Posted by Rebecca Wear Robinson on August 14, 2014 · 3 Comments
Editor’s Note: It is a very common belief that lifeguards are the first line of drowning defense for children. But parents really own this job. This post from Rebecca Wear Robinson, first published in April, 2013, explains why. In honor of our 5 Year Bloggiversary, we are publishing 5 of our favorite posts – one from each year since the day we started. This is our fourth “look back” post. We are proud to have Rebecca as a member of our PedSafe Expert Team, and hope you enjoy the opportunity to read or revisit this important post.
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I was doing the usual mom chit-chat at Scouts while my son worked towards his water safety badge and fielded the inevitable question from the Scout leader, ‘what do you do?’. My answer, “I’m a global activist working to end child drowning. One child drowns every minute.” And then came the typical response, “Wow, I didn’t know it was such an issue, but it is certainly needed, the lifeguards need to do a much better job.” She then related a story about how she and her husband were at a pool with their baby and 3-year old son. She was sitting at the side holding the baby, her husband was in another area, and the 3-year old suddenly went past his depth and was bobbing up and down under the water, drowning. She screamed for the lifeguard, her husband screamed for the lifeguard but also managed to get to their son before any serious injury occurred. She related the story in harrowing detail and emphasized several times how the lifeguard had clearly not been doing his job well since her son had almost drowned in a crowded pool, so she understood why drowning is such a problem.
What is your initial reaction? Quite possibly the same as hers, the fault was with the lifeguard. If he had been paying attention her son never would have almost drowned. It’s an incredibly common belief, but the reality is quite different. These are excellent, diligent and concerned parents, and they believe, just as most people believe, that if you go to a pool or beach with a lifeguard on duty, you and your children will be safe. Yes, that’s true, if you swim in an area with a lifeguard, your chance of drowning is reduced to 1 in 18 million. Those are very good odds, even better when you consider that 75% of open water drownings occur when a lifeguard is not present. There are no two ways about it: if you swim in an area with a lifeguard, you are much safer, but it’s not just the lifeguard’s job to keep you safe. I do place the blame for that misconception squarely on the shoulders of those of us in the drowning prevention field. We haven’t explained what the true role of a lifeguard is, so let me start now to change how we view lifeguards.
When it comes to water and children, especially young children or non-swimmers, you, the parent, are the first lifeguard on duty. You need to be touch distance from your young or non-swimmer, meaning you can reach out and grab them at any time. Why?
First, a child can drown in 2 minutes in 2 inches of water. Even the best lifeguard, diligently scanning a crowded pool can miss seeing a small child under water, especially if the sun is glinting off the water or there are many people in the pool obscuring visibility under the surface. Plus, most people don’t even recognize someone is drowning since it’s not like in the movies. There is no flailing of arms or screaming. Click here to see what it really looks like – and don’t worry, the boy is rescued.
Second, you don’t want your child to be in a situation where they need to be rescued. You know how hard it can be to spot a small child in a crowded place. Even the fastest lifeguard will take precious seconds to spot the danger and make their way to the victim, and that can be a really frightening few seconds for a child.
Lifeguards are like police and firemen. Their job is to prevent accidents by watching for dangerous behavior and educating the public, and to perform rescues when things do go wrong….but it’s not their job to babysit or watch just one child, much less the 100 children in the water on a busy summer afternoon. Think about it, you don’t let your 3-year old walk 3 blocks to preschool just because your town has police whose job is to keep people safe, do you? The good news is that having a lifeguard on duty is like having a firefighter stand in your front yard just in case a fire breaks out. 95% of a lifeguard’s job is preventing an accident in the first place and only 5% is actually rescuing someone in distress. With you on guard, hopefully it won’t ever be your child in distress.
Now that you’re thinking, ‘great, so much for relaxing at the pool this summer’, I have some very good news. Taking a baby or young child to the pool is better than having a personal trainer and Weight Watchers combined, if you take advantage of the time in the pool with them. Trust me, I worked off two pregnancies swirling my children around in the water. I hope you’ll also check out my tried-and-true ‘fun for kids, great easy workout for mom’ plan!
two toddlers drowned in our community in the last week. Eyes on your child always!
I totally agree with the fact that lifeguards don’t do their job as much as we expected them to do so. And i also agree that going to the pool with your family is also a form of heavy exercise. Thank you for sharing!
I like when you mentioned that, “Lifeguards are like police and firemen. Their job is to prevent accidents by watching for dangerous behavior and educating the public”. That is the best thing they can do. They do help people when they are needed but, they cannot help watch everyone. The public needs to be safety conscious. That is why you should watch your own children at the pool.