* Guest blog by Amber MacArthur (@ambermac). Amber is a tech journalist and best-selling author. She is also a member of the Canadian Red Cross Twitter Team. Amber's three-year-old son has completed his first session of swimming lessons, and he loved it!
We love spending time around the water during the summer as a family, and as a mom I want to do everything possible to keep my three-year-old son safe.
With the weekend coming up and already a few tragic incidents reported in the news, I thought I would share some helpful information from the Canadian Red Cross about staying safe on the water, whether you plan on heading to the lake, the beach or just hanging out in your backyard pool.
Some of the most surprising facts about drowning are how little water it takes for a small child to drown (a few centimetres!), how quickly it can happen (seconds) and how someone can slip away quietly, without a call for help. It sends chills down my spine just thinking about it but there's so much we can do to prevent it from happening.
We've enrolled our son in swimming lessons and while he's getting more and more comfortable in the water, I know that's not enough. When we go out boating, everyone wears their properly fitted lifejacket. That goes for us parents, too. When we're at a pool or the beach, there's always an adult actively supervising children.
The Red Cross has a lot of other great tips online on everything from open water swimming to how to keep your pool safe.
Check out this link for more info on Canadian Red Cross swim programs.
Click here for general first aid and water safety tips.