On a hot summer day, there isn’t much that can beat a dip in the pool.
Swimming pools are excellent places to make a lot of fun summertime memories. But, as joyful as they can be, swimming pools can also be dangerous places — especially if you have young children.
Fortunately, there are steps you can take to ensure your pool remains a safe place where you and your family can have fun together.
Here are nine essential pool safety tips that can help you make sure you and your family can continue to enjoy your swimming pool for years to come.
1. Set Some Rules
While rules can seem needless and boring, they exist for a reason.
Setting a few ground rules for your home swimming pool may seem like a wet-blanket move. But, having a firm and enforced list of rules in place can help cut back on poolside accidents and teach your kids proper pool etiquette.
Your rules should include things like no running on the pool deck, no glass in or around the pool, no diving, and other basic safety rules. You can also include items such as no swimming without a grownup.
The goal should be to make sure your children refrain from hazardous behavior.
No matter how detailed your list of rules is, if you don’t enforce your pool rules you may as well not have any rules at all.
Make sure you list of rules includes punishments for breaking the rules. If you catch someone running on the pool deck, then they have to get out of the water for 20 minutes or so.
You can also instill more severe punishments for those who continue to break the rules. Say, if a child racks up three infractions, they lose pool privileges for a week.
While all this talk of rules may seem severe, it’s vital to remember that home swimming pools can be dangerous places for children. So, it’s important to take a few precautions.
2. Take Some Swimming Lessons
You don’t get behind the wheel of a car without taking a few lessons first, and the same goes for swimming.
While knowing how to swim may seem like second nature to a lot of adults, it’s important to remember that swimming is a learned skill. So, if you’re going to have a home swimming pool, you should first make sure everyone knows how to swim.
Sign your kids up for swimming lessons. Or, even better, sign the entire family up and turn pool safety into a fun family outing.
3. Add a Fence
While swimming pools can be dangerous at any age, they are particularly hazardous for children under the age of six. The best way to protect very young children is by making sure they can’t reach the pool on their own in the first place.
A pool fence can provide an extra layer of protection by making it impossible for young children to get to the pool without your help.
4. Never Let Kids Swim Alone
Even if your kids know how to swim, the only way to ensure nothing happens to them while in the pool is by keeping an eye on them while they swim.
Kids of a certain age are more likely to have a pool related accident than older kids. So, while your kids are young, have pool time be a family activity.
Aside from setting pool rules, there are other ways (such as a pool alarm) to make sure your children don’t swim without you or another adult present.
5. Make Sure Your Pool Is Up To Code
Some of the most significant steps in pool safety need to happen long before anyone gets in the water.
Pool drains can create a lot of powerful suction at the bottom of your pool, which can be dangerous. Because pool drains can be so hazardous, anyone who owns a pool must use a drain cover to prevent accidents.
Drains aside, you also need to check your pool for other potential hazards such as broken tiles.
6. Keep the Pool Deck Clear
Having a cluttered pool deck can lead to several potential, but easily avoidable, accidents.
You should keep the area around your pool clear at all times to prevent people from tripping or slipping. This also keeps things from falling in the pool.
7. No Diving Boards
Even if you are a professional Olympic grade diver, diving boards can pose one of the most prominent risks when it comes to backyard swimming pools.
All it takes is one false move, and you could slip and hit your head on a diving board — which is a potentially fatal accident.
The best way to avoid this type of incident is by removing the object that causes them.
8. Lock Up Dangerous Equipment
Swimming pools require a lot of hazardous chemicals and equipment to run efficiently and stay clean.
If children are going to be around the pool, you should take steps to make sure all this equipment stays locked up and away from where children can get to it.
One of the best ways to safely store your pool equipment is by investing in a patio box and combination lock. This way you can keep everything close by for easy use while keeping them away from any kids who may get into them.
9. Learn CPR and First Aid
Sometimes, accidents happen.
While you can take necessary precautions, it’s impossible to predict and avoid everything. So, you need to make sure you prepare yourself.
If you’re going to have a backyard swimming pool, you need to take a first aid and CPR course.
With these skills, you could prepare yourself to save someone’s life should the worst happen.
Swimming pools can be as dangerous as they are fun. But, by following these tips, you won’t have to worry and can get back to enjoying your pool.
Essential Pool Safety Tips
Swimming pools can be fun for the whole family — if you take the right precautions.
These pool safety tips can help make your swimming pool into a safe space where you won’t have to worry about any pool related accidents.
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