Common knowledge, right? But it is easier said than done. If you see your little one in danger, you’re going to do whatever it is you have to do to make them safe again. Especially when it comes to pools or bodies of water. Time is not on your side in these situations.
Steering far from extreme water dangers — meaning near-drowning incidents — let’s used distressed swimmers in our example. A distressed swimmer is a swimmer actively struggling. Signs of a distressed swimmer are wide eyes, submerged mouth, and splashing quietly. They do not call for help or make loud noises. (For further clarification, technically a near-drowning victim means at some point, the person stopped breathing and was administered CPR).
Distressed swimmers — caught and assisted before unconsciousness — usually suffer the aftermath of a water trauma. This is different from a water fear, which is imagined incidents happening. With water trauma, something did go down.
We all have our water trauma stories. All of us. We all remember a time when mom wasn’t looking and so-and-so jumped in the pool; when a neighbor grabbed and help us under; when we hit our head on the diving board.
So we want to try and eliminate or at least control our kids’ water trauma stories. How we react can create, counter and redirect a memory. Advice to handle a Swimming Emergency calmly:
- Be swift and silent. Do what you need to do, but don’t make a big, dramatic show of it, vocally or physically.
- Try to assist the distressed swimmer from the side of the pool. Reach, throw, but don’t go unless you have to. This is how lifeguards do it. You are teaching responsibility for actions.
- Turn it into a game. This is good for the very young and toddlers — if you are forced to jump in and rescue, immediately start swimming around with the child. You’ve got to channel the nervous energy into something else to avoid an emotional impact.
- Stop talking about it. Every time you bring it up, it enforces the experience and swimming itself as wrong and bad and scary. That’s too much for any kid to handle. Get an experienced instructor who deals with this issue and let them properly advise you both how to work through it.
- Use the right terminology. Parents work on teaching the concept of drowning, but discuss the cause — basically, not following or understanding water safety rules and ability.
I see a lot of parents complaing about the pool rules at the community center I teach at — there are so many pool rules because there are so many ways for your kid’s safety to be jeopardized in a pool. The best defense to any unfavorable swimming emergency is a good offense. Have pool rules, an emergency plan, a pool fence. Enforce and practice.
