One of the most surprising things about our pool announcement was people’s fear. Many people were concerned about the ways we were ensuring pool safety in our home. I thought this would be a great thing to share with you guys on the blog especially if you are considering getting a pool! I first want to start by saying that getting a pool wasn’t a decision we made on a whim. Our number one priority always is keeping Cope safe and we have spent so much time thinking about as parents. This is not something we take lightly, we are very serious about pool safety & doing what is best for our family. What we choose to do for our family may not align with your personal choices, so I always recommend doing your own research and deciding what is best for your family!
Fence
Where we live, It is not permitted to have a pool without a fence or an automatic hardcover. We will be installing a permanent fence around our pool in the upcoming weeks, but are currently awaiting our cement to be installed. Currently, we have a legal temporary fence until the permanent fence is installed. Our fence will be around our entire pool area and all entrance into the pool area will have locks to ensure safety. I recommend doing your own research to decide what type of locks would be best for your family!
Alarms
Alarms are a great way to ensure you know when anyone is entering your pool area. We have alarms on every door & window in our house, alarms will be on all entrances into our pool, and an alarm in the pool. The alarm system we use in our house is Vivint Home, we’ve used them for over a decade & we love it. The Vivint Home alarms are on all of our windows and doors and alert us anytime a door or window in our home is opened.
Safety Turtle
The safety turtle is a band that your child can wear on their ankle or wrist and anytime the band gets wet it sets an alarm off. The alarm will go off anytime it gets wet whether its rain, sprinkler, washing hands, the pool, or even Cope sucking on the band! The alarm is incredibly loud and will set off anytime the band gets wet.
Life Buoy
The life buoy sits in the water of your pool and will go off anytime anything enters your pool. The lifebuoy is available on Amazon and was recommended to us by so many people. If an animal, person, or anything else falls into the pool the alarm will be set off on the lifebuoy. You can attach the lifebuoy to a wall of your pool or let it float around the pool! It will sense any disruption in the water & set off a loud alarm.
House Security System
We have Vivint Smart home on all of our doors and windows throughout the house. Through the app and through the security base that is installed inside your home, you can adjust settings and activation times on different door sensors and window alarms to sound. An example is that all of the sensors in Cope’s bedroom are set to immediately sound if the window is open, where as our doors have a delayed timer to allow for you to deactivate the alarm from the phone app or base. We have all of our sensors, nearest to the pool, on constant activation and immediate sound with no delay when we are not intending on going out to the pool area.
ISR Swim Lessons
We choose to enroll Cope in ISR swim lessons. We felt that ISR was the best option for our family to teach Cope how to save himself if necessary & how to swim! Personally, we felt most aligned with the mission of ISR which is why we chose that for our family. I shared the ISR Mission below, however, I recommend doing your own research to discover the best swimming lessons for your family.
ISR Mission: ISR believes pool fences, supervision, and pool alarms are important parts of a necessary multi-layered approach to drowning prevention. However, traditional lines of defense break down, and the over 4,000 drowning deaths per year bear a grim testament to the fact that traditional approaches are missing a key component: the child. ISR’s core conviction is that the child is the most important part of a drowning prevention strategy and our over 300,000 ISR graduates and 800 documented survival stories are proof that children can save themselves. Children are curious, capable, and have an uncanny ability to overcome obstacles like pool fences; at ISR we take that ability and teach them skills to potentially save themselves if they find themselves in the water alone.
Tips From You Guys
You guys gave so many great tips for pool safety & I wanted to share those on the blog as well. If you have a pool or are considering getting a pool I hope that you find these helpful!
- Never leave children unattended by the pool.
- Hide the gate key where children cannot access.
- Cover the pool anytime you are not using it, research the best pool cover for your family.
- Combination lock on the pool gate.
- Katchakid pool safety net covers.
- Parents take CPR lessons.
- For older kids, if you jump around the gate or enter without permission grounded from the pool for a set time period.
- Discourage filling up water toys in the pool.
- Coral mantra 3000 alarm system, alarm when someone enters pool & alarm if there is a drowning risk.
- Family meetings before anyone will be allowed to enter the pool.
Pool safety is something we are very serious about as a family & is something that we will continuously be implementing especially as Cope gets older. I hope this helps you discover some tips that may help your family with pool safety as well! Thank you for stopping by the blog today and every day.
