Quote Originally Posted by AnnaK View Post
I would go so far as to say always have an adult in the pool when little ones are present. We had 6 adults around the pool that year when a 2 year old decided to keep playing 'jump at Daddy' . . . except Daddy wasn't in the pool. It was mere seconds before one of the adults looked at the pool and saw this baby floating face down.

Children who can't yet swim and pools are a tragedy waiting to happen. There must ALWAYS be an adult IN THE WATER when little kids are loose around the pool.

I feel very strongly about this. It was my baby.
First, sorry to hear about the accident. Thats about the only thing I worry about around my pool. Most of my "rules" are unspoken....people hear about how fanatic I am about taking care of the pool, so they in turn actually use their brains without me telling them to (no food near the water, nothing glass, etc)

The one SPOKEN rule I have is if your kid is in the water, you better be with them or within 5' (aka the concrete deck around the pool) with both eyes on them. Do not rely on me to be able to save your child because you were chatting with someone else. Obviously if I see a kid in trouble I will jump in, but the parent(s) not watching them would feel my wrath afterwards. Like I said, the only thing that keeps me up at night about the pool is someone getting hurt or worse.

Ive also encouraged small kids in our family to take lessons. They learn something and I feel safer when they are over to go swimming. My 6 yr old has been decent at swimming for 2 seasons now, my 3 yr old is already comfortable jumping in and going underwater (with swimmies and tube still.....we'll nix the tube this season)