Today's blog is all about parental supervision around waer.
We've all seen the ads on TV about how dangerous it is to leave kids alone around water.
But some parents are sill amazingly complacent about it. They figure that older siblings (around 13-14) can
adequately supervise the younger siblings.
I personally believe that this is unfair. How do the parents think that the older sibling will feel if the younger
child drowned while THEY, the older sibling, were supposedly in charge and "on watch"?
Is it fair to put the siblings under that sort of pressure.
Some will scoff, and say "Big deal. It's not a huge ask, and besides - nothing will go wrong. Child A is capable of watching Child B, and Child B is a confident swimmer.
Miss M, age 6, is a confident swimmer. She looks very uncoordinated in the water, but can nonetheless swim quite well.
But I would feel wrong with, when she is 14-15, leaving her with looking after her sibling aged 4 or 5.
I have let Miss M go in the water with a 17 year old by herself, because the 17 year old is training to be a swimming teacher, and is qualified in First Aid Level 2. But to leave a young child with an older sibling.... I don't believe it to be a safe practice.
I am currently on holiday in Batemans Bay, NSW, with my children, my parents, my brother (aged 25) and their 2 little white fluffballs (dogs). Miss M is not allowed in the pool unsupervised. She can go in the pool alone, but I watch her closely. The only time I take my eyes off her is to change the song on the iPod. And even then, it's only for a few seconds at a time. But there are other kids in the pool area - there are 3 kids aged around 12-14. There are 3 kids between 5 and 8. And there is one little girl aged around 4 who is wearing floaties and cannot swim.
They are alone.
They are not being watched. There are no adults in the pool area (besides me watching Miss M, but
they were here for ages before we arrived). They are from the cabin opposite the pool. The gate is on the far side from the
cabin, so it would take a good 30 seconds to get into the pool area from their cabin.... and that's if they noticed the child was in trouble immediately. Very unlikely.
So despite all the warning ads on TV, and all the signs around the pool stating "Children under 12 must be
supervised by an adult at ALL TIMES", they are still not being supervised.
I sent an email to the caravan park office. This is what I said:
"Hi. I'm currently staying in the park. There's a whole bunch of kids - at least 2-3 under 12 and one who can't swim that aren't being supervised at ALL. I'm the only adult watching.
Not sure if you can do anything about it, but I'd hate for one of them to drown and I had not said anything.
Thanks."
I felt better for having said something, because if a child had drowned (even one with feral parents who obviously don't care that their kid could drown) I'd feel awful for not having said anything.
There was an incident earlier today with a young boy (aged about 5-7) who threw bark at Miss M.
She pointed him out to me, and I said to her (loud enough for him to hear), "Well if he throws bark at you again, I'll throw bark at HIM, and i'm a lot bigger than he is."
The joys of parenting. I really do try to be non-judgmental with other people's parenting -but they have to actually PARENT them! Leaving your kids unsupervised in the pool area is just STUPID.
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