DUers with home swimming pools, need liability advice:

[Catchawave]

Thanks for reading, hope you can advise me how to advise my son.

He lives in Florida with just under 3 yo twin girls and an in ground pool in the backyard. Both girls are able swimmers, BUT, I am pissed he took down the mesh pool safety fence. His yard is enclosed by an 8 foot privacy fence also. Other than my concern for the girls being out of sight for a few critical moments and bumping their heads and falling in and drowning, I'm trying to drive home his responsibility and liability if their non-swimming toddler visiting buddies succumb to the temptation of falling in or driving a big wheel into the pool?

Am I overreacting? He just doesn't seem as worried as I am about potential lawsuits, much less preventable 'accidental' drownings.

Sidebar: To you younger parents, you really never stop being a parent! Of course, it's a whole new playbook when you become a grandparent !

[Midlodemocrat]

1. If a child drowns in his pool even if he is not home and

the child wanders over, he is 100% liable. He needs a sturdy fence with a lock and preferably a locking pool cover.

[Catchawave]

3. Thanks Mid...that's what I keep telling him

he could lose everything over something so simple. I'm just trying to arm myself for Round Two against his "don't worry mom" defense.

Drives me nuts! Of course, he's a Fed, and we all know they have no common sense :silly:

[Midlodemocrat]

4. We don't have a pool just for that reason.

We have a neighborhood swim/tennis club that we belong to. I would really enjoy having a pool to relax beside, especially in the evenings, but I am way too scared to attempt it.

I had a dear friend who lost a child to drowning in the family pool. They were packing to go to Disney and the eldest was supposed to be watching the youngest...you know how that goes. Not worth it to me.

[Catchawave]

6. So sorry to hear about your friends child :(

I guess this is why God invented Grandma's. It's our job to worry, even to the point that we'd piss off our kids, but saving a child's life. Rock-Hard Place,huh?

[seemunkee]

2. He should check his homeowners and see if he is covered

otherwise he should get extra liability insurance. You can also buy motion alarms that sound when something falls in the pool. With kids that young around I would have kept the fence up.
My kids are older( and we 16,19)and I don't have a separate fence around the pool. The only thing we did was take down the diving board. It meets the regs that were in place when the pool was built for having a board but not the current ones.

[Catchawave]

5. Ahhh, extra liability, good point....

He probably doesn't even realize his rates now are based on the security fence. Here's a picture:



Not his house, but this is the fence.

[cally]

7. I also know two people who had a child drown

When my kids were little, I wouldn't let them stay at their grandparents without me until they got a fence. Supposedly some three year olds swim well, but when they panic or fully clothed then who knows. My then four year old was on a swim team but I never allowed her near water without adult supervision. Plus you never know how well other children can swim if at all.

Years ago we considered buying a house with a pool. It didn't have a fence and we enquired about insurance. I forget the details but we didn't buy the house because it wasn't really possible to put up a fence and the liability was too much.

[cally]

8. Sorry, dupe