How To Protect Yourself From Injury Claims When Your Children Engaging In Backyard Water Fun

One of the perks of summertime and being a kid is when you get hot, you can cool off in the water. Splashing around in a kiddie pool, setting up a slip and slide in the backyard, or simply turning on the sprinklers is a rite of passage every child should experience.

As a parent and homeowner though, it is your responsibility to make sure you set up the safest possible environment, especially if children other than your own will be engaging in backyard water fun with your kids. You want to reduce the risk of anyone getting hurt on your property and having to use the liability coverage provided by your homeowner's insurance, while still allowing your children to be kids.

#1 Get Rid of Any Hazards

Before you set up a kiddie pool, sprinklers or a slip and slide, first you need to make your backyard is as safe as possible. Survey your yard and make sure any big sticks that the kids could trip on are moved to your compost pile. Look out and see if there are any rocks that the kids could slip and get hurt on. If you spot any, remove them right away. Make sure you put away any yard equipment or anything else that kids could get harmed on. Little kids love to run around, so you want your backyard to be as free of tripping hazards as possible.

#2 Pay Attention to Age Restrictions

When using outside water toys, such as a kid's pool or a slip and slide, pay attention to the age recommendation on these products. Many of these products are only designed to be used by children who do not exceed a certain high and weight requirement. That means that some of these water toys may not be appropriate for your pre-teen or teenagers. There are age limits on these products because of the risk of injury to someone who exceeds the size requirements for the equipment. 

#3 Always Supervise Play

Next, it may seem like harmless water fun but that doesn't mean that you get to sit inside. Whenever your kids are using any water toys outside, you need to be outside watching them. It is possible for a child to get injured when playing with water or even drown. You need to be outside watching and supervising your kids and their friends to make sure no one gets injured and to provide care right away if someone does get injured.

Also, make sure that you put away the water toys at the end of the day. Don't leave the slip and slide or the kiddie pool outside for tomorrow. When you leave these toys outside, you increase the risk of someone using them unsupervised. By putting all water toys away at the end of the day, you ensure that these toys are only used when you can provide supervision.

Playing with water toys is a childhood rite of passage but also presents a liability issue to you as a homeowner. Reduce the liability risk by getting rid of any hazards in your backyard, pay attention to age restrictions on water toys and always supervise outside water play.

Taking steps to reduce injury will be helpful to your case if you have to file a liability claim with your homeowner's insurance, or if you are sued by another parent for injury to their child and have to use your homeowner's insurance to deal with the claim. Take steps to create a safe environment and prevent injury will help your case. Accidents still happen, though, so be sure to have homeowner's insurance from a company like Family Insurance Centers in case something does go wrong. 


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