Many children love to play in and around water, and few activities are as much fun on a hot day as a quick dip in the local swimming pool. It is important, therefore, for every parent to teach their children how to be safe in and around the water, and it is never too early to start these important lessons.

These days there are swimming classes for toddlers and even babies, in addition to the more traditional preschool and school age child swimming lessons in order to give their children a strong basis of skills they can draw on if they get into trouble.

It is also important to teach children to respect water, while at the same time teaching them not to be overly fearful around pools, ponds and other sources of water. It is important to strike a balance between overconfidence, which could lead to problems later on, and excessive timidity , which can cause the child to miss out on the fun of swimming and other water based activities.

It is also important, of course, never to leave a young child around water without supervision, even if that child is a very good swimmer. There is no substitute for the vigilant attention of a parent, and it is important for that parent to carefully watch the child anytime he or she plays in or around the water.

This goes for any source of water, not only the community or backyard pool. Any source of water, even very shallow ones, can pose a danger to young children. A young child can just as easily drown in a bathtub or even a bucket as in a swimming pool or at the beach. It is important, therefore, for the parent to drain the bathtub, and empty any buckets if the child cannot be supervised, even for a short time. It is also important to cover hot tubs and pools when not in use. In addition, a sturdy fence around the swimming pool is an important, and in many cases legally mandated, safety measure.