Thursday, April 8, 2010

A summer/swimming PSA

A friend posted this PSA about children's swimwear, and I never even thought about it before I read it. This makes perfect sense. Please share if you'd like.

These are her words, so I am copy/pasting it exactly how she wrote it:

I do this every year, and it's getting to be that time again... if you've heard it before, pass it on to someone who hasn't.

I used to swim with a Master's team and one night they were doing deep water rescue drills with the lifeguards at the same time as our workout. I was doing laps in the deep end and the trainer tossed a baby doll, clad only in a diaper, into the deep end of the pool.

I peered through the water as the doll sank, and I kid you not, you could *not* see that baby in twelve feet of water. This was in a basically empty pool without a lot of other kids splashing and reflections from light and I was *in* the water and STILL couldn't see it. It was a vague pale blur in the water, and it made me shudder to think that could be a real child down there.

Now on to the PSA - I talked with the trainer afterward and he said he wished there were no such things as kid's swimsuits in white, sea green or turquoise blue, because those colors blend right in to the pool bottom in most pools. He said to dress your kids in the brightest freaking colors you can find - neon pinks, oranges, reds, just for that increased visibility factor in the water.




11 comments:

Mary said...

I hadn't thought about the color of the swimsuits making a difference! Hopped onto your blog via blogfrog. My Mother in Law is Danish; we went to Cph last summer and fell in love with it! It is amazing that your daughter can speak 2 languages and understands a 3rd!

Anonymous said...

WHEW... my daughter's new duds are HOT neon Pink and Yellow plaid... LOUD they are.

kristin said...

WOW! I had never thought of that - I may pass that info on to the place I take Little man to swim practice. I am a big advocate for water safety.

Thanks!

TxMissie said...

Hi Mary :)
I love it here.I have been here almost 9 years.CPH is a great city

TxMissie said...

Stripey yippeee

TxMissie said...

Kristin I didn't either but now we are going with some loud suits

Chrissy Edwards said...

OH gosh. I hadn't thought of that, thank you so much for the info!

TxMissie said...

Your Welcome!

Lori said...

Great post. I will retweet it. The brighter the better! Thanks for sharing.
All the Best,
Lori (the BlogFrog)

MamaBear said...

Darn. I just bought my daughter a suit that does not fit the bill. We are not in situations where she'd be in any more than 1 foot of pool water though, but I will remember this for when she is older and will be in deeper water. THANKS!

Jenilee said...

wow. never thought of that before but so true! thanks for the spreading this important message!