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?

Is suppose depends if they can swim or not, how deep the sea is where they are paddling, how steep the beach slope is and how reactive the parent is.... most likely would be ok. But parent would have to dash if they fell over and didn't push themselves up straight away.

I think even that isn't close enough. Arm's length is more like it. Truthfully, I'd be holding a hand. 2 is very little.

The McCann’s were only 15 m away ….

Not a chance this is not ok you wouldn't do it in a pool or a bath, the sea is the most dangerous place! Stay with the child at all times it is not worth the risk all it takes is one wave to overpower a child that small and sure as day when they are under you are not going to see them I am suprised you are asking this is basic common sense 😫

Why the hell is the parent 15m away? They should be next to their child in the sea. Have we not had enough people drown this summer so far? Will it take a few more before the penny drops?

Just a hunch but I’m guessing the OP was not the parent who was supposed to be caring for the child on the beach that day…..

Definitely not.

Also there has been research about what is the best colour to have for a child’s swimsuit - and how visible they are at certain depths. I think it was tested in a pool, not the sea, but I want to mention it anyway.

Best colours are bright neon orange and green, then neon yellow and pink.

Worst colours are light blue, white, grey, navy, black, camouflage or busy prints.

Apologies if this has already been mentioned.

None of the conditions are relevant really. A 2 year old needs an adult next to them. Not further away and not paying attention properly.

If they're reading a book, and then have to get up and run once they realise the kid is face first or can't be seen, it could easily have been 5-6 minutes and the child died already whilst they were more interested in the plot than their child's life.

Mad thing about the bright colours is...
Try finding a neon green , yellow or orange swimming costume for a girl in places like supermarkets or decathlon etc...

.... Boys shorts are super easy.... Gora however, all stupid little bikinis or flowers or pointless frills or dark colours

Boden and next are quite good for bright colours for girls. It’s not something I’d worry about for a toddler though since they should never be out of your eyeline and always within arms reach around water. IMO it’s more important for older ones that are swimming without close adult supervision. DD9 has a quite nice neon pink bikini from boden and she’s very easy to spot in the water which gives me reassurance when she goes swimming with the hotel kids club or to a pool party or something where the adult to kids ratio is quite low. She’s a solid swimmer but never a bad idea to take extra precautions around water and a bright costume is such an easy one to do.

IME visibility underwater is much worse in the sea than in pools, because the sand / silt on beaches tends to get stirred up by people’s feet and cloud the water.

But even so, bright neon colours would definitely give you an edge when it comes to spotting things.

The 15m could just about be ok if they were eg paddling in a very familiar shallow harbour where the worst that could happen is they trip over and fall on their bum. No waves or sudden drops. I’ve sat c 10m from my toddler in these conditions quite happily.

Watching intermittently is just bananas though even in those circumstances, anything can happen. I suspect this is a reverse and OP knows this and she’s objecting to someone else’s lack of attention.