You know, good parents are always good in the same way, but bad parents are always bad in many different ways. And there are lots of situations in which this bad parenting actually manifests itself. For example, when a parent quite deliberately endangers the life and health of their child.
The author of our story today, the user u/Procedural_, also encountered another similar manifestation of blatant parental negligence. Because, let's just agree, two little children left alone in a public pool for several hours is nothing short of negligence.
More info: Reddit
The author of the post works as a public pool guard and recently he found two little kids in the pool swimming alone
Image credits: freepik / Freepik (not the actual photo)
According to the kids, 5YO and 4YO, their dad had left them in the pool and had gone somewhere
Image credits: Procedural_
Image credits: freepik / Freepik (not the actual photo)
The author waited until closing time, and even 20 minutes more, and then simply called the police
Image credits: Procedural_
Image credits: Kindel Media / Pexels (not the actual photo)
Then the dad showed up, holding a beer can and yelling at the kids and the author
Image credits: Procedural_
However, then the cops arrived, and the author just left, leaving the hapless dad to face the consequences
So, the Original Poster (OP) says that during his time as a lifeguard at a public pool, he has had to deal with various manifestations of human stupidity and entitlement, but a recent story definitely set a new standard...
So, closer to the end of his working day, our hero, with colossal surprise, saw two little kids in the pool, a 5-year-old boy and a 4-year-old girl. The rules of conduct in the pool, of course, don't allow such minors to be without any adult supervision, so the OP asked the children who was accompanying them.
It turned out that their dad was with them - but he had gone somewhere. Well, our hero waited until closing - and when, after another twenty minutes, no one showed up to pick up the kids, he simply called the police, explaining the situation in detail.
A couple of minutes later, a tipsy man with a can of beer appeared, who, exuding an indescribable aroma of fresh fumes, said that he had simply gone away for a short time to a nearby bar, and that he allegedly had the right to leave his own kids wherever he wanted.
Well, our hero didn't enter into useless discussions with this undoubted candidate for the "Father of the Year" award. But when the guy ordered his offspring to follow him, the author asked him to stay and wait for the cops to arrive.
The dad got even more furious - but then the cops arrived, and our hero left, leaving them to deal with this hapless drinker of a parent on the spot. In fact, he never saw this man or his children at the pool again...
Image credits: Selvin Esteban / Pexels (not the actual photo)
According to statistics by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, drowning is the sad number one cause of death for children ages 1-4. And in fact, the fact that the eldest of the kids in this story was 5 years old doesn't change anything - after all, according to the same data, over half (55%) of U.S. adults have never even taken a swimming lesson.
Accordingly, having kids swimming in the pool unsupervised is, to paraphrase Napoleon Bonaparte, "more than a crime. It is a mistake." A mistake fraught with the most serious consequences. "[The kids] don't have the knowledge of protecting themselves. They think they're invincible,” Today quotes Rowdy Gaines, a three-time Olympic gold medalist in swimming. "Remember when you were 8?"
In any case, rules are rules - and if someone breaks them, they must face the consequences. And people in the comments to the original post also rightly point this out. "What sort of parent abandons their kids at a public pool to go off drinking?" one of the people in the comments wondered. "That's serious neglect. Those poor kids," another one added.
Commenters also note reasonably that a public pool is not the best place to leave little kids while one goes off to have dad time. "The pool isn't a cheap substitute for daycare. This coming from a parent that trusted their kids earlier than most," another person claimed. Do you, our dear readers, also agree with this decision of the author, and with these comments as well? Please share your thoughts in the comments below.
People in the comments slated the dad severely, and also praised the author for making this decision
