08/02/2026
When we decided to build a pool at our home, I found very little in terms of actual data on some of these choices. After doing a lot of digging, these are 3 that I learned
*And yes, being abe to build a pool is definitely privilege and yet it is also an enormous responsibility.Ā
ā”ļø 4 sided fence with automatically closing gate. Your house does NOT count as one side of the pool! (yes, my husband and I had this discussion regularly - I didnāt even care if the fence between the house and the pool was attractive - all I wanted was effective. In the end, I found Protect-A-Child Pool Fence thatās super safe - and I donāt actually mind the look ;)Ā
ā”ļø Light colored pool floor and walls - Iāve seen this with my own eyes and from patient stories. When a pool has a darker floor/wall, it is MUCH harder to see into the water, particularly at different light levels, at dusk, and with multiple children. Opt for a super light color of walls and surface.Ā
ā”ļø Cameras - this was an extra layer, and Iām very happy with it - we purchased Ring cameras, and aimed them at the pool (I didnāt realize at first, even though a Ring camera can see a large field of view, it can only do āmotion sensorā on a very small portion of that view, so it ended up taking more than one camera to see our pool). I limit the motion sensing to ONLY the area of the water and around it, so literally it doesnāt go off unless someone is truly in the water (or the pool guy, in which case once a week I get a notification, I watch āLIVEā for a second, see itās him, and pause sensors for 30 minutes).Ā
Other safety measures I recommend (and by the American Red Cross )
(1) Teach children to āsurvival swimā as soon as they are capable
(2) All adults (and even older children) should know CPR
(3) I also taught my youngest - he doesnāt get into the pool without giving me a āHigh-5ā ā he knows this.Ā
There are more measures, which I also teach in my Baby Proofing and Child Safety course - but Iām running out of caption space :). Comment WaterSafe and Iāll send you my āDrowning and Water Safety Prevention Checklistā. ā¤ļø
