The sea is to be respected. You need to be wary and aware of dangers. When you have young children who are not yet strong swimmers, you need to be doubly careful. Depending on age, competence on activity, you need to be within running distance or in the water with your child.
On a recent trip to the beach I was shocked to see a two-year-old on an inflatable dolphin in the sea alone. Completely alone, no sibling and no parents. The child’s parents were 100m up the beach building a sandcastle on their own. They seemed to be sandcastle building for their own enjoyment as there was no other child with them. They had their backs turned a lot of the time on their child in the sea. At one point the mother left the beach and the father carried on with the sandcastle with his back to the child.
Thankfully, nothing happened, but it so easily could. The fact that this so young child was left unsupervised and unwatched made me distinctly nervous. I found myself casting an eye in his or her direction regularly, just to check she was alright. I sat and watched his/her parents for a while to see if they were looking over regularly. They weren’t. I was relieved when the child got out of the water.
I was shocked that parents could take their child’s safety so lightly. Did they not realise the importance of sea safety? I’m mystified as to why you would behave like that unless you simply didn’t care. They didn’t have any other children, so it wasn’t like their attention was simply divided. Scary stuff!
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