Question for the parents out there

I think different parents will have different expectations.  You are going to need to ask the parents what they expect from you since they are your "boss". 

I wouldn't have a problem with it as long as:

The boys are safe.
They can see you.
You can see them.

One way to accomplish this would be to have them swim with you in the lap lane.

Tricky question.  As a triathlete I sympathize, but as a parent if there was some kind of incident and you weren't immediately aware of it because you were swimming laps I'd be extremely angry.  In fact, if you even asked I'd question whether you really wanted the job.  Maybe that's harsh, but when it comes to my kids that's how I feel.  OTOH, my 2 older kids are only 7 and 5 so maybe I'm overly concerned compared to if I had 9 and 11 year olds.

When I'm at a pool, with or without my kids, I'm on  high alert.  I was a lifeguard and it's just kind of how I am.  At my son's end of season baseball team pool party a year ago a 6 y.o. kid who had been hanging on to a noodle but couldn't swim well went under in the deep end of the pool and not a single parent saw him.  I was across the yard and handed my baby to my wife and ran into the pool and pulled the kid out.  He was 10 feet from his parents, and drowning, and nobody saw it in a yard full of people.  I know that when I'm doing laps I am aware of almost nothing around me.  You are being paid to pay attention.  Maybe these kids can swim just fine, but in a crowded pool a kid can jump on another kid underwater very easily.  Fights can break out.  A kid can slip on the deck.  As a lifeguard I watched a guy walking around a pool and when he went to cut the corner he was talking to someone in the pool, his foot missed the edge and he went down.  Caught his chin on the other side of the corner of the pool, knocked teeth out, smashed his face AND was unconscious when he hit the water.  Anything can happen at any time.

Sorry if this kind of turned into a rant.  I'm very big on safety around water.

I think the answer depends on several things.  A few of those being, 1) Would I, as a parent, feel the kids were safe if they were with me and I took 30 minutes to swim laps.  2) Do I feel my kids are well enough behaved to trust them for 30 minutes “on their own” (meaning within sight but not having hands on supervision).  If I can answer YES to both those, then if you asked if it was okay to take some time to get some laps, I would say yes.

Also, I think it would be important to ask the parents first.  If my kids told me you took time to swim laps and leave them “unsupervised” (again, within sight but not hands on supervision) that I think my wife and I would not be happy.  If you ask first, I think most parents would be at least appreciative that you asked.  If they say “Yes,” then great.  If they say, “No,” then skirt that issue by challenging the kids to some races in the pool (what kid doesn’t like a friendly race).  You get at least some laps and you all get to have fun.

Being at the pool for most of the day, the kids would need a few minutes of downtime. When we had our Aupair, she would do the aquafitness class at the pool while the kids (5 and 7 at that time) ate there lunch with their friends.   I think it is a great Idea. It helps project  a healthy livestyle.   I would also check with the parents first.

 Mike

x2

... and if the parent was me, I would likely have a problem with it.  The fact that I am a triathlete would make me even less inclined to be OK with it.  When I am swimming, I am paying little or no attention to what else is going on around me.  Things can happen quickly in the pool.  If something happened to those kids while you were doing laps, you would never forgive yourself.  I'm not sure it's worth the chance.

Great point.  With kids that age I'd have no problem with a 20-30 minute lunch while you swim and the kids know the pool area is off limits until you are done.  Of course, I'd wonder if I get to pay a reduced rate for that time.

I'm in agreement with the comments erring on the side of caution.  It takes one glance away for a child to drown; swimming laps is definitely not conducive to being vigilant.  My kids are 9 and 7 and very capable swimmers, but "stuff" can happen.  If they were in your care and I heard about "lap swimming" from them first, that'd be the end of the relationship, period.  I'd definitely run this question by the parents and see how they respond.

Question:  Does the pool in question call for an "adult swim" every hour?  Our lifeguard (n'hood pool) calls a 10-min adult swim every hour; our Y pool (the outdoor "fun" pool) does the same.  If not, you might want to suggest this.  I'd have no problem with a caretaker swimming laps while the kids were out of the water and sitting in a designated area.

I have to agree here about the swimming laps. And the problem I would have is that trying to focus on swimming for 30 minutes would make it really hard to watch the kids. However, you have many options.

1. Get a raft and do a few laps while towing the kids. They'll have fun and you'll get a good resistance workout.

2. Kick board drills - either kicking or doing one-arm drills while holding on to the board with the other arm. Your head will be above water so you can watch the kids at all time.

3. Aquajogging. I never tried this but I hear it's pretty good. Again, you can keep your head above water to watch the kids.

Well, most has been said but I would agree that check with parents first but more importantly, if you were to swim - how can the kids be safeguarded. Kids are too easily distracted and it takes a split second to have them run off doing something they shouldn't or swimming when they should be on dry land. Maybe I'm overly cynical but with a 4.5 yr old - he completely does the opposite of what he knows I want with little regard to any consequences whether its punishments or potential injury to himself.

Bottom line, you are being paid to provide care to the kids. Their needs come first.

In principle I wouldn't be ok with it.

However, I could be made ok with it if you had a plan of where the kids will be, how they'll be supervised and what they'll be doing. 

Perhaps you could find a way to involve the children - have one time your laps and the other writing down the information from the spectators gallery?  

I would have a hard time with it.  Just the way I look at things, if I were the primary person responsible for the kids and something happened while I was distracted I would beat myself up about it for the rest of my life (regardless of if I could have done anything about it or not).

On those grounds I would say no if it were a sitter asking about my daughter or if I was the one doing the watching (regardless of if the parents were ok with it or not).

Interestingly this is in contrst to how I would feel about doing it myself as the parent if I felt that my daughter at that age was responsible enough to hang out with her friends and eat lunch or something similar.

I was largely self parented and I was going to the pool by myself at that age so my impressions are a bit skewed by that.

Is there a patch of grass where they could play frisbee, soccer, catch, tag, or any other outdoor-but-not-pool-oriented game? Seems to me that there are plenty of things to do outdoors that don't involve being in the water. If nothing else, they could read a book!

Unfortunately no.  The pool area is entirely fenced in with just a narrow cement area around it.  There is a park connected to it but outside the fence.  And I'd have a really hard time convincing them to read a book while I was swimming.  That definitely wouldn't go over well!

my vote would be yes, its bad for you, as the babysitter, to get in a swim session when you are supposed to be watching two boys.

water is too unforgiving a substance to take your eyes off of your charges for thirty minutes.

plus, is it a public place? aren't you concerned they'd wander off, with or without help? if you know what i mean?

Ages 9 and 11 are fast approaching that point where "direct, hands-on" supervision isn't 100% required.  (You're there as the responsible adult and they should know how to find you in an instant should something happen.) 

If you can make a plan to present to the parents showing how the lap swimming would work, it can be OK.  Focus on the kids and how you can have it benefit them too.  (Hint:  What if you spent some time with them swimming laps beside you?  They could take turns and it would improve their swimming.)  You can get lots of swimming in between the splash from the diving board and the ladder.  Do you get in the water and play/interact with them?  I was a swim instructor (a long time ago) and would give the kids "free time" to jump off the diving board as long as they swam properly back to the side (they never realized how much extra practice they got). 

Finally, it won't matter much what you propose if something goes wrong while you're swimming laps, you won't look good. 

My boys are 8 and 10.  When we go to the pool I will swim laps, but it's usually during the 10 minute adult swim periods when the kids are out of the water and having a snack.  If I had a sitter watching them, I wouldn't mind her/him swimming laps when my kids were out of the pool but I would feel a little nervous about it with them swimming.  As a parent, I'm not hands on with my kids for 10 hours in a row.  I'm usually just in the background making sure they don'y kill each other or set the house on fire.  Just ask the parents.