Babes in Waterland
Earlier this summer my mother surprised us all with tickets to Big Surf, one of the local water parks. (I guess she'd gotten a great deal Groupon-style.) This week the long-awaited day arrived! I was a tad bit nervous. I had all five of my kids plus Justin, and I had a feeling that just keeping track of K and S in a water park was going to take Constant Vigilance.
You see, I make fun of my husband for his paranoia with the kids ("They'll get struck by lightning! They'll get kidnapped walking to the park when they are 16! They'll get killed by a home invader because I left the blinds open in the living room!") but I have my own brand of paranoia. One of those fears is about one of the kids drowning.
I can't help it. I live in an area where every year they run the tally of child drownings (usually in a pool) on the news and lament constantly about how preventable drowning is. I've had several nightmares in this respect, and I just can't tell myself it will never happen to our family. A water park, much as I love it, jacks all those fears up to the next level. (I can still remember J, whose swimming wasn't exactly top notch, heading right for the deepest, most wavy part of the wave pool at Sunsplash a few years back. I thought I was going to die of heart failure, especially with all the inner tubes floating into him and over him with each wave.)
Fortunately, my mom came with us so I had backup. My sister Amy also joined us when she finished work, bringing Livvie. With three adults we should be able to keep track of seven children, right? Especially when four of them were older swimmers?
The very first thing we did was tackle the thorny sunscreen issue. Let's just say that the sunscreen was a little skimpy on all the faces. No need to have a repeat of last Saturday's drama. But right after that I hunted down life jackets and strapped in both K and S. K wasn't exactly thrilled about that, especially when all we did for a while was hang out in the little kiddie pool. (Most of the other little kids weren't wearing life jackets so he protested a couple of times. I stood firm.) It took S awhile to figure out the scene, especially with this bulky vest. Several times she ended up losing her feet and floating in the water. Luckily she was wearing that infant life jacket, the heavy-duty kind you put on your kid out on the ocean. She always ended up floating the right direction. Still, it was clear an adult needed to be right there.
I first ran into issues when Amy had left for a couple of minutes and my mom was still sitting with our stuff at the table. I was watching K, Livvie, and S in the kiddie pool area. Suddenly, Livvie decided she wanted to go exploring (maybe she was looking for her mom?). Anyway, she took off. That put me in a horrible position, standing at the water's edge calling after Livvie, while rapidly checking on K and S. (I kept needing to grab S and set her back on her feet.) Livvie ignored me, and finally I grabbed S, trusted K would be safe under the eyes of the lifeguard and went after her. At this point my mom looked over and noticed Livvie, so between the two of us we got her shepherded back to the pool.
After that it was clear that most likely we needed a one adult to one young child ratio. Amy pretty much stuck to Livvie, while my mom and I took turns with K and S. It worked pretty well. It was very boring hanging out next to S in the kiddie pool (the things we do for our kids) but I actually enjoyed taking K to the wave pool and to the "rainbow slides," where the slides were for kids more his size.
The older kids I had given strict instructions to stay with a partner the whole time. They were allowed to switch, but they weren't ever supposed to be alone. This didn't work so well. At some point M and J came back to the table (M dragging J). Both were extremely unhappy and neither had any idea where B or Justin were. J flat out refused to do anything more. He was hungry, he said, and not interested in any more water slides. I had him sit at the table while M went back to try and find either B or Justin. After that the buddy system was shot. M never came back, but B wandered back into view at last. J ran off without telling anyone where he was going.
I spent much of my afternoon wondering where on earth the older kids were and hoping to catch a glimpse of them. The only thing that kept me from worrying was the lack of any kind of emergency, drill or otherwise, with the lifeguards. I figured if something had happened to one of the kids, the park would have one of those situations where everyone was ordered out of the pools and I'd know there was something to really worry about.
Still, I had my moments. Especially after the wave pool closed for the surfing hour and despite multiple checks of the other slide areas we couldn't find M or Justin. It's funny because when my parents took us to water parks (which was often enough) as a kid, I don't ever remember being told I had to stay with my sisters, let alone with a parent. I just ran around doing whatever I wanted all day long. I felt sorry for those kids with overprotective parents who hovered around them all the time. And yet there I was, hand-wringing while my 7, 9, 10, & 11 year old swimmers were off roaming a water park. I've got to find my inner sense of peace with letting my kids have a little more freedom. I want them to be independent and confident and capable, after all, which they will never be if I tie them to my apron strings.
Still, I thought about manacling J to my apron strings when I found out where he'd been. He'd headed out into the deepest part of the wave pool with someone else's raft that he had "found." *head hitting desk* Maybe I don't need to worry about him drowning anymore, but perhaps I should worry little more about teaching my son that he can't just grab something that belongs to someone else and swim off with it!
You see, I make fun of my husband for his paranoia with the kids ("They'll get struck by lightning! They'll get kidnapped walking to the park when they are 16! They'll get killed by a home invader because I left the blinds open in the living room!") but I have my own brand of paranoia. One of those fears is about one of the kids drowning.
I can't help it. I live in an area where every year they run the tally of child drownings (usually in a pool) on the news and lament constantly about how preventable drowning is. I've had several nightmares in this respect, and I just can't tell myself it will never happen to our family. A water park, much as I love it, jacks all those fears up to the next level. (I can still remember J, whose swimming wasn't exactly top notch, heading right for the deepest, most wavy part of the wave pool at Sunsplash a few years back. I thought I was going to die of heart failure, especially with all the inner tubes floating into him and over him with each wave.)
Fortunately, my mom came with us so I had backup. My sister Amy also joined us when she finished work, bringing Livvie. With three adults we should be able to keep track of seven children, right? Especially when four of them were older swimmers?
The very first thing we did was tackle the thorny sunscreen issue. Let's just say that the sunscreen was a little skimpy on all the faces. No need to have a repeat of last Saturday's drama. But right after that I hunted down life jackets and strapped in both K and S. K wasn't exactly thrilled about that, especially when all we did for a while was hang out in the little kiddie pool. (Most of the other little kids weren't wearing life jackets so he protested a couple of times. I stood firm.) It took S awhile to figure out the scene, especially with this bulky vest. Several times she ended up losing her feet and floating in the water. Luckily she was wearing that infant life jacket, the heavy-duty kind you put on your kid out on the ocean. She always ended up floating the right direction. Still, it was clear an adult needed to be right there.
I first ran into issues when Amy had left for a couple of minutes and my mom was still sitting with our stuff at the table. I was watching K, Livvie, and S in the kiddie pool area. Suddenly, Livvie decided she wanted to go exploring (maybe she was looking for her mom?). Anyway, she took off. That put me in a horrible position, standing at the water's edge calling after Livvie, while rapidly checking on K and S. (I kept needing to grab S and set her back on her feet.) Livvie ignored me, and finally I grabbed S, trusted K would be safe under the eyes of the lifeguard and went after her. At this point my mom looked over and noticed Livvie, so between the two of us we got her shepherded back to the pool.
After that it was clear that most likely we needed a one adult to one young child ratio. Amy pretty much stuck to Livvie, while my mom and I took turns with K and S. It worked pretty well. It was very boring hanging out next to S in the kiddie pool (the things we do for our kids) but I actually enjoyed taking K to the wave pool and to the "rainbow slides," where the slides were for kids more his size.
The older kids I had given strict instructions to stay with a partner the whole time. They were allowed to switch, but they weren't ever supposed to be alone. This didn't work so well. At some point M and J came back to the table (M dragging J). Both were extremely unhappy and neither had any idea where B or Justin were. J flat out refused to do anything more. He was hungry, he said, and not interested in any more water slides. I had him sit at the table while M went back to try and find either B or Justin. After that the buddy system was shot. M never came back, but B wandered back into view at last. J ran off without telling anyone where he was going.
I spent much of my afternoon wondering where on earth the older kids were and hoping to catch a glimpse of them. The only thing that kept me from worrying was the lack of any kind of emergency, drill or otherwise, with the lifeguards. I figured if something had happened to one of the kids, the park would have one of those situations where everyone was ordered out of the pools and I'd know there was something to really worry about.
Still, I had my moments. Especially after the wave pool closed for the surfing hour and despite multiple checks of the other slide areas we couldn't find M or Justin. It's funny because when my parents took us to water parks (which was often enough) as a kid, I don't ever remember being told I had to stay with my sisters, let alone with a parent. I just ran around doing whatever I wanted all day long. I felt sorry for those kids with overprotective parents who hovered around them all the time. And yet there I was, hand-wringing while my 7, 9, 10, & 11 year old swimmers were off roaming a water park. I've got to find my inner sense of peace with letting my kids have a little more freedom. I want them to be independent and confident and capable, after all, which they will never be if I tie them to my apron strings.
Still, I thought about manacling J to my apron strings when I found out where he'd been. He'd headed out into the deepest part of the wave pool with someone else's raft that he had "found." *head hitting desk* Maybe I don't need to worry about him drowning anymore, but perhaps I should worry little more about teaching my son that he can't just grab something that belongs to someone else and swim off with it!
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