Installing Water Safety Barricades: How to Get it Right

Install All Barricades

In this post, I'm diving into the Watching Initiative's "I" strategy, "Install all barricades.”

Whether you realize it or not, you need to be thinking about installing barricades around the water in and around your home. If your child has access to any water environment, it’s your responsibility to put barricades in place to keep them safe.

Barricades are an obvious priority for households with access to a pool, pond, lake, or ocean. They also matter if you have your neighbor has water your child could access. This is particularly crucial for families of children with autism who are prone to elopement. 

But those aren’t the only water environments you need to worry about. 

Remember, the vast majority of families in the United States have daily access to water that they often forget all about: the bathtub. Children can drown in as little as just a few inches of water. After pools, bathtubs are the second leading location where young children drown and 75% of infant drownings in the United States occur in the bath. Even toilets can be a potential risk for young and curious children, so precautions must be taken. 

So, let’s talk about some of the traditional locks, gates, and alarms to consider installing in your home and your property. 

Preventing Accidents in the Bathroom 

Lock the bathroom door each time you walk out. I know it's annoying, but it could save your child's life. When a child knows how to turn the faucet on in the bathtub, it is time to create another barrier between your child and the water. Locking the bathroom door will do that. You can also consider specially made toilet bowl lid locks and faucet locks as an added safety measure. 

Securing Your Pool 

I was at a convention and speaking to a realtor who told me that one of their clients had bought a house with a pool, put a temporary fence around the pool to pass inspection, and had no intention of leaving it up because it didn't make the pool area look nice. A 3-year-old visiting this home fell into the pool and was luckily rescued and resuscitated.

Here’s the thing about fences around a piece of property where a pool is located—laws differ from state to state, and in some, they are non-existent. Does the property line need to be fenced? Does just the pool area need to be fenced?

Knowing the laws in your state regarding pool fencing should be the first thing you look into when you are buying a property with a pool or want to put one in at any point.  

Regardless of the regulations, the bottom line is that a pool MUST be fenced to keep your child safe.

This topic deserves its own blog post and I promise I will get that to you soon!

Beyond a self-closing, self-latching/locking pool gate, consider a pool alarm that goes off if the water surface moves. 

Preventing Access to Other Water on Your Property 

Install all the alarms and locks possible inside your house if you have water on or near the property.

Lock doors high up so that little hands can't reach them, even if they stand on a chair. Alarm all windows and doors that can allow access to water. Lock or create a child-proof barrier on pet doors to prevent small children from using them. 

Remember, barricades only work when used correctly. 

I have heard things like, "The alarms are so annoying, so when we aren't using the pool, we turn them off."  Or "The alarms go off every time the door opens. I'm kind of immune to the sound now."

Both of these comments are scary in and of themselves.  

Alarms need to be ON and working.

If the alarm goes off, parents need to heed that signal.

Do you have a fire alarm in your home? Maybe multiple? Do you replace the batteries every six months? Do you check for a potential fire if the alarm ever goes off? You have created those habits—an exercise of your mind's muscle memory.

If you have water on your property and your children have access to it, these same habits need to be in place.

With childhood drownings on the rise over the past several years, we have to consider that even with these things, we may not be doing enough. That’s why I’ve added another type of barrier to the mix. 

Adding an Additional Deterrent: Barricade Tape 

You know how we pull up short when we run in to barricade tape around a police scene or around a construction site? We would never just lift up the tape and walk on through despite the fact that it was clear that area was closed off.

How did you know to stop?  

Because you were taught it. 

You can apply the same logic and teach your child to have the exact same response with the help of the red “Closed—I Will Wait!” barricade tape and the blue “I Will Wait Here!” barricade tape included in the Waiting Whales Water Safety Kit. 

Where's the best place to begin teaching the meaning of the red "Closed—I Will Wait" tape?

The bathtub. 

Put up the closed barricade tape at your child's eye level, and then make it a ritual to open the barricade together at bath time and close it together immediately after bath and whenever the tub is not in use. Doing so teaches your child the meaning of the barrier and offers an added safety reminder every time they enter the bathroom. I encourage families to use the tape across the bathtub faucet handles to communicate that they, too, are off-limits. 

Once you’ve established the purpose of the red tape, you can use this portable tool anywhere. 

In a backyard pool, the red tape can offer a visual reminder that children need to STOP because the pool is closed to them. Families in my swim program who have pools use the tape across the entry gate, across the stairs of the pool, the ladders, the diving board, the slide —any possible entry point—to signal that the pool is CLOSED. Some families with children who are neurodivergent have even put red tape around the entire pool as well to ensure that the signal is crystal clear. 

After doing some calculations based on drowning statistics shared by Total Aquatic Programming, I found that 45% of drownings in 2023 happened in water environments that would be difficult (if not impossible) to fence, gate, or alarm, it's also essential to think about how to keep kids safer in those less controllable environments. Beaches, lakes, apartment pools . . . you name it. 

Just because these water environments can't be directly fenced, gated, alarmed, locked, and secured or because we are not in control of how these barriers are in place does not mean that we just throw up our hands in despair and do nothing.

That's not how parents operate. Especially not parents who will stop at nothing to keep their children safe when there is water around!

Because the red "Closed—I Will Wait" tape is portable, you can take it anywhere and use it creatively in any water environment. Here are some examples: 

• At the Beach 

  Make a line in the sand with it, as long or short as you want it and as far from the water as you want it. I usually suggest putting about five feet of the tape down a few feet in front of your family's blanket and chairs to remind kids not to wander without you. 

• At the Lake

  Put barricade tape at the entrance to the dock. You can leave it up all the time, opening it when the dock is available, closing it when you leave for the day, and replacing the

• By a Pond

  If the pond is small, you can encircle the entire thing with barricade tape to ensure children are clear that the whole pond is off-limits. For a large pond, begin teaching using the tape at the entry point you use most and consistently talk about how the whole water environment is closed.

• At the Backyard Pool 

  Add barricade tape across the door to the pool gate, as well as by any stairs or ladders into the pool. Make it a routine to open and close the barricade tape together when you open and close the pool. You might also use additional red tape to keep kids from going too close to the pool if your pool can be accessed directly from your deck or a sliding door of your home. 

• At the Community Pool 

  Even if you are at a public pool (such as one at your apartment complex or at a fitness center), you can use red “Closed–I Will Wait” tape at the end of your lounge chairs to remind children not to go beyond that safe seating area without getting an invitation from and being accompanied by an adult. 

In all of these situations, once you create a red tape boundary, you can also create safe waiting areas using your Waiting Whales mat at blue “I Will Wait Here!” tape!

The “I” strategy offers such a straightforward way to keep kids safe. 

Yes, it requires diligence and consistency on your part. But I promise every effort is worth it when you consider the potential risk of not installing these barricades. 

Your child is counting on you to use every possible gate, alarm, cover, and barrier to keep them safe. Download your free Watching Initiative poster today and celebrate the fact that you're doing all you can to eliminate the risk of a tragic drowning accident.