After months of preparation, anxiety, planning and more anxiety, you have finally arrived at your Pesach destination. Boruch Hashem. It’s been a long, cold winter. Your children have been waiting, counting down the days, and now the moment is here. Pesach.

You arrive safely. The house is beautiful. Everything is as promised. Before the luggage is even inside, the kids are already in the pool, laughing, splashing, alive with excitement.

This is exactly why you came. Privacy. Comfort. Family together under one roof.

And yet, in that very moment, the danger begins.

Private pools have no lifeguards. No one watching but you. And in the chaos of arrival, unpacking and settling in, it only takes seconds. Seconds for distraction. Seconds for silence. Seconds for something you cannot undo.

Stop. Look around. Understand what is in front of you.

No child should ever be in or near a pool without constant, focused supervision. Not for a minute. Not for a second.

Set rules immediately. Enforce them without exception. This is not negotiable.

Disabling a pool gate or alarm is not convenience. It is danger.

Every year, hundreds of thousands of lives are lost to drowning worldwide. Among children ages 1 to 5, it is one of the leading causes of death.

Just last Pesach, a child nearly lost their life in a pool and was only saved by the sheer intervention of a passerby and Hatzalah. Not every story ends happily. Do not rely on miracles.

Golf carts are not toys. Inexperienced drivers and overloaded carts are accidents waiting to happen. Parents, take control. Set rules. Enforce them. Peer pressure makes it easy to look away. Don’t. We have seen carts flip in Orlando and the Catskills, turning what should be a time of joy into hospital misery.

We do not have to imagine these tragedies. They have happened. Far too often.

You are in a new environment. New layout. New risks. Know the exact address of your home and post it clearly. Keep emergency numbers accessible. Check gates, alarms, outlets and cords. Do not assume anything is safe.

I write this as a longtime Hatzalah member, and as a parent and grandparent, with one hope only: that it prevents even one tragedy.

Pesach vacations are a relaxed and wonderful time that families love. But too often, when we leave home, rules and common sense are left behind, and the risk of catastrophe rises sharply.

Your children’s safety is in your hands. Guard it with everything you have.

Chag Kosher V’someach,

Chaskel Bennett

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Chaskel Bennett is veteran NY Hatzalah Member and a Founding Member of Hatzalah South Florida in Boca Raton, Florida