Thursday

Please keep Children safe around water ....

Received, Thursday August 7, 2008. - Warnings
Cops: Boy nearly drowns in Secaucus pool
by Paul Koepp
Tuesday July 29, 2008, 3:06 PM
A nine-year-old Secaucus boy was in critical condition today after nearly drowning Saturday night in the town pool, police said. Police and paramedics were called to the Secaucus Swim Center on Koelle Boulevard at 6:40 p.m. when the boy was found unconscious in the pool, according to Police Capt. John Buckley.The boy was removed from the pool, resuscitated and taken to a Passaic County hospital, Buckley said.
______________________________
My husband just returned from a business trip to this sad news.This is my husband's co-worker's child. Details are sketchy as to whom was watching him at the time, but he was floating face down for an unknown period of time before finally spotted. He is still on life support as of 2 days ago. It's not looking very good. I cannot stress the importance of supervising your children or the children in your care at all times when water is involved. God forbid any of us should have to deal with this. Please keep this child and his poor family in your thoughts and prayers.

58 comments:

MaryPoppin'Pills said...

We hope the child pulls through, Manhattan Mama, we're very sorry.

Anonymous said...

So sad.
And a reminder that we who spend lots of time in places where children congregate ought to learn basic first aid. If I read this correctly, the boy was spotted...the paramedices were called...and then the child was LEFT FLOATING FACE DOWN until the paramedics arrived and pulled him from the water. That would have probably been several extra minutes.
I will pray for this child.

Emily said...

This is incredibly sad.

It reminds me of this passage from the book Freakonomics:

Consider the parents of an eight-year-old girl named, say, Molly. Her two best friends, Amy and Imani, each live nearby. Molly's parents know that Amy's parents keep a gun in their house, so they have forbidden Molly to play there. Instead, Molly spends a lot of time at Imani's house, which has a swimming pool in the backyard. Molly's parents feel good about having made such a smart choice to protect their daughter.

But according to the data, their choice isn't smart at all. In a given year, there is one drowning of a child for every 11,000 residential pools in the United States. (In a country with 6 million pools, this means that roughly 550 children under the age of ten drown each year.) Meanwhile, there is 1 child killed by a gun for every 1 million-plus guns. (In a country with an estimated 200 million guns, this means that roughly 175 children under ten die each year from guns.) The likelihood of death by pool (1 in 11,000) versus death by gun (1 in 1 million-plus) isn't even close: Molly is roughly 100 times more likely to die in a swimming accident at Imani's house than in gunplay at Amy's.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for posting this MPP and for the kind words of sympathy.

This happened at the public pool and lifeguards pulled him out and immediately began CPR. The real problem was something happened to this boy, and no one realized he was in trouble. No one knows how long he was down, but it was certainly more than a few minutes. Our children are precious and bad things can happen so quickly. it's a sad fact of life.

Anonymous said...

There was a drowning in the Ridgewood Pool if anyone heard of it. Pretty sad, I think the mom was there with the kids. But the water is so dark that they couldn't find him. That is what my friend told me. I don't know the whole story. Its like Darlington Lake in Mahwah. I love it but now I am nervous to bring my son. Its very dark, you can't see when you look down. I think I will just stick with the community pool, that is is bright blue, and not murky

Anonymous said...

OMG, In Irvine California they had a "lagoon." it was a manmade lagoon with rock formations all around, a sandy slope into the water...and a dark bottom. The kids were not allowed to wear wings. I was always terrified when my kids went near the water because you couldn't see the damn bottom. I stood right next to them in the water at all times...stilll knowing I wouldprobably have to feel around under the water if the went under and didn't come up. Eventually a child died there and they changed the bottom to a blue color where the children could be seen underwater. BTW Umass, I don't know if you're a fan of his, but Donny Osmond used to be there with his kids a lot.

UmassSlytherin said...

donny osmond, huh? lmao!!!! mom you are too funny! He's old enough to be my grandfather! I prefer Donnie Wahlberg!!! lol

j.k. i'm being fresh!!

Donny Osmond is a dream boat! (still before my time!) heheheh my mom absolutely loved him!!!!!

Anonymous said...

Ridgewood pool drowning

Anonymous said...

Well Umass, I wish I had something better to offer...but I can't control who I see. (Wish I could....hehehe.)
I don't suppose Bill Cosby, Chad evert or Vincent VanPatten interest you...in that "special way" anyway?

Oh my gosh...when I was a teenager I had such a crush on Vincent Van Patten (who turned out to be somebody nobody probably knows anyway!!!) My friend and I talked our moms into driving us to LA (cause we were teeny boppers...too oyung to drive) to go to a tennis expo where he was supposed to play against Bobby Riggs. Being that we were young, stupid, and lacking any sense of decorum, we recognized his dad, asked when Vincent would arrive....multiple times...and then hung near his entire family all afternoon so we could meet Vincent. Then we accosted him upon his arrival and made him pose with us for photos...which we took with our cheap instamatic camera with a flash bulb on the top if it!

Years later, my sister met him a few times b/c her husband played tennis with him as a kid. She had him call me one day a a special surprise...and I spent 99% of the conversation insisting he was a fake making a prank call and proceeded to make him prove to me that it was really him by asking him to answer multitudinous trivia questions...based on information I had learned and committed to memory in teen magazines like Tiger Beat and Spec...further proving myself to be a lameass idiot...not to mention potential stalker! Yikes!

UmassSlytherin said...

I hate stories like this...make me so sad. This article was interesting. I would be curious to know what other ISYN readers think of this case.

UmassSlytherin said...

lmao!!! mom you are priceless!

as I said, I was just teasing and being fresh! I would love to meet old Donny Osmond, he is one hot ticket!

I met Micky Dolenz of the Monkees, though! It was a spectacular day: I was 12 and got my picture taken in front of the original Monkeemobile! It was at a car show in Boston! Good times!!!

Anonymous said...

Well, here's a dater for sure...I met the Three Stooges. At the time, they were my heroes and I was in 7th heaven! (Must point out that I was a child then.)

I once had a crush on Jerry Mahoney (spelling?) Yes! The PUPPET! Oh, and also Speed Racer, Davey Jones from the Monkeys, Bobby Sherman and Roger Daltrey. (Haven't completely shaken that last one...hehehehe.)

So Umass...whoever these people are you write about on here....I will never judge...cause I'm sure they are way cooler than all of the above (except Roger Daltrey.)

Now, before we are in trouble for derailing this extremely important thread like common trolls...this is a terribly sad story about the boy and I hope Manhattan mama will keep us posted on the condition of this poor child. And may I request that anybody here of the praying sort, add him and his family to your prayers. It sounds like he is in need of a miracle...and I, for one, believe in them! I just cannot imagine how his family must feel right now. (And MM, I am so happy to hear that rescue was started immediately. The way the story read it made it sound to me like he was still in the water when paramedics arrived. Those extra minutes may be what save his life.)

UmassSlytherin said...

well-said, mom, many prayers are in order!

Anonymous said...

My best friend has 5 kids that always want to come swimming at my house. They are ages 5, 8, 11, 13, and 14. I'm out there watching them every second that they're in the backyard. If I have to go inside for any reason, they all have to come inside with me. They don't balk because they know my rules. Since I don't have kids of my own, I sometimes feel like I'm being overly cautious, but stories like this one make me realize that you can't be too careful.

We're praying for this young man and his family.

JUJu ( Vida a Bordo??) said...

I am a nanny for a 4 and 7 year old boys and they have a pool in the backyard. when I am with them I stay by the pool watching them when I am not swimming also because I woried about them. They are great swimmers but sometimes they play rough, pushing each other inside the pool. But!!! When the dad is watching them, he lives the kids alone in the pool and go upstairs and never watch them, I think this is a bad thing to do it, is not safe!
what do you think i should do, talk to the dad, or is not my business!!!
thanks.
thanks

MaryPoppin'Pills said...

Mom & Umass
My mom met The three Stooges, and said they only came up to her boobs. Hilarious!
She also met Lucille Ball in Chicago many years ago at the height of her career. It was a huge snow storm, and the snow was several feet deep. My mom trekked through that snow to go see Lucille Ball perform at a Theatre. Not very many others made it, so when Lucille Ball came out on stage and saw the almost empty audience, she stormed off stage screaming if she could make it in this storm, she sees no reason why these other #@%&*#$ couldn't.
My mom was completely incensed. She couldn't believe she came all that way for nothing.

I still love Lucy (haha) .... but that was a bit Diva-ish and mean of her.

I also have a story on Vivian Vance (Ethel Mertz).
Sadly, in her real life, Vivian was married to a total drunk. She would often show up for work in bruises, and make-up would have a hell of a time covering them up.
But when she was first hired, Lucille Ball couldn't stand her. She thought she was "too pretty". So, Vivian said, "I'm going to do everything I can to make that bitch love me" .... and she did. Vivian gained several pounds to appease Lucy, and finally Lucy hired her for the part.

Another tidbit, William Frawley (Fred), was an extremely heavy drinker by the time he was hired to play his part. CBS execs knew of this, but he was so talented, they gave him the part anyway, and crossed their fingers. They warned him that if he was to ever show up drunk, he'd be fired. He never did.

>I'm a huge Lucille Ball buff<
Something ya'll didn't know about me! Oh, and when I went to Florida on my last visit, I went to the 'I Love Lucy' museum .... very cool! All kinds of old memorabilia, and things from the set.

UmassSlytherin said...

oh my God mpp: that is so weird: my mom LOVED Lucy!!! when I was little we watched that show together all the time! but poor ethel! :( I never knew that.

And that was a diva-ish thing to do, for sure!

MaryPoppin'Pills said...

Yeah, I grew up on it, too. I've seen each episode several times, and know just about all there is to know. It's not like I try, lol, it just happened!

That and Dick van Dyke (I loved Mary tyler Moore) -
I would sit behind my Mom and brush her hair as we watched it together.
:)

UmassSlytherin said...

That is so funny! My mom also made me watch all of James Dean's movies too, and all the Shirley Temple flicks as well. She was also very cool about listening/watching what I wanted to: when I became obsessed with the Beastie Boys in 8th grade, she actually let me play the tapes in the car all the time and she bought me tickets to their Licensed to Ill concert when they came to my city! it was one of my first concerts. (but she made one of my big sisters take me, who was horrified! hehehe!)

MaryPoppin'Pills said...

Alright, one more and I'm done, lol.
Cool famous people I've met:

Charlie Sheen, Michael Biehn, Bill Paxton (all when they were filming Navy Seals, Charlie Sheen paid a friend of mine $100 to go get him a pack of cigarettes, and then we had lunch with them and got their autographs) Billy Idol, Weird Al Yankovic, Sammy Hagar, Metallica (we got to go on their tour bus, wow, was it awesome!) Queensryche,
Stevie Nicks (I remember most how she smelled so good, lol) Mike Piazza (NY Mets), Fred Berry (Rerun, from What's Happening! At a party, and man, can he dance!)... there's a few others, but I just thought that would be cool to pass along! :)

UmassSlytherin said...

OMG!!!!!! mpp you are so lucky!! and my husband is going to die with jealousy when I tell him you met Re-run!!!!!!!! He loves him!!!!

Anonymous said...

Oh fine...let's see...
I had a long lunch with my dad and Raymond Burr one afternoon when I was in college in LA. He was a client and was meeting my dad in LA for lunch, but my dad told him that he never went to LA without seeing me (which was true), so I got to go. That was pretty cool.

He also got to meet with Michael Landon...which I would have loved to go to...but wasn't invited...waaaa! He even got to go to the Little House set....and I LOVED that show. But I did see Melissa Gilbert and the guy who played Almanzo at a taping of Battle of the network Stars...which was filmed in Malibu and we often stopped by to watch tape. Saw a lot of stars there...but disappointingly, nobody, NOBODY looks nearly as good in person as they do on TV.


Living in California, I have seen several celebrities...always sort of a thrill for some weird reason. But I didn't ever talk to them unless there was some event where autographs were appropriate and being given.

Umass, my kids would kill to meet Metallica!


I have a couple of funny stories from a celebrity golf tournament that took place at our neighborhood club soon after we moved here.

First, my friend and I honed in on a cute guy form a show that was very popular at that time. So we got our autographs and took pictures with him. (Although I think he was kinda mean, because right after he took pictures with us, a "larger" lady right next to us asked if he would pose with her and he looked her over rudely and said, "No" and walked away abruptly. Strike one.) Then we overheard him talking about which hotel he was at and going to the bar there after the tournament. Being that our husbands are sporting, they took my friend and me there to see if he was there. The bar was small and empty...except for "mr celebrity" and some guy sitting way in a corner. Still apparently waiting for our shame and decorum to kick in, we selected the table right next to them and sat down. Not obvious at all...as our husbands so kindly, and uncomfortably pointed out. (We had probably been sipping beer all afternoon and had lost our senses by then...really, we are all pretty conservative, so we laugh about this now.)Soooo...we are sitting right next to him for maybe an hour, while our husbands slyly check him out and let us know they really don't see what all the excitement is over. Then, he and the guy start touching each others legs and one of them suggests, in a drunken slur, that they go upstairs..and the other one accepts! Our husbands look at us, aghast, and both at the same time, mouth, "he's gay." Well, knock me over with a feather because he was married with kids. Strike two. (And believe me a third strike was not necessary. Now whenever I see him on tv I am just sort of grossed out.)He later divorced and may or may not have dated a certain celebrity whose name rhymes with Pleather Flockmere.

Then I went to take a photo of Johnny Bench, with permission. He was still sitting in his golf cart and I was let under the crowd control ropes to take my picture. Being most careful, because I was wearing a skirt, I crouched down to get a face to face level shot. Johnny was momentarily preoccupied, but when he looked up to smile for the picture, his expression turned to one of complete horror and I saw him draw his breath in abruptly. It was then that I realized I had not crouched, perhaps, as daintily as I had surmised, and, between my tiny skirt and my tiny thong undies...he was seeing things he didn't expect to see. Horrified, I jumped up and ran away....far away. I didn't stop until I was all the way out of his sight...like around the corner of the nearest building. I never did get the photo...but as my husband helpfully points out (apparently as some sort of consolation, which I have yet to find humorous, or even in the least consoling) JOhnny bench will probably never forget meeting me! hehehee

Anonymous said...

OMG! She dated Tom Cruise, was it him??

Anonymous said...

Oh, I totally missed that. WHO dated Tom Cruise? I used to really like him before he got all weird with the Scientology.

Anonymous said...

Pleather Flockmere dated Tom Cruise! Was it him you saw mom?

Anonymous said...

Oh...I didn't even know that. (And would you really fall over dead with shock if he had such a secret?) "Not that there's anything wrong with that"....hehehe...(also a Seinfeld fan.)

No, this guys name may or may not rhyme with Hack Schlagner.

I will never forget the grimy cigarette hanging from his lower lip and threatening to drop onto the carpet and burst us all into flames at any moment. I mean, that darned thing...and its successors...defied gravity for an hour!

Anonymous said...

WHAT?? Tell me it's not TRUE! I love that guy, ha! Oh well just goes to show you that people of the world have many many secrets. HA! Thanks for the entertainment tonight Mom.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, sad huh? He's so cute...even in person.
And you think you feel bad? we wasted an entire perfectly good day...and most of what would have been a perfectly good Saturday night stalking the guy.

Really, to each his own. But it's just that the last thing you want to see when you finally get the chance to meet a really great celebrity is...well.....THAT! Kinda kills all the future fantasy potential all in one felled swoop! hehehe

UmassSlytherin said...

mom you are too funny! lol "stalking!" lmao!!!

I wish my whole life was surrounded by hot celebs. :( All I want are hot celebs. :(

Anonymous said...

All I can say is WOW!

Such a serious post-and only a third of the comments relate to it!
I am surprised that regulars like Mom and staff member MPP would participate with UMassSlytherin in throwing the subject so off track.

A little boy is dying, isn't there another place you could have launched this discussion about celebrities you've met? Wouldn't this be a more appropriate topic for say, the favorite beach thread?

And MPP I'm surprised at you especially. I could see if one discussion sparked another related to the topic, but really, talking about meeting and/or favorite celebrities; doesn't that constitute breaking the rule about going off on an inappropriate tangent?

Manhattan Mamma, I really hope this little boy pulls through. I saw the story, and follow up articles in the paper and I know he is one of the best Children's Hospitals in the country. However, the last article I read stated he was taken out of his medical induced coma and still required complete life support. As a critical care nurse, I know this is not a very good sign. Usually, people are put into medical induced comas in hopes that the rest will allow the body to heal and allow some brain function to return. The odds of this child making any sort of recovery now is greatly diminished. He will need many prayers indeed.

MaryPoppin'Pills said...

Regularly Anonymous
You are right, my apologies to Manhattan Mama.

UmassSlytherin said...

regular anon,

We have all offered our prayers. Thank you to MM for posting this.

Sorry the thread went off track, but your rude comments/implications towards me are not needed, and as usual you continute to target me when I am minding my own business and not saying anything against anyone. If the going off track bothers you so much, you could have stated your opinion without targeting me and implying that every thread that goes off track is my fault.

Anonymous said...

Sometimes threads go off track, it happens. But I'm sorry, your ending comment was kind of harsh, reg. anon., "the odds of this child making any sort of recovery now is greatly diminished", do you really think anyone wants to hear that? At least the comments made that took the thread off track offered some respite.
Manhattan mama knows we all care about her, and we offer her our deepest sympathy.

Anonymous said...

Sorry guys. I have been praying for this little boy.

Anonymous said...

O.k. - so the last half of the thread went off track. Would you rather no one had commented at all? This is a sad posting yes, but sometimes people avoid posts like this altogether because they just don't know what to say. Saying you feel bad for someone just doesn't sound like it's enough, I don't know. But we all know that the above posters are good people and would never mean to hurt anyone. Hopefully MM knows that. Anyway, I will say my prayers for MM's family and the little boys family.

Anonymous said...

hey this has nothing to do with what the original post was about, but how long does a typical 4 year old and then a 2 year old nap for?

UmassSlytherin said...

It really depends on the child. It is great if a toddler can sleep for at least an hour after lunch or late morning depending on when they wake up in the morning. Some two and three year olds still do up to two or even three hours. But not all of them do. As far as a four year old, naps are tapering off at that point. It really depends on the child.

Anonymous said...

UmassSlytherin, I was merely pointing out that I thought the direction the thread was going in was disrespectful to the child, his family and Manhattan Mamma, and that I thought the off-topic discussion belonged elsewhere. If anything, I think I was far harder on MPP than you. I didn't say or imply that any of you were horrible people because that would be silly and untrue. As I have no ongoing problem with you or anyone else here, I'm not sure what you mean by saying I continue to target you. I mentioned you along with two other names, so how that somehow makes you believe I have set you apart, I can't understand.

I hope all three of you realize I have nothing personal against any of you, I was just trying to show some respect to the subject matter and parties involved.

CFG, I'm sorry if my professional experience makes me a little pessimistic as to the boy's prognosis, I can't help that. I also wanted to make clear the seriousness of what's happening in the lives of this unfortunate family. This is not some medical crisis with excellent odds of a complete or partial recovery. This boy truly does have little chance, barring a miracle, which I am praying for and have seen happen.

I know this is a tough subject. I think MM posted it to drill into our heads and any who might visit this site the enormous responsibility of supervising children near water. But it doesn't stop with children. Everyone needs to practice safety around the water at all times. I have helped treat several drowning and near drowning victims and it's almost always because safety procedures were not followed. We had a Senior Lifeguard, who hopped a fence and went for a swim in a closed pool only to cramp up and go under. The caretaker found him. He recovered but not fully and he never will. I helped treat a 2 year old who was left in the tub with her 5 year old sister while her mom ran to answer the doorbell. While the mother was gone the 5 year old thought it would be interesting to hold her sister underwater. Thankfully the child made a full recovery in that case. I work in a hospital in an affluent area where everyone has swimming pools. You would be amazed at the number of cases that never make the news because no one actually drowns in many of them. There have even been a couple of cases spawning from nannies who can't swim supervising children in the water. One nanny ran screaming to the neighbor when the child went under because she didn't know what to do. She couldn't swim and get this, SHE DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT 911!!! She was from a foreign country and her employers had never gone over emergency procedures with her! The list could go on and on! One thing I can tell you, in each and every case there is always a number of people who's lives are changed forever from the experience. Sometimes for the better and sadly, sometimes for the worse.

UmassSlytherin said...

regular anon,

I agree with all the points you have made about water safety and this poor family.

I know you did not accuse me of being a bad person. I just grow tired of people jabbing at me when it is not neccesary and implying that I am responsible for every thread going off-track. None of us meant to be disrespectful to the post at hand. I believe that when we post on a site with such nice (most of them anyway!) people, we get into conversation mode, which tends to go off into tangents.

MM, we are praying for you and for this family. Lots of prayers and good thoughts. It is so tragic. Regular Anon made some excellent points, I hope everyone reads her last post carefully.

Anonymous said...

regularly Anonymous,
No worries. Your point was well taken, and I think I can say with comklete confidence that nobody involved in the silly off-topic conversation meant any disrespect to anybody...least of all the little boy in question. I, myself, have prayed for him several times and am hoping for that miracle to come through.

Blogging is sort of a cyber-conversation...and just like any normal conversation the topics just sort of flow into one another. Picture yourself at a dinner party and taking note of how the conversation flows. You can be talking about the gravest of topics at one moment and then five minutes later laughing uproariously over some twisted and completely unrelated joke...and then a little later the converastion takes a heavy tone again...and so it goes.

Anonymous said...

Umass,
You posted as I was writing..and said essentially the same thing as I did...which gives me all the lore reason to believe we are on the same page with this...as I took the liberty of implying in my post.

I forgot to add that we recently had a family in our small suburb lose TWO of their children at once in the backyard pool. An 18 month old and a three year old both died together when they got into the yard while mommy wasn't looking. What an incredibly painful tragedy. Drowning takes only a few moments...and is forever. And I would guess one of the hardest things a parent would have to deal with in such a circumstance is how completely preventable and unnecessary it is. The "If only's" probably haunt for a lifetime. If y'all have small kids, don't get pools. If you already have a pool...get a tall fence around it with a sturdy LOCK...no matter how ugly you think it makes your yard. I refused to get a pool (much to my husband's dismay) until our youngest was 10. And still (because of what is written about the lifeguard above) don't allow solo swimming with nobody home to check them out from time to time.

Anonymous said...

The idiotic comments have to stop. Isn't there a post everyday that is just a video or something? Cant you congregate there and chit chat, chew the fat?

This post could have led to an intelligent dialogue and shared cautionary tales.

Shame on all who partook.

The boy is still in critical condition.

Anonymous said...

Yes, jojo. Too bad it's him and not you.

UmassSlytherin said...

Jojo,

As Mom and I said, we meant no disrespect to this child and his family. Our prayers are with him. We were just having a conversation. We are sorry it got off track.

Anonymous said...

Hey Everyone!

First let me thank everyone who offered and continue to offer well wishes and prayers.

Several of us are taking time to help the family as we can. Rides to the hospital as they only have one car, preparing meals and childcare for the other children, etc.

A lot had happened in a very short time. He opened his eyes and began breathing on his own! There is absolutely no explanation for it! The church his family belongs to held a 72 hour prayer vigil and apparently it worked. There is still a very long road ahead but in just 12 hours the outlook has gone from bleak to promising. :D

This is not to say Reg Anon was wrong in her posting about his prognosis. His own doctor had said there was little hope and the family should be prepared. They had begun discussing organ donation and arrangements. It just goes to show there is some higher power involved because medical science had done all they could.

I will admit I was a little surprised at the light-hearted tone it had taken so quickly, but I wasn't in anyway upset by it. I know all you guys well enough to know no offense was meant and you are all a very caring group.

Keep the prayers coming, they are doing wonders!

UmassSlytherin said...

we will, mm!

MaryPoppin'Pills said...

Manhattan Mamma
Thank you so much for the update, we are so glad to hear he is doing better! Again, my apologies. I hope you know I didn't mean any disrespect.

Anonymous said...

MM
That's wonderful! There's definately power in prayer!

And to jojo, they already got read the riot act by regular anon, you really didn't need to say anything further as I think they got the point and were very apologetic. You should relax more.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

Sooo thankful to hear this incredibly fantastic news!!!!!!!

If you don't mind my giving that "higher power" the credit HE is due...GOD does answer prayers and miracles happen every day!

Anonymous said...

Sooo thankful to hear this incredibly fantastic news!!!!!!!

If you don't mind my giving that "higher power" the credit HE is due...GOD does answer prayers and miracles happen every day!

Anonymous said...

mom, you are right God does work miracles everyday. I am happy this family got to see his work first hand. Godbless them all and those who prayed special prayers.
This post prompted us to buy a saftey device for out toilet today.Something we should have done a few months ago.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

OH my...don't delete me. That was me above with the response to jan'e addiction. My computer is giving me fits. It froze and then posted that before I could use my name!!!!

Anonymous said...

Janes addiction,
Thank you for bringing that up. I was thinking about that yesterday and forgot to post it.

Toilets neeed to be closed, and preferably latched.
Buckets of water...like for mopping, or whatever...should never be left unattended even for a moment.

Kids are incredibly fascinated by water, and completely unaware of its dangers. Kids drown in mop water and toilets all the time.

Don't leave your little plastic baby pool filled when it is not in use and you are not right there.

Its just not worth the risk.

I remember one evening when my son was a toddler...probably just about a year old, give or take a month or two. I was filling the tub for a bath and he was in the tiny bathroom with me, looking over the edge (which came almost up to his armpits 'cause he was so small) into the tub and trying to reach into the water to splash. Meanwhile, I looked away for a brief moment...maybe brushing my teeth, I don't remember why... but still no more than 3 feet from him. I would have never guessed in a MILLION YEARS he could have gotten himself into the tub...but the next thing I knew I looked over and he was upside down in the tub with his legs sticking up, propped against the edge of the tub, and his head under water! He couldn't have been like that for more than 5 seconds, but it still scared the crap out of me, seeing his little face under water like that. It happens...when you least expect it...and very, VERY fast.

For that matter, I never trusted child locks to keep my kids form drinking cleaning chemicals under my sinks. I kept those things on high shelves in my laundry room and had high cupboards built in my garage for lawn and car care chemicals. You just never know what a determined kid might be able to do...with a little effort, or even by a fluke.


One morning I woke up to find my two year old had gotten up out of bed, opened the refrigerator door, wrangled the CHILDPROOF cap off of his Amoxicillin, and drank the entire bottle. He greeted me with a big pink smile and proudly announced, "I drink the pink!" Really, never underestimate a child!!!! They can't be replaced.

MaryPoppin'Pills said...

Mom
I'm so glad you re-posted, because I didn't know who wrote that and it would've been hard for me to Delete! That was a really good post!

I usually try and give someone 15 min. or so to re-post. They might not always realize they've posted anonymously.
Please remember everyone, use initials or a moniker!

Anonymous said...

Juliana.... nos eua.... vida de nanny,

I urge you to speak with the dad. Tell him you have read some news reports recently about children drowning in family pools, and you are worried. Children must never be left alone in a pool!

Anonymous said...

i'm so glad the child is doing better, MM. what wonderful news.