May is National Water Safety Month. Year after year I preach about how people
need to watch their kids in the pool, how dangerous water wings are and pool
fences are a must. Well, after all of
that preaching let’s just say that pool tragedy almost happened to us. A few days after Caroline’s 3rd
birthday, Ryan and Shannon had a little family party for her at the parent’s
house, Cole was sick, so the only kids in attendance were Mari, Mr. Pie and
Caroline. The kids were having a great
time in the backyard running around, playing with the dog, etc. as all of the
adults were sitting in the house chit chatting just a few feet away from them
but just out of our line of sight. As we
adults sat back and laughed I caught Mari out of the corner of my eye running
on the pool deck, I freaked out, jumped up and ran outside only to find all
three kids playing on the pool deck inches from the pool. Freaked out I yelled at them to get out of
there and proceeded to lecture them about how kids are not allowed to open the
gate and play on the pool deck. Years
ago (when Mari was baby) I caught Cole dragging a step stool over to the gate
and attempting to pull the top knob up to open the gate and at that moment we
made a rule that children are not allowed to open the gate and to this day Cole
still asks before opening it when swimming.
Mr. Pie was the one who opened
it, it was not his fault we never told him the rule and the natural curiosity
of water probably drove him to do it and Mari and Caroline followed him in
there. Now the good news is no one fell
in and all three children know how to swim, even little Caroline who has been
taking swim lessons for two + years.
The bad news is that all of the adults were just a few feet away and had
no idea what was going on, all we knew was the kids were playing together and
there was a fence around the pool so no need to worry, right? WRONG. There is a lock and key on the gate
that we were not using assuming that the kids knew the rules and we did not
need to lock it. The fence and gate are
only good enough when used properly with all of the safety features. The what-if’s still haunt me. What if Caroline did not know how to swim and
she fell in, would we hear her or would the other kids come and get us? What if there were other kids there that were
just friends and we did not know their swimming abilities and one of them fell
in? What if there were younger siblings
of Caroline or Mr. Pie that were just learning to walk and we thought they were
safe playing with the older kids.
Seriously, the what-if’s that night made me crazy and two months later I
still feel the panic and anxiety I did that day when I think of what could have
happened. Ever since that day every time
the kids come over the gate is locked and the key put in a spot that even I do
not know where it is located, in a sense I am glad this happened, it made all
of us more aware of how accidents can happen in a blink of an eye. We were lucky that is was just a “close
call”, but the next time we might not be so lucky and for another family this
just might be their tragedy. Now that
the weather is getting warmer it is time to brush up on your CPR skills and
take a refresher course; Ryan, Shannon, the Sheriff and I are lucky that our
employers pay for and provide this for us each year, but not everyone is so
lucky. Please please please
watch your kiddo’s and make sure the gate is locked, closed is not good enough
as we found out.
Probably one of my all time favorite photo's of this girl.
Don't you just want to jump in with them?
Please share this post with your friends, you just might save a life.
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