I have a headache. It hurts. I’ve had a headache every day this week. Whoever invented headaches needs to be fired.
In a slightly more serious rant - Over the 4th of July weekend, my daughter and I went swimming at a pool while my husband and his mother went cabinet shopping. We needed to get the girl’s energy out and my husband needed time with his mother. It was a win-win. The plan was that they would go get the cabinets and then join us at the pool.
Things started well. We got the girl all slathered with sunscreen, in her swimsuit and cover up, and me all dressed as well. We go in and the place is packed, probably because of the holiday. I drag the girl all the way to the back (she was very excited to go swim and did not care that she was still wearing clothes or that I needed to put my bag down) to find a spot. Then I dragged her all the way back to the front to take her potty before getting in the pool. She didn’t go and wouldn’t even try but, whatever, we are here to have fun. In that time, walking across the hot pavement barefoot, I burnt the soles of my feet. No matter, we are getting in the pool, walking is for peasants, it’ll be fine. And it started really well. My daughter really likes the water and this was so much fun. As time goes on though, I begin to wonder where my husband is. I call him and they are still shopping but they’ll be done soon. I wait an hour and call them again, almost done, be there soon. At that point, it’d been about 2 and a half hours and my feet were really blistered and painful.
Finally, I call again and he says they are on their way. I’m fully expecting them to come in and hang out at the pool, letting the girl have even more fun but give me a break from the constant vilgilance. What my husband actually does is call me a million times and then finally have the front people call us over the PA. Now, I’m in the pool with our kid, I didn’t have my phone on me. But I did hear the PA.
So, I grab our daughter and put her on the side of the pool, telling her that Daddy is here and the we need to go see him. Then, I let go of her so I could get myself out the pool. She took off.
At this pool, they had a bunch of baby waterslides, a bigger waterslide, and two massive waterslides where were closed. Where does my daughter run toward? The big, closed waterslides. This pool was in a wooded area so the path to the top of the waterslides was up a hill with trees on it. There was a paved path but the girl opted to climb directly up the hill and through the woods. I’m yelling at her to come back, trying to coax her back down the hill and onto the pavement (remember, giant painful blisters on the soles of my feet) but she’s crying and moving farther and farther away. Meanwhile, everyone is staring. I run up the hill after her, through the trees and all the way over to the platform for the big waterslides. She was about to get on it when I finally caught her. She’s screaming and crying and I’m yelling and EVERYONE is staring. I drag her back to our things and attempt to put her clothes on her while also never letting go of her. I’m unsuccessful. I finally get on the phone with my husband and he comes in to help me carry her out.
And EVERYONE stared. And no one helped. Not even a lifeguard.
This happened almost a week ago and I’m still feeling ashamed about it. But I’m also a little angry too. Seriously, not even a lifeguard? Not even to say “Hey, those are closed!”?