As the days get longer and the weather gets warmer more people start gravitating towards water. Whether it is swimming at the lake, tubing on the river, hitting up a nearby waterpark or just splashing around in your own backyard, more of us will be in or near water more frequently in the coming months. That means that water safety will become necessary. However, are kids more at risk because of this water related practice meant to keep them safe?
It is not at all uncommon to see children in various floatation apparatus when they are around any sort of activity involving water. Water wings, puddle jumpers, swim vests, float suits, etc. In my experience most parents are very conscientious about making sure their children are safe in and around water and they consider these devices key in doing that.
As someone who never learned to swim well (and sinks like a rock) it may be surprising to hear that I was never comfortable using water wings and the like with our kids when they were growing up. If we went on a boat, they would of course have on life jackets (as did their dad and I) but we never had them in any of the floatation devices when they were swimming in a pool or just playing near water. It may sound counterintuitive that a parent (especially one who can’t swim) wouldn’t have their kids in something that is widely accepted as helping to keep them safer near water. But this is why we didn’t…
Growing up, my parents taught us that those devices created a “false sense of security”. They maintained that it was unsafe for us to be in water beyond what we could handle on our own. They felt, for example, that if we couldn’t get ourselves safely from the deep end of a pool, then we had “no business” being there. That always made sense to me. It is precisely because I am not a swimmer, that I felt especially compelled to not put our kids in a position where they might be unsafe near water. If they were in any way struggling, I didn’t have confidence in my ability to help them, and children being unsafe in any way is not an option that a parent ever wants to entertain. I needed to know they had every opportunity to be as safe as possible, so rather than rely on something we put on them, we chose to only have them go where they could safely manage themselves, given their current level of development and ability, and to supervise them near water unfailingly.
(THERE IS NO SUBSTITUTE FOR EYES-ON SUPERVISION WITH OR WITHOUT A FLOATATION DEVICE)
When our kids were young, we used to camp at a KOA that’s about half an hour away from our home. There was a pool, but this particular pool didn’t have a shallow end. (At least not shallow enough for toddlers.) When we would hang out at the pool, our youngest would spend time on the steps leading into the pool because she hadn’t yet learned how to swim and everywhere else was over her head. Her dad would pick her up and swim all around with her, or I would stay in the shallower end holding her and playing, but then we would return Presley back to the steps in the pool (above) where she would entertain herself by splashing around, playing with her water baby, and talking to the rest of us as we moved about. We didn’t feel comfortable putting a floatation device on her and letting her just go anywhere in the pool knowing that she could not navigate it safely unaccompanied.
While we all know that there is no substitute for the vigilant supervision of our children while they are in or near water, I wonder if there really isn’t a bit of a false sense of security (as my parents used to say) for those whose kids have help being kept afloat every time they are in water? For parents, grandparents, babysitters – even if only subconsciously, might we be more apt to interact with others a little longer, look at our phone more often, or glance away for a bit longer, when a child has a floaty on? And what does it mean for the kids wearing the floaties…? I frequently see kids jumping into water with seemingly no regard for the depth. Whether they would be considered a “swimmer” or not, I wonder, would they still jump if they didn’t have on the floaty? And what if they get so used to the summer security blanket that they just gravitate towards water without assessing the risk first? Doesn’t that make them more unsafe?
I am obviously not saying that people should never use floatation devices for their kids. We of course put life jackets on our kids when we felt it was appropriate. As a Nana (and same goes for Papa) we also follow the rules and expectations our daughter has for us as it relates to our grandchildren and their safety, and the options they have out now are far better than what I remember nearly 30 years ago when our kids were young. The $1.99 blow-up water wings you bought at Rite Aid, that had to be inflated by mouth, and could leak, or pop, or end up slipping down the arm, were not ideal or comforting to say the least. Far different from the quality and styles my grandkids wear and most others that I see today.
Lifejacketadvisor.com stated in an April 2021 article that kids learning to swim should wear a good quality swim aid or vest until they are confident enough in the water to “strike out without it”. They help people by recommending the best life jacket for specific activities, ages, and applications. If you are inclined to want your kiddo to use a “swim aid”, research the ones that are best for your particular child and the situation they will be using it in. From what I have read, certain types of “Puddle Jumper” style vests (a small life jacket that has armbands attached) are among the most highly ranked for safety, as well as comfortability, and for not impairing the ability to actually learn to swim (which other styles may.) Many are even US Coast Guard approved although they state that they “should not be substituted for a traditional life jacket when boating.”
As parents, we have an obligation to make decisions for our kids that we feel are in their best interest-decisions that keep them safe and that address our own level of comfort as well. My hope with this post is to merely share a perspective you may not have thought about previously and to simply consider – Are kids more at risk because of this water related practice meant to keep them safe? At the end of the day we all want the very same outcome. Safe children!! Using proper swim aids, at appropriate times, while also teaching children a healthy respect for water, is a practical and sensible combination to achieve just that. Wishing everyone a safe and fun filled summer!
