Translate

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Toddler drowns in backyard pool

I am not putting a link to the article because this is the second report already of a child drowning in a pool and we haven't started summer and the weather has been variable. It happens too easily. I was chatting with my neighbour last weekend about the other incident and he had a friend who had lost their child under similar circumstances. I remembered when I had taken my daughter at 3 to the beach and she just kept walking out into the water. I thought she was going to stop. She didn't.  She wasn't listening to me asking her to stop. She just kept going. Children are not scared by water. It's not like a spider or a dog or even a stranger.They just do not see the pool or the ocean as a threat. Water mesmerises them. They are drawn to it and it may be part of our genetic make up. Pools, in particular ,are attractive because they are calm, colourful and watery. Children are very tiny so you do not hear them fall in. You really have to literally watch them becasue they are okay and then they are not. It is vital for Australians to learn to swim from an early age and I made sure of that at home because we did have a pool. Even so, you have to watch. We need to be reminding ourselves again that pools and children can be fun but they can bring heartache too. These stories are so upsetting and the parents will be totoally devastated and not because they were negligent.It just happens so easily.

No comments: