For many children, part of having a swimming pool in their backyard is having friends over during the summer. It is important for parents to provide information to their children and their children’s friends about pool safety. You may not feel like the cool parent, but pool safety is too important to skip over.

Explaining in Advance
Before their friends arrive, explain to your children that you will need them to pay attention for a couple minutes to go over pool safety. This may seem unnecessary to your child, but it’s better that they understand in advance than feel bombarded in front of their friends. Explain that you care about their safety and their friends’ safety. It’s also important to stress that all pools have different rules, so their friends will need to know how things are done at this pool.

Your Pool Rules
Don’t feel pressured to allow jumping or diving if this worries you, it’s your pool and your safety rules. If these things can only be done in a certain area of the pool, explain that too. No running and no rowdy behavior are general guidelines that are worth repeating. Some pool owners may want to type up a list of pool rules that can be posted nearby–a good way to reinforce things with older children.

Reclaim Your Cool Parent Role
Some parents are hesitant to talk about pool safety with all guests to their pool for fear of being labeled the stickler for the rules. For everyone’s safety, it’s critical to do it anyway. Start the talk with popsicles or by allowing guests to pick out their pool toys. Let the kids eat lunch outside by the pool after swimming. There are plenty of ways stay the cool parent with the pool while still keeping everyone safe.