Your baby can swim

This came out in '74 but I remember people throwing their kids into the deep end long before that. IMHO it's not a bad idea they can swim if you get the diaper off them. (Especially those super absorbent ones.)

Sadly, Esther Williams' career came to an abrupt end after "Epidural Follies", where in the final sequence she gave birth underwater while a dozen bathing beauties dressed as nurses gave synchronized Lamaze instructions. Williams later said "I thought they said it was going to be 'Lamas', not 'Lamaze'."

A lot of kids die in swimming pools (even one is too many) --l ittle babies and small kids. Teaching them to swim as early as possible is a very good idea, especially if you or your friends own a swimming pool.

Toddlers are top heavy, their little heads weigh a lot. Even 2" of water is enough to drown them, since they lack the strength to pull their heads up (for example, if they go head first into a pail of water).

1% of white, male Caucasians (I'm one of them, so is my father; my brother is not) are actually denser than water. I can *just* swim breaststroke. I can swim a few strokes of the crawl, but when I turn my head to breathe, *none* of my mouth clears the water.

Too much haggis and scotch.

A factoid from a novel set in the Napoleonic war which may not be true. Navies prevented sailors from learning how to swim. This kept them from deserting when in port!

I'll buy that. I've read that most sailors didn't know how to swim and I'd not put it past TPTB.

Sounds reasonable to me, too. Expat, I float better now I have a built-in lifesaver, probably caused at least in part by haggis and scotch. My kid brother insisted it was because of all the rocks in my head.

Yeah, I'm going to jump up on my soap box here, because one of the biggest tragedy is kids drowning, even when supervised, because most people don't recognize a drowning person when they see one!
(Hint: It doesn't look at all like it does on TV, not dramatic enough.)
The problem is that there's an instinctive response in humans that kicks in when they're drowning, and it'll actually prevent them from signaling or calling for help.
They'll just hang there, looking like they're treading water until they weaken and go under.
The simplest test is to ask the question "Are you all right". If they don't respond, pull'em out!
This website should be recommended reading for anyone heading out to swim:
http://gcaptain.com/drowning/

Thanks Captain Daft!
Loved your link.
Yes, people need to be able to *breathe* in order to speak.
And yes, kids in the water make a lot of noise. If they get quiet, there is trouble.
Interesting isn't it, how alcohol in adults makes them far less capable of watching their own kids...

Actually fat floats and muscle sinks. So if you cannot float and want to, you should eat more or become less active and let some of that muscle turn to fat.

Bacon to the rescue, once again!

According to the CDC, one of the biggest dangers of drownings is being male (about 80% of drowning deaths are male). Shockingly, alcohol is a factor in a lot of those deaths.

I almost drowned at the age of 7 or 8 when I jumped into the deep end of a pool and didn't know how to swim. I struggled to stay afloat until too exhausted to try anymore. I was going down for the 3rd time literally when I had the misfortune of my last arm throw hitting the side of the pool and I grabbed on. It was all blind panic and a pool full of screaming, thrashing kids.

Actually, I don't know if my parents read this, but they were teaching me how to swim when I was only about 6 months old (it was too cold to get into the pool before that because I was a January baby). They say I was pretty good at it, but I was in a place for a few years without a pool and I'd forgotten, then had to be taught all over again. However, in a benefit, I now am a pretty decent swimmer, not an expert, but I can manage all the regular strokes (including a few lifesaving ones).

I had started swimming at the the age of 4 when my papa had guide me how to swim, though i had not special memory to get remind of it. But now i could able to swim not professionally but technically well in though.