In the world of parenting, we spend countless hours teaching our children how to tie their shoes, buckle their seatbelts, and look both ways before crossing the street. But one of the most crucial life skills — swimming — is often overlooked, delayed, or left entirely to the idea of “lessons later.” Yet, teaching your kids even the basics of swimming could be the difference between life and death — not just at the beach or in a pool, but even at home, in a bathtub.
Drowning is the leading cause of accidental death for children ages 1–4 and a top cause for older children as well. What’s even more sobering is that it often happens silently. There’s no splashing, no screaming — just a quiet slipping beneath the surface. And it can happen in seconds.

It Starts With the Basics

You don’t need to wait for a formal swim class to start preparing your child. Basic water skills — floating, treading water, breathing control — can be taught by parents long before structured lessons begin.

Floating: Teaching a child how to float on their back isn’t just a fun skill; it’s a survival tool. If a child falls into water, the ability to flip onto their back and float buys them precious time until help arrives.
Breath Control: Learning to hold your breath underwater and blow bubbles teaches kids to stay calm if they accidentally submerge. Panic often leads to drowning, so giving them the ability to control their breathing is critical.
Treading Water: Even young children can begin learning how to stay upright and move their arms and legs in a simple paddling motion to keep their head above water. Treading water builds endurance and confidence, crucial for emergencies.

These foundational skills can be taught in shallow pools, bathtubs, or even during playful water time in the yard — the key is consistency and comfort.

It’s Not Just About Pools, Oceans, or Lakes

When we think about drowning prevention, we often picture summer afternoons by the pool or vacations near the ocean. But many drownings happen far closer to home — and in much smaller bodies of water. Toilets, bathtubs, buckets, kiddie pools, even backyard ponds can be deadly to an unsupervised child.
Children don’t need deep water to be at risk. Just a few inches of water and a few moments of distraction are enough. In homes with multiple children, the distractions are even greater. Teaching all children basic water safety skills becomes even more critical when a parent’s attention might be divided among several little ones.

Why Bright Swimsuits Save Lives

An often-overlooked factor in water safety is visibility. Many parents buy swimsuits in popular colors like blue or pastel tones, but in water — especially in pools and lakes — blue suits can be nearly impossible to see.
Choosing bright, neon-colored swimsuits (think: yellow, orange, hot pink, or bright green) increases a child’s visibility dramatically, both under and above the water. In an emergency, every second counts. If a lifeguard, parent, or sibling can easily spot a child, rescue efforts can begin much faster.

Don’t Rely on Lifeguards Alone

Pools with lifeguards can offer a false sense of security. While trained to respond in emergencies, lifeguards are often supervising dozens, sometimes hundreds, of swimmers at once. They can’t possibly have eyes on every child at every moment.
As parents, it’s our responsibility to maintain active supervision — a term that means putting down phones, books, and conversations to keep constant visual contact with our children in the water. For families with multiple children, designating a “Water Watcher” — an adult responsible for supervising swimming — can help ensure someone is always focused solely on safety.
But even the best supervision can falter for a moment. That’s why teaching your kids swimming skills gives them a layer of protection that no lifeguard, fence, or floatie can match.

Preparedness Saves Lives

In the same way we teach children what to do if there’s a fire or a car accident, we must prepare them for water emergencies. That doesn’t mean making them fearful — it means making them confident, prepared, and skilled.
Teaching basic swimming should be part of every family’s preparedness plan. It doesn’t require fancy lessons or waiting until they’re “ready.” Start early, make it fun, and emphasize that being comfortable and capable in the water is a non-negotiable life skill.
Whether it’s swimming in the deep end, floating in the shallow side, or simply sitting safely in a bathtub, the lessons you teach your child today could be the very ones that save their life tomorrow. ❦

About the Author

Stacy Phillips develops and deploys effective solutions to challenging and systemic crime victimization issues as a Victim Justice Program Specialist with the Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) at the U.S. Department of Justice. Levering her more than 20 years of experience in the victim services field, she works collaboratively across OVC’s Discretionary and Human Trafficking Teams to create, implement, and monitor a broad range of programs. Dr. Phillips has spearheaded demonstration initiatives on polyvictimization, reducing child fatalities and recurring serious child injuries, and currently leads OVC’s opioid/drug addiction crisis initiatives. She also oversees Project Hope, a community of practice focused on law enforcement and communities. She also manages projects on crime victims’ rights enforcement and legal wraparound networks, law enforcement-based direct services, post-conviction initiatives, and human trafficking. As a children and youth expert with a focus on trauma, polyvictimization, and brain science, Dr. Phillips represents OVC on the DOJ Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) Working Group, Federal Inter-Agency Work Group on Child Abuse and Neglect, the Federal Interagency Task Force on Trauma-Informed Care. She is a sought-out speaker at national conferences and has advised research teams in their development of nationwide toolkits.

Before joining OVC, Dr. Phillips spent 15 years responding to the needs of children and families through the child welfare system. At the DC Child and Family Services Agency, she worked on child and family protective services issues, including grants, program design and management, needs assessment, resource development, and policy development. During this time, she started the DC Parent Advisory Council, served on the Districtwide Children’s Justice Act Task Force, and helped develop the District’s Human Trafficking Task Force. Beforehand, Dr. Phillips served as a Child Protective Services Investigations Supervisor, conducting adoption, foster care, and kinship licensing studies in Texas. She began her career as a Child Protective Services Investigator in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

Dr. Phillips holds a Doctorate of Social Work (DSW) from the University of Southern California with a focus on smart decarceration of youth; a certificate in Public Policy from Harvard University Kennedy School of Government; an M.A. in Clinical Psychology from Southern Connecticut State University; and an M.S.W. from the Catholic University of America.3.3

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