With my first, I don't remember using a floatie when she was that young -- I just always held onto her. But when my son was born, I needed to have something to help both of them float since I was the only parent in with them. I was always right there, but at any given time I might need to let go of one or the other. DD usually used a swim ring -- something she could hold onto, but wasn't trapped in. And she'd pop in and out of it as she played. DS had something similar, but it had plastic straps in an X pattern that he could sit on.
Now DS's floatie wasn't the safest one out there. I would see these other kids in these big "boats" that looked like they could survive a tsunami! I wondered sometimes whether I should change. But as I said, I was always right there with him. And he couldn't have learned to swim around in one of those big ones like he did. He really did learn to propel himself across the water!
So, I suppose I agree with you. With only one child, there really is no need for a floatie since you can hold them. On the other hand, they didn't always use them. It would depend on if we were in the baby pool or the deep pool. Our pool at the time had a "kid pool" that was about 2.5 feet deep all the way across, which was great. Just right for a young child as they could stand up in it, and it never got over their heads, but it was still deep enough to swim. And we had fun floatie games that wouldn't be possible without them. Like I'd push DS away, and he'd kick back to me. Or we'd play spin the floatie.
Bizby
