Do kids play outside where you live? (teenager, support, girls)
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Our HOA has the same pool rules and we always have lifeguards on duty. They are there for emergencies not babysitters. Parents or designated adults are expected to keep an eye on their own kids.
The lifeguards at our community pool never babysat. They were merely there to save lives if necessary. Even with all of those unsupervised kids, emergencies were extremely rare. This isn't a tiny HOA pool, but a massive community pool with hundreds of swimmers and 14 lifeguards on duty at all times. I took my own children to the same pool, and the lifeguards weren't working less because more parents were there. They were still blowing their whistles at runners, etc., just like they did 40 years ago. I know this well because I was a competitive swimmer and a lifeguard at the pool myself. Don't think for a moment that parents are at their children's side at a pool until their 14. Most parents are sunning themselves on a blanket or socializing at the snack bar.
Louisville Recreation & Senior Center 1. Children 5 and under must pass our swim test or be accompanied by an adult who is actively supervising in the water.
Plus several others.
Most people know that accidents are the leading cause of death in children > 1 year of age. For kids 1-4, the major cause of accidental death is drowning, and for ages 5-9 drowning is the second leading cause of accidental death. Drowning remains in the top 10 through age 54. Ten Leading Causes of Death and Injury - PDFs|Injury Center|CDC
(Click on "unintentional injury".)
Water needs to be respected.
Last edited by Katarina Witt; 08-12-2014 at 02:05 PM..
I'm guessing the pool that doesn't allow unsupervised children does not have a lifeguard on duty. Our HOA pool doesn't have one, and has similar rules about unsupervised children (no one under 14 without an adult, the 'adult' having to be over 18, etc). If there's a lifeguard on duty, it's usually a different story.
Mike
Ours does have lifeguards, but they still do not allow kids under 13 without parents. Admission is by key card from our HOA and we sign in when we go.
Definitely, kids are out. I would hate to live in a neighborhood that did not encourage that, honestly. I was freely roaming the neighborhood by the age of 4, and my kids were allowed to play outside, unsupervised, from about the same age. My oldest was just-turned-4 when we moved into our house, and from day 1 I have allowed him to play outside without me.
They know to check in with me if they are going anywhere out of earshot of me calling them home, and that is about the only rule I have.
I know, as a child, I walked to the "candy store" by my house by grade 3. I just mapped it and it is .9 miles each way. Down a fairly busy road...without sidewalks.
The lifeguards at our community pool never babysat. They were merely there to save lives if necessary. Even with all of those unsupervised kids, emergencies were extremely rare. This isn't a tiny HOA pool, but a massive community pool with hundreds of swimmers and 14 lifeguards on duty at all times. I took my own children to the same pool, and the lifeguards weren't working less because more parents were there. They were still blowing their whistles at runners, etc., just like they did 40 years ago. I know this well because I was a competitive swimmer and a lifeguard at the pool myself. Don't think for a moment that parents are at their children's side at a pool until their 14. Most parents are sunning themselves on a blanket or socializing at the snack bar.
If parents are sunning themselves or fooling with their phones or socializing or.... who is watching the kids?
When we toured a bunch of HOA pools, the pools without lifeguards had parents sitting on the edge of the water watching the kids. Or in the water with the kids.
The pools with lifeguards had parents doing their own thing expecting the lifeguards to keep their children from harm.
Last year, three kids drowned in pools in our area. All three were in pools with lifeguards. By the time lifeguards spotted them, it was too late to save them. Two were still breathing when the EMTs arrived but died later in the hospital.
I don't care how many lifeguards there are at a pool, i know where my kids are. I'm counting heads. If they're running, I'm the one telling them to walk.
If the lifeguards are blowing whistles at runners, etc., they are babysitting not lifeguarding.
If parents are sunning themselves or fooling with their phones or socializing or.... who is watching the kids?
When we toured a bunch of HOA pools, the pools without lifeguards had parents sitting on the edge of the water watching the kids. Or in the water with the kids.
The pools with lifeguards had parents doing their own thing expecting the lifeguards to keep their children from harm.
Last year, three kids drowned in pools in our area. All three were in pools with lifeguards. By the time lifeguards spotted them, it was too late to save them. Two were still breathing when the EMTs arrived but died later in the hospital.
I don't care how many lifeguards there are at a pool, i know where my kids are. I'm counting heads. If they're running, I'm the one telling them to walk.
If the lifeguards are blowing whistles at runners, etc., they are babysitting not lifeguarding.
How sad. I watch my kids in the pool too, even though they passed the swim test, and don't really trust the teenagers hired as lifeguards. If I am not closely watching (like reading a book) or in with them, they have to stay in the kids pool that is shallow.
At our old house the street was filled with kids in the afternoon...and the parents that chose to could visit and watch the kids. Some of the older ones (8+) were allowed to bicycle to the neighborhood park and if the 6-8 year olds wanted to go they had to stay with the older kids. Pretty much a standing rule that if the kid was younger than 6, a parent was going with them to the park....even though when you got there there was usually another parent that you knew already watching kids at the park. I guess, especially in this day and age, we had an odd neighborhood where we actually knew and hung out with out neighbors?
Sadly, people move and new people move in that don't have kids or they have Grandmothers that yell at them for playing with their friends in the street...even with parents out watching them. We moved about a half a mile away and there don't seem to be any kids in the neighborhood...I see them come home after school...but they all vanish. Probably because it is 100+ degrees outside right now.
I've seen this topic discussed on several threads recently with some insisting that kids should be able to roam and that this develops their independent problem solving skills while others maintain they are tired of the free-range kids on their cul-de-sac, in their driveway.
The first group often describes how safe it was for them to roam around unsupervised and that it is still safe, that the incidents of pedophiles and kidnappers is really rare and that accidents happen. What would we rather have kids doing? Sitting in front of a TV, playing video games.
The second group (termed "helicopter parents" by the first) maintain that children need supervision, that their decision making skills are still developing, that times have changed and you are expected to keep an eye your kids these days. We don't have stay-at-home moms all over the neighborhood keeping an eye on the kids any more. Turtles might be able to lay their eggs on the beach and wander off, but not humans.
I suspect the two groups will never agree. One group sees a little boy riding his trike in the street and it warms the cockles of their hearts to see such independent exploration of his environment.
I've seen this topic discussed on several threads recently with some insisting that kids should be able to roam and that this develops their independent problem solving skills while others maintain they are tired of the free-range kids on their cul-de-sac, in their driveway.
The first group often describes how safe it was for them to roam around unsupervised and that it is still safe, that the incidents of pedophiles and kidnappers is really rare and that accidents happen. What would we rather have kids doing? Sitting in front of a TV, playing video games.
The second group (termed "helicopter parents" by the first) maintain that children need supervision, that their decision making skills are still developing, that times have changed and you are expected to keep an eye your kids these days. We don't have stay-at-home moms all over the neighborhood keeping an eye on the kids any more. Turtles might be able to lay their eggs on the beach and wander off, but not humans.
I suspect the two groups will never agree. One group sees a little boy riding his trike in the street and it warms the cockles of their hearts to see such independent exploration of his environment.
The other group calls CPS.
You have a good point! And of course, there are parents at all places along that continuum as well.
What I have an issue with is the posters on these forums, and I too have been on several here on CD that have discussed this issue, who have some sort of selective memory problem about their own childhoods. I grew up in the idyllic 50s, the time of almost universal SAHMs. We kids did not leave the house after breakfast on our bikes only to come home some 10-12 hours later when it was dark from age 5 or so on up like some of these posters describe. We were in and out, all day long. In addition, there was Vacation Bible School, swimming lessons, Girl Scout/Boy Scout camp, Little League baseball, and all sorts of supervised activities as well as the unsupervised time. Nor did we go miles away. Usually the play was in our backyards, or our friends' back yards, sometimes at a local park. We did wander the woods a bit, but it's not like it was the Great Northwoods of Minnesota or anything; it was a small town in suburban Pittsburgh!
kids and teens who were kidnapped and abused were left unattended or they were alone. being in a group of kids does not necessarily prevent this.
My kids are not glued to a TV, they go outside and play and I am there keeping an eye out. even when they are older they will not be walking alone. Watching your kids is not synonymous with not letting your kids develop properly or stifling their independence. They have watched stranger danger and know what to do and what to be careful of but i am still there.. i would never take a chance with as much as goes on in this world. they may lose out on the freedom that I had when i was a kid but oh well ..
maybe if EVERYONE kept an eye on their kids ALL the time then we would stop seeing in the news all the missing children.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
