If you have a backyard pool or are working with a Jacksonville pool contractor to build one, you need to make sure to cover your you-know-what — and I’m not talking about your swimsuit!  As soon as word gets out that you have a pool, you’d better believe that all the neighborhood kids are going to beg to swim in it, and your kids will suddenly have oodles of friends coming out of the woodwork.

Since kids playing tend to have accidents, and pool accidents are particularly common, you need to protect yourself so that you don’t get blamed for someone’s kid’s injuries or — God forbid — death.  So once you have finished making your pool plans with your Florida pool builders, it’s time to talk to your home insurance company and maybe even your lawyer about how to protect yourself.

Here’s one idea.  When I was a kid, one of our neighbors got a trampoline.  Of course, that meant every kid in the neighborhood wanted to jump on it.  To protect themselves from any potential lawsuits, the parents had all the other parents sign a waiver that stated they (the owners of the trampoline) were not at fault if other people’s kids got hurt while jumping on the trampoline.

Of course, my parents wouldn’t sign the waiver, so our friends’ parents wouldn’t let us jump on their trampoline.  If you take this approach with your backyard pool, some parents will no doubt have a similar reaction — but in retrospect, making a couple of parents mad is better than getting sued because some kid can’t swim very well and drowns in your pool.

Your home insurance provider and your attorney might have some other suggestions, so you should definitely consult them on the issue.  I’m not saying you shouldn’t hire a Fort Myers pool contractor to build you a backyard pool, just that you need to be careful.  You don’t want to be held responsible for someone else’s child!