One more question: Pool safety - fence/cover/alarm - discuss

kkramer99

We are moving to a house w/ a pool  - while the backyard is fenced, the pool iteself is not. It has a pool alarm that, when armed, goes off if the back door opens and if someone hits the pool. The alarm automatically resets after a period of time. My dd is almost 4, and not water safe - we are doing hardcore lessons this summer. I feel that, while we will never allow her or her playmates to play outside unattended until they are much older, we need another layer of safety. Anyone have advice about safety covers vs safety fences? TIA.

Ciarrai

Check on the alarm.  When I looked into it, a lot of people said it gave you a false sense of security.  Also, check the sensitivity.  I think it was something like 25lbs and more and that's assuming they hit the surface flat and what if they jumped/dived in and it was smoother?  When we got the house with the pool, my kids were 8 months, 2.5 and 4.  (They're now 2, 4 and almost 6.)  My kids are tiny so the girls were maybe 30lbs and the baby was nowhere near that.  (At 27 months, he's only 22lbs.)  Anyway, the alarm really didn't seem the way to go.  

I looked at the safety covers/nets.  I really liked those because they/you could literally walk on them but it was a PITA to take on and off.  Plus we have a 100lb lab and I was worried his legs would fall through the net and then I'd have trouble hauling him off it.  Someone also said "what if they get under the cover/net?  How long would it take or how hard would it be to take it off enough for you to get in to get them?"  I know that's neurotic and the point of having a safety cover is they can't get in or get it unhooked to get under it, but that was enough for me.

We ended up getting one of those safety fences.  We went through Protect A Child brand, which I think is a national chain.  Personally, I love it.  It's removable so when we have a pool party or a lot of company, we will take it down or take sections of it down. Otherwise, we keep it up all the time.  When it's just us or a few friends, we can open up the section at the stairs which creates a 6 foot opening.  I can keep an eye on the kids and know if they're in the pool area or out.  We have our fence as close to the pool as possible so we didn't use up too much of the patio/yard space, but still have enough room to walk around the pool to clean it and whatnot with the fence up. The fence was pretty pricey, but it was worth every penny for piece of mind.  Our backyard is useable again where it wasn't without the fence.  Even with me out there, DS would try to go near the pool to feel the water or the girls would try to check the temp or toys went in or whatever.  As the guy who installed it said, you can't rely on it 100%.  A friend's kids have tried to climb on a chair to get over it.  But my kids know the rules and I am comfortable letting them play in the backyard on their own with me inside cooking dinner or whatever and watching them out the window, especially my older two.  

(FWIW - Both my girls could swim pretty well before we moved into this house and definitely within a few months.  Now they're on swim team for our neighborhood and doing amazing, but I still wouldn't let them outside without a fence or something.  What if they fell and hit their heads or the dog bumped them in by accident and they panicked?)

Also - We LOVE LOVE LOVE our pool.  The kids are literally in every day during the summer from May through September and a few weekends in April and October.  I couldn't live without it so it's definitely worth it and great to have. 

Littlejen22

We did a removable fence bc it looks good and was less money and harder to climb. I would never not have a fence around a pool with little kids even if they they could swim, not worth the what-ifs. 

regenab

We have an inground swimming pool that is right out our sliding glass door of our house. You have to walk past the pool and out the screen enclosure to get to the yard. Since my girls were only 20 months old when we bought our house, I had a screen perimeter fence put all around the pool the second day we were in the house. It was the only way I would feel comfortable with the pool. Alarms on doors can be turned off, I have seen it happen and kids get out the door and wander into the pool area. I don't have any experience with the pool alarms or covers that go on the pools. Our yard is fenced and we also have a screen enclosure over our entire pool deck that you have to open a door to get to from the outside, so I feel secure that other children will not wander into our yard and fall into our pool. But until the girls and my BFF's son is at least 6 years old I am keeping the pool fence up. They cannot climb it and it is very hard for an adult to open (I am pretty much the only person besides our pool guy that can get it open). It cost me some money because you have pay for each hole they drile in the concrete patio to put up the fence, but so worth it in my opinion. We have so many toddler drownings here in Florida, year round, it is not worth the risk to me.

I have been teaching the girls to swim, but did just put them in swim class at the YMCA so they can teach them back floats and other strokes so they can get out of the pool if they were to fall in. I love that they are learning water/pool safety in a class environment because it seems to sink in more, like at school. I have never been able to get my girls to let me do back floats with them and in the first lesson the teacher at the YMCA had all 5 kids in the class back floating. I think I am going to do all three levels with them, at first I was only going to do the first level, but she is so good with them that I am going to do all three levels so they will have the basics completely down when they are done. Of course I am still going to be with them every second in the pool, but at least I will feel better that if one of them fell in while I was on the other end of the pool she could get herself flipped over on her back or be able to swim to the side wall and get out.

livinitup

You probably already know this and plan to do it - but my 2 cents on pool safety - whenever children are in the water, you need to assign an adult to watch them, and rotate turns as much as possible. Many accidental drowning incidences occur while adults are poolside and thought they were 'watching'. A good safety rule is to have a designated adult who acknowledges that it is their turn to watch the kids.

NativeNyer

Littlejen22:

We did a removable fence bc it looks good and was less money and harder to climb. I would never not have a fence around a pool with little kids even if they they could swim, not worth the what-ifs. 

This. It's worth the money. 

jsugrin

Personally I would do chime alarms on all or your doors (if you have an internal alarm the company can do it or you can simply buy them individually off Amazon, about $30) and I'd do the pool alarm and a fence.  I know someone who's 3 year old was napping, she went to put the baby down, came back and said 3 year old had opened the sliding door and crawled under the edge of the gate to the pool fence (take a look at them, there is obviously enough room) fallen in the pool and was dead .  I'd want multiple layers of security.  My mom is renting a house with a pool and we were not able to put in a fence.  We did the alarms on the doors, they are loud, and the pool alarm.  The alarm we put into the water is adjustable for weight, so if you have a small dog but large children you can adjust it.  My boys are both upwards of 30 pounds so we set it at 10 pounds.  Also the kids are the doors are set up so the kids can't get out of them.  THey can't open the slider and my mom's bedroom door we put a door stopper to the outside of it so they can't push it open.  Sure if they tried really hard they could get it open but the alarm would be going off and it gives up more time to get there if they got away from us.