parents don't always put their kids in swimming lessons in such a swimming part of the world. We have many lakes and rivers. And no lifeguards on those lakes often. Just a tragedy. I was about 6 or 7 when i decided to dance around a boat on our dock. It was dark. I was alone. I fell in and despite the weight of my dress got right back to the ladder and out. I had probably had 4 sets of swimming lessons by that point in my life.

When we moved to Phoenix, AZ, in 1983, I learned that drowning was the number one cause of death in children under the age of 4. I soon found a program that taught a survival back float and immediately enrolled my young son (he was not yet one year old) in it. Wonderful program. We did not have a swimming pool in our own back yard (which was the huge problem) but did live in a complex with a pool. My son quickly learned to love the water, loved swimming, did quite well.

By the time he was in his teens he was no longer interested in swimming, alas, but that's not the point. The point is that when he was very young and vulnerable I was able to enroll him in a program that might have saved his life.

I realize that swimming (or scuba diving or whatever) in the ocean is vastly different from a toddler falling into a swimming pool. But I think the basic rules might apply: know your limits.