The ToiBocks Blog

Archive for June, 2010

I’ve read it in the news before, how a child had drowned during a party in the backyard. I always wondered how it was possible… how could a child die with people standing around?

I pulled these from articles on the net…

- Brianna’s mother and three other children were in and around the pool at the time.

- About 20 people were in the yard and pool area when someone noticed the boy, who had last been seen on a floating chair, at the bottom of the pool

Well I learned first hand exactly how a child can drown with a bunch of people not only standing around the pool, but with kids swimming just near the drowning child…

It went like this, a happy occasion, the last day of school! Perfect, right? About 15 parents and 10 children are hanging out at a friend’s house. I was standing about 40 feet from the edge of the pool having a conversation with someone when he made a noise like ‘eh,’ I’m not even sure what prompted the noise, but at that point I shifted my focus from my four year old, in his life jacket, standing inside the jacuzzi and I started watching an argument between an 8 year old girl and her 10 year old brother. They were hanging onto a float on opposite sides of a boy who was sitting in the float. The brother twisted the float so the sister lost her grip on it and she began to swim away.

Now the sister is a strong swimmer, really strong. I had noticed her swimming for over an hour now and she’s very skilled. She had, however, exhausted herself arguing with her brother. She started swimming to the opposite edge and a few strokes into went down the first time. I’m not a strong swimmer. I get in the middle of the deep end and I panic, having almost drown myself in a lake at 13 years old, I just don’t have ‘deep end confidence.’ I started walking toward the pool at this point, just to make sure that she was OK because kids do things that I would deem risky and they come out of it alright…

By the time I made it to the edge of the pool this little girl was a foot under the water in the dead man’s float. I didn’t think, I didn’t speak, with my hat and all my clothes on (but thank goodness my phone was in my bag) I dove in. I didn’t know if anyone else was watching, but I knew she wasn’t breathing and I needed to get her out of the water.

I pushed her up out of the water toward the edge and struggled to get my head above water and yelled ‘HELP.’ A few people at the party said that, at that point, they thought my baby must have fallen in. Everyone came to the edge of the pool and they pulled the girl out. She began coughing and breathing immediately, thank goodness. Then they helped me out of the pool.

Honestly, it was surreal. I wasn’t even sure until I hit the edge of the pool that the girl was in trouble and she was already drowning at that point, it was mere seconds. In as long as it takes to take 15 steps she went from swimming to drowning.

Needless to say, all my father in-laws concerns about someone being in the backyard when the kids are swimming are valid. It’s not enough to be in the house watching them from the door…

All those people standing around, four kids swimming within FIVE feet of this girl and nobody noticed. Had my friend not made that noise, ‘eh,’ I would not have been looking either. He didn’t even make the noise about the kids, he doesn’t remember what prompted the noise…

As to the mom of the kids, one could point the finger, but you can’t watch your kids constantly… eventually you turn your head to answer a question or pour some more cola or put ketchup on your hot dog… it could have been my kid just as easily as hers. Nothing looked amiss what-so-ever, truly.

After discussing it with a friend she recommended all the adults treat the pool like a sport. Once you get many adults and many kids, it is really zone defense, some areas are covered by many defenders (bar, food), and some zones just have one defender, and for some reason, some zones are holes. If there are no players in your zone, you look at the cheerleaders (as my brothers say referring to the wives or food or beer). Which is comical, but it might just work.

Whatever you do, please dispel the thought that it won’t happen to you, or in your backyard, or to your kids because I can tell you right now, it doesn’t happen like you think it will and in the blink of an eye you could be looking at a 911 call, which would of course ruin your bbq.

Stay safe!

Trying to think of a fundraiser for your kids school? Don’t discount the power of recycling!

Our fourth grade classes this year had 66 students. Every Thursday we encouraged the kids to bring in their cans and bottles from home. We had parent volunteers to separate, transport and unload the recycling at a local center.

Our goal was to pay for our whale watching annual boat trip for the fourth graders. Total $1,500. This way none of the parents had to pull out the wallet for the (expensive) field trip.

I’m happy to say WE DID IT! We raised just over $1,500!!

The kids received ‘bucks’ each time they recycled that could be used towards a homework pass. I would keep the kids updated as to how much we had raised at various intervals, to keep them excited. As the end of the efforts drew near I picked up some balloons and smarties and the kids who brought in recycling got one of those in addition to the bucks… what a difference that made!

Next year I’ll be helping with the 5th grade recycling program as my son moves into 5th grade. Every class from K – 5 (except 4th grade) will be bringing in recycling. It’s a bit of a messy job and requires no less than 6 – 10 volunteers (to sort, drive, unload, make deposits, etc). It helps a lot too if the teachers are on board with the program because they encourage the kids as well. The end result is that we’ll be able to raise a LOT of money for the grad party, field trips, etc. that we wouldn’t normally get and with the budget cuts going on at LAUSD it’s more critical than ever to do fundraising!

You’re helping the environment, teaching your kids good recycling habits and raising money at the same time! It’s a home run fundraiser!

I’m really proud of the kids (and the volunteers) and truly looking forward to figuring out how to inspire next years students to step up their game!