Caroline Barnhill Bonds

We were swimming at my uncle’s house and my daughter was 3 at the time. She had been wearing a life jacket ( not a puddle jumper ), and we took it off to go potty. As soon as we walked in the gate she took off and ran and jumped back into the pool, forgetting she didn’t have the life jacket back on yet. She did jump right next to my husband thankfully, but she said afterward that she thought/forgot she didn’t have it on yet.

I feel it could definitely easily happen with the child being used to any flotation device for the mere fact that they get so used to having it on, they may forget they don’t have it on or have never been in water without it, so they maybe don’t have the mind to know that it’s the flotation device that’s keeping them afloat.

It’s definitely important to teach kids what happens when they don’t have a float on so they don’t assume they can float without it