Heed, don't resent, summer safety warnings

SOKOL E-mail: Click here

By MARLENE SOKOL

© St. Petersburg Times, published July 14, 2000

It's one of those cases where I'm trying not to be insulted.

I'm thanking Kim Barry, a director at my children's summer camp, for teaching 4-year-old Aaron how to swim.

And she warns me, in that painfully direct way of hers: "Make sure you supervise him in the water."

All too often, she says, children venture too soon into the water, lacking the judgment (or even the ability) to handle themselves.

This was the reasoning behind a controversial recommendation this year from the American Academy of Pediatrics against swimming instruction for children under 4.

For years Florida parents have rushed to make their toddlers "water-safe."

But in doing so, the doctors argued, parents might give themselves a false sense of security that could have tragic consequences.

"Some children think they can swim, but then somebody taps them on the shoulder and all of a sudden they can't swim," Barry told me.

Well, of course I knew that. Of course I don't take my kids swimming unless there are two adults present, one to supervise each child. Of course I don't let Aaron, the new swimmer, out of arm's reach.

Of course . . . and then a few days ago, those instructions were put to a test.

There we were, at the pool, with my husband watching Sarah while I stood within arm's length of Aaron.

He was swimming. He was swimming beautifully. He was swimming to Mommy. He was swimming to the wall. He and Sarah were racing.

Then, somehow, he became disoriented. Sarah had brushed against him and he had turned around. In a split second he was flailing helplessly, mere inches from the wall but utterly clueless as to how to pull himself above the surface.

Had I not been standing next to him, giving him my full attention, my hand ready to boost him up by the elbow, who knows how the afternoon would have turned out?

I still shudder at that thought.

As I shudder every day when I read these stories peppered throughout this and every Florida newspaper: Child drowns in lake. Baby drowns in bathtub while his father watches television. Woman dies in swimming pool. Child is pulled from hotel swimming pool.

From a crowded swimming pool. With a babysitter present.

I resolved not to be insulted by the camp director's warning. Nor will I be insulted when my mother calls to remind me not to leave the kids in a hot car.

We can't issue these warnings too many times. We can't hear them too many times.

As careful as we are, we can all try harder to get through this summer safely.

© St. Petersburg Times. All rights reserved.