by Sabrina Garibian posted in Parenting

We have a newly renovated pool at our house, and it's so attractive that we've had a revolving door of visitors. We've come up with several pool rules that work for us to keep everyone safe and happy.

After only three weeks of pool use with a solid set of pool rules, we've already had to save several children from distress in the water. It happens in a blink! In every single case, it happened because the child thought he was wearing his Puddle Jumper and he wasn't. We stopped using Puddle Jumpers with our kids from a young age so that our children understand that they can't automatically float, and so that we don't get lazy and use it as a crutch. We get in the water with our kids every single time and never take our eyes off of them. Poolsafety.gov has a list of 7 pool safety tips everyone should follow:

Never leave a child unattended in or near water.
Teach children how to swim.
Teach children to stay away from drains.
Ensure all pools and spas -- both in your backyard and any public pool you may visit -- have compliant drain covers.
Install proper barriers, covers and alarms on and around your pool and spa.
Know how to perform CPR on children and adults.
Take the pledge!

My home pool rules are even more specific to ensure the safety of everyone swimming.

No running on the pool deck. This is a rule that is there for safety plain and simple. Pool decks are notoriously slippery and the last thing anyone wants is for someone to ...