Keep your pool gates locked and limit access to your pool at all times.

Use Water Watcher tags to designate a responsible adult to watch the pool for short periods of time when your family and friends are using the pool. Our son has a pool with a locked gate. His family keeps the lock key attached to a Water Watcher tag. You cannot go to their pool without a Water Watcher tag as a visual reminder to wear on your wrist or around your neck.

Here is a fun project for your family. Have the kids color and create their own Water Watcher Tag. Pass yarn or a shoestring through some pasta and attach a Water Watcher card. The kids will love it and it’ll be a fun reminder to be safe around the pool.

“When everyone is watching, no one is watching!” When someone assumes that another person is watching the water or that there are so many adults around that someone would be watching the water… that is when an accident can happen. One person should be designated as the water watcher. That designated person should have no other job (i.e. cooking, watching other children not in the pool, etc.) These water watcher tags make it very easy to identify the person who is responsible for watching the pool.

Interview Season-
Preparation for Hubbard’s summer season is under way. One of the most exciting stages is interviewing and meeting so many wonderful, energetic, excited people who are looking for a summer job. Most are people whom love children, water and being active. My job is to interview and meet all of these people. I would love to share a few tips for those of you who have teenagers looking for a job. Please guide them, share your thoughts and experience and send them into an interview with confidence and professionalism. And if you happen to have that teenager that is difficult to talk to – try sending this to-do list to their in-box.

If you are a teenager reading this, know that we love to hire great young people full of energy and excitement about a summer job. Give us the chance to give you a try.

Top Ten To Do List for Job Applicants
Based on actual experiences from the last 30 days!
1- Fill out your own application; don’t let your mom do it.
2- When you leave a message on the companies phone leave your full name and phone number. Not, “Hi this is John, call me back at this number.” Yes there is more than one John out there and no we can’t see your phone number on a message on the company phone.
3- When you e-mail use appropriate courtesy and professionalism. Not, “Hi there! My friend said you had a job I would be interested in” or “I can meet on Friday” This is not a text message! Use proper grammar and punctuation. Address the person you are writing and sign your name.
4- Know something about the job before you apply. When companies call and ask, “Why Hubbard? Why do you want this job?” Please know what the job entails. Search their web page, or ask the friend that recommended it what the job entails.
5- Dress appropriately for the interview. It leaves an impression. Conservative, professional. Not in your school uniform, hang out clothes or track gear.
6- Take off your hat.
7- Spit out your gum.
8- Do not use “suck” or “crap” in an interview.
9- Smile, look at the interviewer in the eye.
10- ENJOY your new job!!

Read the MSNBC article here.

After seeing Brian’s safe arrival into our world thanks to Dr Schultz and the team at Good Sam, I moved on to cowboy night at pre-school with grandsons Frank and Hank with their dads Pat and Bobby.

So my day was spent as a father to a 17 year old and father to a new mother and grandfather to a new new new baby boy and two of his 12 other cousins at the cowboy cookout.

Wow what a blessed life I lead.
Embrace those around you and embrace all of your roles in the world.

Now I have to live up to the honor.

More thoughts coming soon and more regularly, I promise !!!

But right now we have the afternoon off so I am going to see Mickey and his friends with the grand-kids at Disney World.

This month we received the very sad news that a long time Hubbard Swim School family had lost their 4 year old to drowning. He was to start lessons that week. Our entire staff is mourning along with the family. We take pride in being able to recognize our families and children when they walk in our door. This is one of those times when that commitment to kids and families really hurts.

Twenty years ago Kathy, her sister and her mom were all home trying clothes on the kids. Five little ones in the house. Doors closed – so we thought. Our pool fence was down being repaired and the repairmen were sitting in the front yard having lunch. Her sister noticed that her 16-month-old Tommy was missing and shot outside looking for him. She pulled him out of our pool, began CPR, called 911, and a hospital visit later Tommy was a very lucky boy. This added to our inspiration to TEACH children to learn how to swim.

We are all human. We need layers of protection for our kids. We received some critical comments last year when we added “Children MUST learn to swim” to some of our ads. Some said that we were coming on too strong. We don’t think so. Our kids were involved in soccer, gymnastics, dance and karate – AFTER they learned to swim! Learning to swim is not an option.

Bob & Kathy Hubbard

To all,

We are heartbroken to read of a fellow Hubbard family’s loss. We may not know them, but certainly feel connected.

We are grateful for all you do to help our kids learn to swim, and help us as parents learn to be vigilant. We have been a Hubbard family for several years, and everyone we have come into contact with has been top-notch, professional and caring.

We are often asked, by family and friends, why we still have our 2 children in long-term, weekly swim classes. It seems more common to have spurts of short-term lessons as a perceived need arises..take summers off since the kids will be in one pool or another..stop lessons when they appear, in parent judgement, to be water safe.

Our response is long and varied, and for the long-term, includes health and fitness, a possible competitive sport, and an exercise regime that is easy on the body as you age. But it is primarily based on the short term..doing everything we possibly can, to give our children the tools they need to be safe and to teach them to respect water.

We cannot be with them every moment..we are not with them every time they visit our mother’s house, in the presence of an unfenced pool. Instead, we take lessons, we reiterate the ground rules incessantly, to them and all family members, and we insist they wear their safety turtle bracelets.

We are not with them throughout their visits to friends’ houses, with fenced pools and in the care of trusted parents who share our parenting beliefs on the topic, but..out of our sight all the same.

We are not with them at school, with a fenced and life guarded pool, where a 5 year old camp student nearly drowned over this summer after suffering a seizure in the pool.

And we won’t be with them all the time when they become adults, but shared the basics of a terribly sad story of a fellow student losing her father last month to drowning in his home pool, again after suffering a seizure.

There are so many conditions, and places, and people that we cannot control as parents. Providing knowledge and skills and empowerment is one thing we can do in the midst of all this uncertainty.

Again, thank you for helping us achieve this goal, and please convey to the grieving family that we are holding them in our thoughts and prayers.

- S & J parents of a Hammerhead I & an Octopus

The article uses a number of surveys, studies and examples to discuss distinct ways that men and women parent differently. I know there are many strong women out there who are going to argue with the various broad statements in this article but the author has many interesting observations about the different talents dads bring to the parenting role.

At the swim school I often want to stop and say “Good Job!” to today’s dads. It amazes me how many dads are getting in the water for swim lessons with their little, little ones for our parent-tot classes. I believe I was/am an awesome, engaged dad but I have to admit that when our kids were babies much of the day-to-day activities for the kids under three or four years old was left to Kathy.

She tells people that I never went to the pediatrician’s office until our youngest daughter began to have some medical issues three years ago. That is 33 years of not even knowing where the pediatrician’s office was! Kidding, kind of.

So dads, check out the attached article, show it to mom and take the kid(s) off for an adventure to the grocery store or swim lessons. You have not lived until you have heard your child squeal with delight as you sprint down the aisle of the grocery store, jump on the back of the cart, and watch your child laugh as you cruise past the startled shoppers.  And of course make swim lesson night your special time with your little one.  Nothing better than to deliver a clean, exhausted child home and straight to their bed after a special night with dad!

Safe Kids reports that in 63% of drowning cases, the victims entered the pool through an open or unlatched gate! If you have a pool or even are at a party or visiting a home with a pool, you need to ensure that the pool gate is locked. Do not count on the host to confirm that the gate is locked. If you are at home with a pool that does not have a fence and you have toddlers, you need to either leave or tie your children to your waist so they do not wander away from you.

In more than 75% of the cases of drowning, either one or both of the parents were present at the home. You cannot count on adult supervision when a pool is unsecured.

We believe swim lessons are a vital component to keeping our kids safer around water. But securing your pool from unintended access is the most important step you can take for safety.

Here is the link to the Safe Kids report with these statistics.

Check out this fun swim safety activity sheet located at the bottom left corner of the Safer Three page on our website!

This week I was reflecting on that experience, as I heard a young couple discuss the stress that they were feeling with an eighteen-month-old toddler in their home. I had made some comment that I was planning on doing something, attending a concert or trying a new restaurant for dinner. They responded with what my good friend Bruce Sullivan in Australia calls “whingeng”. That is an expression of fatigue and disappointment of how difficult life is etc. They got caught up in describing how they had no time for themselves with a toddler in their life.

When Kathy and I got married the major piece of advice my parents offered to us was to “make sure we went out one night a week by ourselves.” Now I grew up in a very active house with 6 brothers and sisters in Brooklyn. Seven of us within 10 years of each other!

I can still remember my mother getting dressed up on a weekday evening. Now this was the 1950’s and early 60’s, so it was Mad Men type of dress up. Stockings, heels, dress and my dad in his suit, just to go up the street to dinner at their favorite Italian restaurant. Well for the benefit of my younger brothers and sisters, mom would throw what we called a housecoat over her dress so she looked normal to the little ones. She would get them settled in bed between 7:30 and 8. My dad would go get the babysitter. And mom would come down the stairs, whip off the housecoat, give the babysitter the last minute instructions and head out the door dressed for a great evening with my dad.

Kathy and I have followed this advice religiously. Even in difficult economic times we found a way to go out for an hour or so, just to catch up and have some alone time. At one time we lived in Denver with four kids under 6 and eventually 5 kids under 10 with no family nearby. By sleeping a little less, employing some awesome high school students as babysitters, we still managed to find that time together.

We laugh because at our various children’s weddings, inevitably two or even three of our former babysitters show up. They have fond memories of their time with our kids and wanted to be there to celebrate this joyous time with them.

So help the economy by spending some money on teenage babysitters. Do not count on only grandma or grandpa. Support your local restaurants and your sanity by being selfish and getting out for time for yourself and your spouse!