A Lifeguard Rescued A Child From The Pool, But The Dad Was More Upset About Having To Stay And Fill Out Paperwork
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Imagine working as a lifeguard at a swimming pool. What would you do if you thought a child wasn’t ready for a big slide, but their parent insisted they’d be fine?
In this story, one lifeguard is in that exact situation, and he has to let the child go ahead on the big slide, but he’s waiting and ready to rescue her if she can’t handle it.
Keep reading to find out what happens when the child hits the water and how the dad reacts to the aftermath.
Dad Would Rather Risk his Daughter’s Life Than Just Taking no for an Answer
As a preface, I’m a lifeguard at a pool that gets pretty busy over the summer days.
We have 3 pools, one is an Olympic sized pool which has a slide on one of the long sides. There’s a guard at the bottom who is ready to get in if someone starts to drown or an emergency happens near him and a guard at the top to explain the rules of the slide and make sure the kids go down it safely.
The slide is where this story takes place with me at the bottom.
Here’s the cast of characters.
EP= Entitled Parent
Kid= EP’s Kid
SS= Senior Staff (Essentially a manager)
I had just rotated to the slide and it was my last rotation of the day since the pool was closing in 15 minutes.
Now we get into the story.
Kids would usually start to congregate near the slide just before closing so they could get a go at it.
On this particular day though the pool was relatively empty (Only like 100 or so patrons) and there hadn’t been any rescues needed that day other than practice ones.
As I watch my water and control who goes onto the slide EP and Kid come up to the slide. (To preface this as long as the kid is at the height limit and hadn’t needed to be rescued that day they could go onto the slide. We are allowed to suggest a swim test to make it safer for the kid and most of the time the parent accepts cause it takes like 2 minutes to do and ensures their kid can make it safely to the wall from the exit of the slide but the parent has the authority to say no and we have the let the kid on if they do)
The Kid is almost exactly at the line and looks to be no more than like 4 years old.
OP suggests a swim test.
I decide to ask “Hey, I notice your kid is barely tall enough for the slide and think it might be a good idea to have her do a swim test before she goes up”
EP Replies with a testy tone “I know Kid’s swimming ability to be plenty enough to get them to the ladder. Besides even if she needs to be rescued that’s what you’re here for”
“Are you certain? It could be potentially dangerous for your child if they freak out at the bottom and can’t swim to the ladder”
“I’m absolutely certain. Quit wasting my time.”
OP got ready.
“Ok” Now speaking to kid “Go on up”
The kid goes up and I hear the guard on the top explain how to go down and then the kid start their journey down the slide.
At this point I’d taken off my flip flops and was ready to jump in cause I was almost certain Kid would start to panic and drown once they hit the water.
I was right.
OP had to rescue the kid.
I jumped in after doing a single long whistle to alert the guards and the Senior Staff to come down and help where needed.
I got Kid to the ladder and had them climb up and the dad was ready and was prepared to go ahead and leave now that the fun was over before the traffic outside got bad (The pool closes at 4:30 and rush hour tends to get annoying here at around 4:45).
Sadly for him the Senior Staff immediately stops him.
“Sir, I must ask you to stay here for awhile while we get the papers ready for you to sign.”
The senior staff explained.
“Papers?”
“Yes, every time one of our Lifeguards has to rescue someone we need your contact information, your testimony as to what happened, and your signature. It’s to make sure everything is documented.”
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In a huff the EP sits down and gets ready for what he likely thinks is only going to be a few minutes of questions and signing.
This is going to take awhile.
Boy was he wrong.
Since the lifeguard who does the rescue has to sign first I made sure I took my sweet time getting my glasses from the water, getting out, then putting on my flip flops, then after around 5 minutes I sign.
After that he has to stick around for about 10 minutes signing and answering questions and to get a lecture on how his child is now confined to the shallow ends and if she is seen in any of our deeper waters EP and Kid will be immediately taken off of the pool grounds for endangering patrons by consuming lifeguard surveillance.
I bet that little kid won’t even want to go on that slide again for a very, very long time. That sounds somewhat traumatizing.
Let’s see how Reddit responded.
One person shares a story about their daughter.
Another person shares a story aobut tubing.
A parent shares a story about his son.
If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a fast food employee who shuts down a customer angry about her change with a single word.
A former lifeguard weighs in.
Swimming pools can be incredibly dangerous if you don’t know how to swim. The dad should’ve been more cautious. He shouldn’t put his child in danger and expect the lifeguard to save her. That’s not good parenting.
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