When my daughter was 3, we decided that it was time to teach her how to swim. Every Saturday, through the chill of Fall and Winter, my husband took her to a nearby underheated pool to play water versions of Ring Around the Rosy and Red Rover.
One Saturday morning, as my husband and daughter were in their swimsuits waiting patiently on a bench for class to start, they watched as a 5-year-old in a SpongeBob rash guard and swim trunks climbed the ladder down into a quiet area of the pool and started to swim around.
Suddenly, there was an odd sort of splashing, and he started to go under. The kid's mom, fully clothed and clutching her purse and phone ran over to the edge of the pool to grab her son but he was just out of reach and sank before their eyes. My husband told my daughter not to move and jumped into the water to fish the kid out.
Luckily, everything ended well. The kid was fine, the mother eternally grateful, and the lifeguard . . . well, the lifeguard eventually showed up when the kid was coughing and crying and safe on dry tile.
It all happened very quickly, of course. But I took away a few important lessons from this minidrama. With a little help from the Red Cross safety guide, here they are.