Children should be taught to swim, and a lot of things should be paid for by the gov't, but 5yo is still too young to be around a body of water unsupervised even if they know how. It's not worth the risk.
I could definitely see that, especially with young kids. Young kids are just still not physically string enough or experienced enough, imo, to be unsupervised in water
In Germany it's been part of the curriculum for as long as I can remember and most Germans teach their kids before they even enter school. Still, I wouldn't leave a 5 year old unsupervised by water deep enough to fall in and drown - a major part of swimming education here at least when I grew up was telling you to never swim in unfamiliar murky waters, flowing rivers, etc. and also not when it's cold as you can go into shock and then it doesn't matter how well you can swim. Plus the multiple layers of heavy wet clothes are very different from knowing how to swim in a swimsuit in a pool...
Given how the majority of the year it's way too cold to swim here, coupled with how prone to impulsive behavior and accidents due to poor judgement 5 year olds still are, I wouldn't risk it. Neither did our parents tbh, I remember going near water being off limits as a place to roam by ourselves as a group. (We may have stretched that rule a bit by age 10-12 lol)
It's still ridiculous to be throwing parents in jail over their child just walking near a pond though. It sounds like the cop was on a power trip because he didn't like the way the mother responded (from what I read somewhere else on the case)
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u/JeSuisUnAnanasYo Sep 12 '26
The real tea here is that people need to be training their kids to swim from babies age. This shit should be subsidized by the govt