Mom Called ‘Dramatic' For Hiring a Lifeguard For Her Kindergartener's Pool Party
'If everybody is watching, it means nobody is watching,' Morgan Coulter, a mother of two in New Jersey, tells TODAY.com.
Morgan said in a TikTok video: 'I hired a certified lifeguard for my daughter's 6th birthday party and I had a couple of comments about it that I was honestly surprised to get.'
The mom continued, 'A lot of people said that it was too much, extra, dramatic, wasn't necessary ... I kind of thought it would be helpful.'
The mom asked in the video, 'How would you feel if you had a kindergarten-going-into-first-grade kid, or similar ages, and you went to a birthday party with a pool and they had a lifeguard? I personally would be like, 'OMG thank you so much.' Obviously, you should still watch your kid but it's an extra safety net.'
Morgan mentioned that her kids are often likelier to listen to an authority figure, like a lifeguard, than their parents.
She added, 'If I'm like, 'Hey, stop messing around ... stop trying to drown your sister,' it's going to fall on deaf ears, but if a lifeguard blows a whistle and is like, 'Hey, knock it off,' they're listening every time. How would you feel about having a lifeguard at a 6-year-old's birthday party? Is it too much?'
TikTok comments leaned toward being pro-lifeguard.
'I would be THRILLED to show up to a pool party to find a lifeguard! What a relief for the parents.'
'Someone there whose literal job is to ensure the safety of kids? Why would anyone scoff at that?'
'In groups, people think, 'Everyone is watching' and it makes people careless.'
'Only near-drowning incident I've ever witnessed was at a pool party for K-5 kids. I was shocked at how distracted everyone was.'
'My child not drowning isn't 'extra.''
'Great idea. People can find fault in everything.'
Morgan tells TODAY.com that her above-ground pool is only four-and-a-half feet deep; however, 20 children will be splashing in the water.
According to Morgan, one invitee asked, 'Why would you hire a lifeguard? That seems like a waste of money.'
'It seemed like survivor bias — like, when people argue, 'We didn't have seatbelts and we turned out fine,'' says Morgan.
Morgan's husband Thomas Coulter, a certified emergency nurse, tells TODAY.com that lifeguards are not only trained in CPR; their focus is entirely on water safety.
With friends and family, says Thomas, 'There can be a blanket sense of comfort that someone else is watching the kid ... and that is a false security.'
Hiring a lifeguard is highly suggested for pool parties, Wyatt Werneth, a spokesperson for the American Lifeguard Association, tells TODAY.com.
Drowning is the leading cause of death for children younger than 4 and one of the top causes of death for kids 5-14, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Werneth says potential lifeguards should know the following information before arriving at the pool:
The age of children present.
The number of children who will be in the water at any given time.
The children's swim skill level.
The depth of and location of the pool.
Werneth adds that lifeguards trained for shallow water, for example, may not have the same training as deep-water or open-water lifeguards.
If hiring a lifeguard is not in your budget, says Werneth, use the 'Water Watcher' system in which adults switch off supervising children in the water. The website Safe Kids Worldwide offers downloadable 'Water Watcher' cards to hold when a watcher is on duty.
This article was originally published on TODAY.com
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