How to be Paranoid

Shane, Nana, and I went to the pool after work today.

Nana and I tried to get Shane to practice swimming and work on putting his head in the water.

At one point, I decided to try and get Shane to jump in the pool. The water was shallow enough he could walk in it, so when he jumped I didn't catch him.

Shane landed right in front of me. I expected him to put his feet down, but he panicked. He flailed and splashed.

It took my brain a second to register, but then I scooped him right up! Shane had swallowed some water, and barfed a little on the side of the pool.

I wanted to make sure I wasn't a complete idiot, so I pulled Shane back in the pool and told him to stand up.

Sure enough, his head stayed above water. It was up to his chin, so I would have been smarter to been in even shallower water.

That was round 2. No further problems to report (I did warn Shane I'd dunk him every time he popped me in the nose...there were several of those).

When we got back to Nana and Pop's, I pulled out my phone to send a text. Shane was eating, so I flipped over to Facebook see my wife's happy picture of the day. Then an article caught my eye: secondary drowning.

How do you make a parent paranoid? Make them read an article on secondary drowning after their kid swallows water at the pool. Timing is everything.

I read about all the symptoms and proceeded to watch Shane like a hawk.

I came to my senses after a little bit. Living itself is dangerous and secondary drowning is one of those rare occurrences that if you worried about everything you'd never do anything. Still, it's wise to be aware. I said a prayer to push my anxiety on to God and resolved to move on.

On the car ride home, Shane coughed a couple of times. My daddy sense tingled.

"Daddy, I don't feel so good," Shane said.

Goosebumps. "What's wrong?" I asked.

"I have a big booger in my nose!"

False alarm; Only a tissue required!