More Summer Fun with the Swimways Submergency

Now that they can swim, 3Po and Jammy love jumping in and spending time with their big sister in the deep end. We've been making good use of our Swimways Dive Dudes because they love shimmying down to the bottom of the pool to retrieve anything I throw in. So I was quite excited to be notified by Momfluence that I was being sent another Swimways pool toy, the Submergency , to review for the Momfluence Summer Toy Guide. Woohoo, even more diving fun!

Until I received the Submergency.

Granted, it's a wonderful idea -- set the timer, throw the ball into the pool, and have the kids race to find it, retrieve it and deactivate it before it goes off. But geez, the thing weighs a ton! It's like a mini bowling ball -- okay, it weighs more like a Costco-sized shampoo bottle or a couple of bars of soap. But if it falls on your kid's toe, that toebone is going to break. And if it falls on the ground, the toy is going to break. And even though the ball has a tiny warning in raised transparent letters that says No Throwing Into the Pool, who would like to take a bet that in all the excitement, that ball is going to get thrown eventually? It could conk someone on the head!

I showed the Submergency to Alfie when he got home from work, and virtuously listed all of its faults. He looked at the ball. He read the instructions and was fascinated with the sink-float feature (you can adjust the Submergency to sink to the bottom of the pool, float at the top, or suspend somewhere in between). He put the batteries in (the battery case, by the way, is like Fort Knox, so if you're worried about the batteries getting soaked.... don't). He filled up a pail of water and tested it.



Okay, even I have to admit that the beeping sound that the Submergency makes as it counts down (you can hear it underwater) is like a drug; I wanted to dive into that bucket and retrieve it myself. And the laser light show when the timer goes off is cooooool.

We took a family vote: who wants to keep playing with the Submergency? It was four to one, in favor of "This is so cool, and I wish it would really explode, and when can we take it to the pool?". I finally switched my vote because they were starting to call me a killjoy and fuddy-duddy.

Traitors.