The danger of thinking 'knowing how to swim means not being afraid of drowning'

During a business trip to the suburbs in mid-May, I passed by a lagoon and witnessed nearly 10 boys (around 10 years old) playing, bathing, and swimming in the lagoon. One boy claimed that 'he knows how to swim so he is not afraid of drowning'.

"We can all swim so we're not afraid of drowning!"

The area where the boys were bathing and swimming was a wide culvert right next to the inter-commune road, with a strong current and quite deep water level.

The extremely dangerous thing is that I did not see any adults supervising the children. If something unfortunate happened, it would be difficult to avoid the children drowning.

I stopped and told them that it was dangerous to bathe like that, and advised them to go home. One of the boys replied, "We come here every day to bathe. We all know how to swim, so we're not afraid of drowning!"

Then the group of children continued to jump into the water to play. Some children stood on the high wall of the sewer, several meters above the water, jumped in and had to wait a while to come back up...

Ngành giáo dục nhiều địa phương thường đưa ra cảnh báo nguy cơ trẻ bị đuối nước dịp hè — Theeducation sector in many localities often warns of the risk of children drowning due to swimming in rivers, streams, ponds, and lakes during the hot summer.

The need for rural children to swim in rivers, streams, ponds, lakes, marshes, and puddles to "cool off" on hot summer days is real. For children from poor families, going to a swimming pool is a distant dream.

Besides, children are inherently very active and love to play, so even if their parents forbid them, they still try to find ways to "sneak" away to go swimming with their friends.

No parent wants to suffer the tragic consequences of their child drowning. Just because of a little laxity in management and education, some parents have had to suffer the loss of their children, and then the sadness and regret follow them for the rest of their lives.

The pain of parents when they lose their children

My classmate and his wife got married nearly ten years later before they had a son. They strictly controlled their son. However, because of a moment of negligence, they lost their beloved child forever.

On a hot summer afternoon 2 years ago, the son (then in 7th grade) asked his parents' permission to go to his friend's house in the same village to borrow books to study. The son lied to his parents and went swimming with his friends in a deep pond near his house.

Of the 6 children who went swimming that day, my friend's son and 2 other children (same age as 12) died because they saw their friend drowning, rushed out to save him and drowned.

Nguy hiểm khi trẻ tự ý đi tắm, bơi lội ở sông hồ… - Ảnh 2. — Students need to be equipped with swimming skills.

That is just one of many cases of children dying from drowning in our country every year. Among those tragic drowning cases, it is not only children who cannot swim, but in fact many children who can swim and swim well still drown for many reasons.

Keep an eye on your children this summer

When rural areas do not have swimming pools for children to play, we can only minimize the situation of children drowning by widely popularizing swimming in schools. This partly helps equip children with basic techniques, knowledge, and skills about swimming and how to respond to dangerous situations underwater...

Regarding family responsibility, if possible, parents should take their children to swimming pools, swimming centers of towns, townships, and districts so that their children can cool off and swim under adult supervision.

In areas near rivers, streams, ponds, and lakes, parents must always closely monitor and supervise their children and must not neglect to let them swim in areas that are dangerous to their lives. Parents must also regularly educate and take strict and thorough measures to prevent tragic deaths due to drowning.

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