I almost called this series, "Mortifying Monday". But honestly, turning 40 and having two kids who had daily public screaming fits during their toddler years has made it a lot harder to mortify me. But mildly embarrassed? That still occurs all the time.
Like Friday. I took the kids to the town pool (which is optimistically called a lake, but is really a chemically treated pond) after school. It wasn't too crowded, which is just the way I like it. Just because I've accepted that I must run into acquaintances while wearing a bathing suit doesn't mean I have to enjoy it.
Still, I ran into another mom I knew. The older kids took off for the deep end as Hugmonkey played with her daughter. We chatted amicably. All was well. Then Hugmonkey needed to go to the bathroom.
Now, Ironflower and Lovebug are strong swimmers. The pool has lifeguards. There was no way someone could get to them, drag them off the dock and kidnap them without 100 people seeing and caring. But I still like to keep an eye on them. So my choice was to try to drag them out of the water while Hugmonkey and I went or to trust the lifeguards for a few minutes. I picked the guards, and the mom I knew, because Hugmonkey seemed to be in a hurry. I let the kids know I was taking Hugmonkey and hurried away.
Earlier that day.
On our way back two minutes later, it was easy to spot Lovebug and Ironflower playing their game on the dock. But then suddenly Lovebug started crying out. I began hurrying into the (freezing cold) water, because apparently the lifeguards only care if you are drowning, not yelling. When Lovebug couldn't answer me, I got Ironflower to tell me that there was a bug on Lovebug's neck.
Another mom, whose older son was on the dock too, yelled him to swat it off Lovebug's neck. She told his brother to do the same, but both of them backed nervously away. So did Ironflower. I wondered just what the hell the bug was. I made it to the water by the dock and invited Lovebug to jump in or climb down the ladder. I had no idea if he was already stung or bitten or what the bug was. Lovebug chose the ladder, which gave the horsefly* enough time to sting him before flying away.
He's fine, by the way. And was able to swim all the way back to the shallow area. And learned that next time he should just jump into the water immediately. And totally forgot the incident a few minutes later when one of his classmates showed up.
And I know, intellectually, that the horsefly could have landed on him even if I'd been watching the entire time. And that his reaction probably would have been similar, even if I'd seen it from the beginning. But mixed in with the guilt is the mildly embarrassing idea that everyone at the pool thinks I'm a terrible mother.
*We think it was a horsefly, anyway. Based on the fearful reactions of the other kids and the small bite. But we don't really know, because I never actually saw it.
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