Mermaid tails have become quite popular – especially with little girls! There is mermaid tail jewelry, wallpaper, tub toys and sleeping bags and lap covers. And yes, there are mermaid tails for swimming like a mermaid.
It’s the last one in that list that we’re concerned about. How safe are mermaid tails for your kid to swim in? Sure it’s cute – especially on dry land, but what happens when that fun gets in the water?
There are safety risks and they should be known so that every parent can make an informed decision about putting a kid in a tail.
Any child using a mermaid tail in the water should be only doing so with careful and close adult supervision.
Here are the things to consider:
1. The child’s feet are bound together. Since swimming safely involves the use of the entire body(arms, legs, and feet). The mermaid tail takes the use of legs and feet as they are meant to be used away so that it is difficult and risky for any swimmer – especially a young, novice swimmer – to safely navigate the water. The swimmer must use both legs as one unit instead of two independent sources of propulsion in the kicking motion that they’ve been learning in swimming lessons. This goes against what swimming lessons are trying to instill and the instinctive movements of the body when panicked. The tail can make it easy for the child to inadvertently flip upside down and difficult to recover their safe position.
2. The tail can become filled with water. Some tails’ designs allow water to flow inside. This becomes heavy and limiting for the child wearing it. The tail can actually hinder buoyancy and hold the swimmer down in the water. This risky situation is usually unnoticed until the swimmer is in distress; therefore, it is critical to read all safety instructions and warnings that come with the product.
3. Keep the tail in the pool. If the decision is to join in the mermaid craze and allow your child to swim with a mermaid tail, stay at the pool where supervising adults can see what is going on under the water. There is far too much risk to allow swimming with the tail in ocean or lake water. The murkiness of the water and the potential for obstacles, drop-offs and currents is too great for this to be considered safe – even with the appropriate adult supervision.
Even if swimming with the tail in a pool, the child may find it hard to stand safely or swim to a safe area if there were a pool emergency. With a mermaid tail on, it may become harder for a swimmer to get to a safe standing position or swim to a safe area. In a potential emergency, that means a child may be in distress – whether accidentally dipping underwater or getting inadvertently flipped upside down – and not be able to remedy the situation effectively.
You may hesitate to tell your little swimmer that she can’t try mermaid swimming, but the obvious risks should help you overcome any uncertainty in keeping your child safe.
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