I taught both of my girls how to swim. Maybe I once had a dream of the two of them following in my footsteps, but neither seemed eager to do so. I took both of them with me a few times when teaching, but while Madison caught on quickly, chlorine bothered her skin. Darcy, while a natural in the water, just wanted to have fun and play. She enjoyed going with me to different pools because they offered her something new; a deep end for diving, a slide or a diving board, etc. She wasn't much help when it came to assisting me. I signed them up for a summer swim team for a couple of years, and while they enjoyed it and excelled, they preferred soccer. I realized, like most parents, that my kids were not going to be mini-mes in the aquatic industry. And I was more than okay with that.
Then Darcy tried out for the summer swim team and loved it. She met people. She swam in the number one practice lane. She was voted captain of the team her senior year. She eventually got good enough to beat me in a 25-yard race. Her life in aquatics was complete.
Darcy: "I've tried forever to beat you."
Me: "Whatever. Be proud that you can beat a 52-year-old menopausal, fat woman."
Darcy: "I am because I've never been able to beat you. Now I have."
I asked her about lifeguarding. She scoffed. She had no interest. Until she discovered that she could make more money as a lifeguard at the summer camp where she works than she could being a camp counselor. She looked into it, decided it wasn't worth it, and dropped it. Then she spent a lot of time at the pool with her little charges this summer and she would come home complaining about the lifeguards. They always talked about their drinking and partying in front of the kids. They were on their phones. She began taking her bathing suit with her in the mornings to swim with the kids because she felt safer when she was in the pool. Suddenly lifeguarding intrigued her.
A few weeks ago she discovered her college was offering the course for half the cost and she would receive credits for taking it. She texted me and said she was going to sign up and to send her the money. I gave her a lecture. She needed to think about this seriously. She shouldn't be just doing it for the extra pay increase. Lives were at stake.
Darcy: "I know, Mom."
She doesn't know.
But she will when she takes that stand for the first time. My problem, besides that, is the education and training. Will the instructor be someone who believes in this profession? I was a lifeguard instructor. I taught, trained, and certified many lifeguards, and each time I handed them that little card that gave them the right to take a stand I was certain they were prepared. Will my daughter?
Things have changed since I was a lifeguard, and I'm not sure that it has for the better. Her class is two days, Saturday and Sunday, for twelve hours each day. What? In two days these kids, and don't tell me they are adults, are going to learn lifeguarding, first aid, and CPR that includes certification with a defibrillator. In two days. How does that give time for studying? For reading the books? For practice? Why are we not just teaching more college classes in two days if this is such a great idea? The whole thing makes me shudder.
When I took and taught lifeguarding, it lasted over a month and was several days a week. Or all day on several Saturdays. We had classroom work. We had pool work. The seriousness of the job was stressed. As an instructor, I told my students war stories to stress the importance of what they were about to embark on. I had a practice day at the pool during open hours and had volunteer swimmers there for the day to create fake drowning scenarios while my students sat on the stand so they could have the true experience. Once, as several of my students arrived to class and were walking into the pool, someone yelled from the nearby tennis courts that a man had gone into cardiac arrest. My co-instructor and I contacted 911 and then rushed to the man's side to offer assistance to the person performing CPR. Those students got to see first-hand CPR in action. Can kids get that in two days?
I worry about the distraction of cell phones. I worry about the people she will work with. Will they take it seriously? I was blessed to work with the people I did over the years, but I also worked with some who shouldn't have been certified. It's about trust, knowing the system, and relying on one another. Can that be taught in two days?
The Red Cross has made many changes since I worked for them, and obviously, it has worked or they wouldn't be doing it this way. I'm a proponent of change and perfecting the way things are done, but now my kid is about to follow in my shoes and darn it, those shoes are big ones to fill. But then I remember how she has carried herself in so many areas, how she has surpassed our expectations, and how competent she is. I reread my above sentences about how annoyed she was with the lifeguards that she observed this summer, and I tell my heart to settle down. She will be fine.
And just to make sure, I've got plans in the works to run her through some testing in our pool on her visits home to make sure she got what she needed to in those two days of education. Just. To. Make. Sure.
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