Summertime Swimming Safety
Drowning is one of my greatest fears. The idea of sucking water into my lungs makes me panic. As a little kid I had a sibling that loved to hold me under water as a joke. As I got older boys would do the same. I hated it. As such I never allow that kind of play with my kids and I ensure my kids can swim. Enter my youngest child and last kiddo to learn to swim, my three-year-old.
We tried to give him lessons last summer and he flunked out. Yes, he was a swim lesson dropout. We stuck with floaties and constant parent oversight. This summer we are trying again. We signed him up for lessons with other kids thinking it would help motivate him to try. We overshot.
At his first lesson they put all four kids on the side of the pool and the instructor works down the line helping the kids learn to float. My child is on one end and the instructor is helping another child at the other end. My kiddo decides he has learned enough in the first ten minutes of a lesson that he jumps into the pool solo. Luckily, he made enough of a splash that the instructor heard him as did the other adults watching and grabbed him. Many times, drowning is silent. That fear of drowning came back to me.
Learning to swim is so essential. It saves life. At our firm we get phone calls every summer about a drowning. An apartment pool with no lifeguards and a kid sneaks in, drinking and swimming, no life jacket at a lake, a poorly marked depth pool etc. It breaks my heart every time.
I don’t want to get these phone calls. I want kids to not drown. Please sign up for lessons. Protect your kids. Here are a few local places you can get lessons:
https://www.parkhill.k12.mo.us/our_schools/aquatic_center/swim_lesson__water_babies__and_more
https://www.opkansas.org/recreation-fun/pools-swimming/swim-lessons/
https://www.olatheks.org/government/parks-recreation/recreation/swim-lessons
Have a safe and fun summer.