We all love to swim in the pool in the warm weather it is a fun time for friends and family.

Cook outs, water volleyball, its’ all great stuff.

Here in South Florida swimming pools are everywhere and even though they are great fun beware of the lurking dangers!

We all know (I hope) that a child safety fence is a must if you have young ones around. They are not super expensive ($500 to $800 for a average pool) and can stop a lot of potential accidents.

Then again what is your child’s life worth?

I think that you should go a step further and consider that even with a child pool safety fence there is more than can be done .

I feel strongly about this as I have a friend that lost his 10-year-old son in his or her pool when no one was home.

The main point in this case is he was alone, fell and hit his head on the pool coping and drowned.

So, Never let your children go in the pool alone, always insist they have a buddy there, just like the golden rule of scuba diving you must always be in two’s

You should take a free CPR course at your neighborhood Red Cross or fire department.

Have safety equipment handy, life buoy, long handled pool brush (this can be used as an emergency appendage for a person in trouble to grab on too)

Hopefully if you are a pool owner you have a fence all around your house.

In many sates this is a requirement!

Many children that drown are not members of that household; they are kids wondering around trying to sneak a swim on a hot summer day.

If you are putting in a new pool make sure your pool deck and coping are non-skid.

Keep your pool light on at night (especially if you have no pool fence)

There is photo luminescent tile available that emits the days stored up light and is great to install as a border feature strip so folks at night can see a step before tripping. People usually trip on the way down a step.

This can also be used as a waterline tile and because it will light up at night, no need for the light.

The best idea is to keep your children with in reach. No swimming with out a partner, even for older kids

Keep the pool clean and not over chlorinated. If you can swing it get a natural salt to chlorine autopilot

They keep the pool at an even PH and won’t kill you with the chlorine.

Teach the little ones to swim right away even if you are in an area that has little water ( lakes, beaches,etc.) around or you don’t have a swimming pool.

Safe swimming and please lock the gate when you leave.