your child could know how to read, count, spell, whatever, but could still simply not realise they would drown if they kept their head down for a while.

Basically not watching and 15 m away. Jeez no

No.

I do agree that a toddler who is keeping up a constant babble of noise in the bath can be left out of sight for a very short period. I would sort the washing in the spare room while my daughter was in the bath, because I knew I was a maximum of 4m away and she was constantly verbalising. I would not have gone further away, or downstairs.

But I don't think this is at all comparable to the sea.

If you look at how children/teenagers die in the water, they die because they didn't realise it was dangerous.

You hold a child's hand in the sea partly to keep them safe in the moment. But you also do it so that that child knows the sea is not safe.

I am a very strong swimmer; I learned to swim early. At around age 9, my older brother and I swum out against a rip tide. No one had made us feel we shouldn't. We'd been supervised in water as long as we couldn't swim. Once we could swim, we assumed we were fine.

We very nearly both drowned. I still remember how frightening it was and how hard we had to fight to get out of that rip tide. No one saw us until it was too late; by the time any adults noticed we were already out of the danger zone - but we could so easily not have been. It was a place, and a situation, where other people have drowned.

A toddler will grow out of being in danger when unattended in the bath. A child will not really grow out of being in danger when unattended at sea, because on some level the sea is always dangerous in a way the bath isn't.

You hold onto the toddler so that the toddler gets that message, not just so they're safe right now.

15m? Not OK
1m or closer (i.e. holding hands to arms reach)? OK

Former Australian lifesaver here. Parent should be right next to them, preferably holding the toddler's hand, and not taking their eyes off them for a second.
Children drown quickly and silently!

Absolutely not ok. I think the 'watching intermittently' is even more worrying than not being right beside them. 15m is too far away too.

No.

No. Negligent behaviour.

I’m a pretty relaxed parent but anything at that age involving water is arm’s reach. Always. Always.