Face Down In The Water

by Margaret

When my daughter was probably 1 or 2 we had a swimming pool in the backyard. I had her up on a floating raft and asked hubby to keep an eye on her while I dove under the water to cool off. (this was an above ground 4x8 round pool so it wasn't going to take but a second to go from one end to the other) When I came up on the other side, she was face down in the water. He had taken his eyes off her for only a second. We pulled her up and she was fine, but it only takes a flash second for something to happen.
From that moment teaching both kids to swim was priority. We taught them how to swim underwater and how to float on their backs if they got tired.

At daycare when she was 4 she scared the heck out of the teacher. They had a little pool for the kids. Most of the kids just jumped around in the water but didn't actually swim or go under water. Jess swam from one side to the other under the water, the teacher thought she had slipped and gone under.

It’s been 20 years since the near drowning happened and I can still see that moment, don't ever want to go through something like that again.

When the grandkids are swimming now, I'm right there with them and holding onto the littlest one the whole time. The pool they're using is a little rectangular one 22" deep but it’s still as dangerous as a 6' deep one.

When kids are near water, you have to have an eye on them at all times, a second of distraction can be too costly.