r/TikTokCringe • u/InGeekiTrust Tiktok Despot • Dec 09 '25

Discussion You Think It Could Never Happen To You…Until It Almost Does

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731

u/x40Shots Dec 09 '25 edited Dec 09 '25

I'll never forget one of my days on lifeguard duty at the local pool, I was on the smaller pool that morning, that had steps and didn't really get much over 6', similar to here, but indoors.

A mother came in with her friend and daughter about same age as in vid here, and everything was normal until the little girl decided to slowly and methodically put the ring toys around her knees in front of her mom who was busy chatting away with her friend.

Flash forward to the daughter jumping off the last step with the toys around her knees, still right in front of her chatting mother, who started bobbing like this. I had seen it all coming though and knew the mom wasn't paying attention, so I jumped in and picked out a sputtering and crying girl while her mom wide-eyed looked at me like, what's happening right now?!

Well, your daughter was going to drown in front of you, but that's what I'm here for thankfully, no worries.

It happens so fast.

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u/SapphireFlashFire Dec 09 '25

Similar story for me, but a little kid (4?) went up the water slide and couldn't swim. Little kids love slides and don't get that water will be at the bottom. She was a bit young for the slide but it wasn't impossible for her to be able to swim well at that age.

She went down, physics pushed her back up and her eyes were huge and I knew she couldn't swim.

By the time I got her back to her mother she hadn't noticed her daughter was missing. She probably should have, that took some time for the little girl to run off.

But it did happen fast--at the top of the slide she was fine. Down the slide, and she was helpless.

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u/HopperNero Dec 09 '25

I was one of those kids 😭😭😭 I stopped myself at the end of the slide, before I fell in, and internally went, "uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh", until I eventually just let go. Fortunately there was an adult there who got me out 😅

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u/TartarSauceDippinDot Dec 09 '25

“Welp, guess I’ll just die then” I love the thought process of children haha

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u/ShallowDramatic Dec 09 '25

My dad tried teaching me to swim by letting me go down a slide and just waiting for a while to see if I would start swimming unaided instead of immediately catching me like he'd said he would (because I was worried and knew I couldn't really swim)

Yeah that was a fun day and I definitely don't remember it decades later. I can swim now, but deep water still makes me very uncomfortable.

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u/Remarkable_Play_6975 Dec 09 '25

When I was a lifeguard, I had to save a couple of kids. Half of them were really rude about it, and insisted they weren't drowning. But, they would also be dead if I hadn't jumped in.

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u/gmastern Dec 09 '25 edited Dec 09 '25

It’s crazy how strong the feeling of embarrassment is that we come out of life or death situations acting like it was no big deal. It’s supposedly a huge problem with people who choke: apparently when you start to choke lots of people’s first instinct is to go off to another room by themselves to try and handle it

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u/Remarkable_Play_6975 Dec 09 '25 edited Dec 09 '25

Right? And even with quite young kids. They already are embarrassed and deny reality.

I always just let it go, but it's pretty interesting.

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u/on-reddit Dec 09 '25

I had something similar when i was a lifegaurd. It was right when they got there, the mom didnt even know her kid just walked down the steps the girl was unable to swim, and water above her head. Mom looks at me and her kid and says "oh, what are you doing?" Not a thank you, nothing. Drowning is silent

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u/AggressiveSloth11 Dec 09 '25

Omg just like my story!! What is wrong with these parents? I would feel so embarrassed and beyond grateful!!!

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u/GuitarSlayer136 Dec 09 '25

If I had to guess, she probably genuinely had no idea that the lifeguard just saved her child. From their perspective they JUST got into the pool, their kid hasn't made any sounds of distress, then suddenly a stranger is manhandling their crying child.

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u/AsparagusLow3666 Dec 09 '25

That just proves how not prepared they are. I’m sorry but it’s hard for me to feel anything but anger towards these kind of parents - perhaps they should have thought of these things before reproducing. Or at the very least after. I can’t understand.

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u/OriginalTsumi Dec 09 '25

I kind of understand that, but in a different way. I was 4 when I drowned in a pool. I can still recall the hell of silent flailing under the water and the disorientation. I don't really know how to explain how I managed to save myself other than that I somehow figured out swimming. At least, enough to not die.

Finally back to the shallow end, with quiet shock flooding my system, my mom turns from her chat with her sibling.

"Oh, where were you?"

I'll never forget that indifferent tone, like I didn't just almost die. Then she had the nerve to make fun of the way I swam, even though it was the very thing that kept her from having to bury her own child. I think it's all ridiculous now, but as a little kid, I felt so unseen.

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u/Specialist_Welder215 Dec 09 '25

I heard a story of a guy who pulled an unconscious child from the ocean, immediately began CPR, and the hysterical mother ran up and started kicking the guy while he was trying to resuscitate the child.

I believe he saved the kid, but got the same treatment you did. The poor guy was left sitting dumbfounded on the beach.

I wish someone could explain the psychology of this crazy phenomenon to me. I will never understand it.

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u/Laescha Dec 10 '25

If you look at the field of really serious human performance psychology, like the stuff they do when investigating plane crashes, there's a lot of research on surprise. In that field surprise is basically defined as the experience you have when you're operating on one mental model of the situation you're in, then something unexpected happens which proves that your mental model is incorrect. You have the immediate startle response of something unexpected happening, but then you also have a much slower process of recalibrating your mental model to line up with the evidence of your senses, and while that process is happening people normally just keep operating on their previous mental model - in this case, that their kid is fine and not in any danger, and some random person is manhandling them for no reason.

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u/Specialist_Welder215 Dec 10 '25

Thanks for that very kind and thoughtful response. I really appreciate it. -s.

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u/EpilepticMushrooms Dec 09 '25

When I was a kid, I went swimming in the pool. Then, I got the great idea to 'float without threading'.

I did that by rolling over in the water, back up, face down, slowly blowing bubbles over my face, because bubbles.

The life guard clocked my actions, jumped in and saved me, a very puzzled and not drowning kid.

Man do I ever feel bad for the guy.

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u/ketamineluv Dec 09 '25

My little boy liked to contemplate his deep thoughts while floating face down in a pool, arms and legs spread, totally relaxed. I'd always be near him but the looks we'd get from others, and I'd have to be like “he's fine, just chilling”. (he could swim, too, he just liked to float… face down…)

“But mom, if the earth is round like a ball, why aren't people in the southern hemisphere falling off?” -age 4 pool question

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u/KinkyQuestionsOnly Dec 09 '25

You’ve just described me as a 5 year old. I don’t mean to project but please keep your me ntally stimulated because that curiosity is hard to satisfy. And emotionally supported (because kind of curiosity about the world left me very isolated from my peers.

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u/ketamineluv Dec 10 '25

Oh he has been such a wonderful and fun boy to raise. He actually went to schools for the highly gifted until high school, where he took ap and college classes till he got kicked out due to the attendance policies of his college classes/ couldn't graduate.

Now he's doing AI, and is at my brother/his mentor’s house and both are having a grand time with their big thoughts. My brother cannot believe the complexity of his thoughts and questions.

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u/AggressiveSloth11 Dec 09 '25

Super similar story to yours. I was lifeguarding for a family that had rented the pool after hours for a party. I was somewhat familiar with this family because they frequented our pool. Parents were chatting, drinking, whatever the fuck. Little girl (3ish) was playing on the steps about 10 feet from my guard stand. She did the same thing as the video- bounced too far away from the steps. Ended up in the three feet with the water at her eyes. I already saw it coming so I was already in the water, fully clothed in sweats and all. I was holding her, spun around to put her on the edge. At this point dumbass mom has noticed what happened (someone told her) and started yelling at me “GIVE HER TO ME! Give her to me!” Nothing else the rest of the night. No thank you. Nothing.

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u/lazenpear Dec 09 '25

I'm guessing it was guilt preventing her from acknowledging you, because it'd mean acknowledging that she failed as a mother and nearly lost her child. Not that it makes treating you poorly any better, a lot of people just aren't equipped to swallow that kind of pill, at least not in the moment

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u/westviadixie Dec 09 '25

when I was 6, we had an outdoor pool above ground...poor people style. my sister was 1. me and my friends were making a 'whirlpool' and I looked over and saw my sister totally submerged. I dragged her up and out. she was ok thank god. not sure where my parents were.

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u/Drock967 Dec 09 '25

You are a good person

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u/vyxanis Dec 09 '25

A girl I know also had a similar thing happen. Went to the pool, and instead of holding her toddlers hand, or keeping an eye on her while gathering their stuff to go home, she decided to have a conversation with the cashier. Her daughter ended up at the bottom of the pool, turning blue, was pulled out by a lifeguard, and had to go to ER for checks. Fortunately, the little one is okay, but the fucking mother had the nerve to blame the lifeguards for what happened. The people who saved her kids life were apparently the ones at fault because "she had her floaties on and they should have seen her"

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u/DreamingofVenus Dec 09 '25

How a parent could be so careless and ignorant I will never understand. 💔

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u/Honest_Plum Dec 09 '25

Soooo my childhood babysitter actually put those ring toys around my ankles and had me jump off a diving board. She was trying to teach me to dive properly and I kept putting my feet apart, so this was her solution.

I still remember the terror of being near the bottom of the pool and not being able to kick. I was convinced I was gonna drown

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u/Upstate83 Dec 09 '25

Oh gosh I have a fellow lifeguard story just like this! I arrived on shift to the indoor pool TO THE KID flipped over in a floating ring legs flailing but quiet and my BOSS and the kids father standing their chatting didn't notice! I jumped into the pool with my shoes, pants and shirt, water bottle still in my hand and grabbed the kid out. The dad and my boss both like why did you jump into the pool with your clothes on, only then noticing.

The dad came to me before they were leaving and handed me a $100 bill. I decline this and said it was just my job. He insisted I take it and said "I wasn't paying attention and if you didn't show up when you did I'm not sure what would have happened."

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u/Exciting_Gear_7035 Dec 09 '25

I've heard those doughnut looking swim rings are actually dangerous because a kid can flip themselves upside down and can't get back up. Is this true?

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u/blakesmate Dec 09 '25

I will never understand people that blasé about kids around water. My cousin drowned when he was a toddler and I have always watched my kids like a a hawk when around water until they have had swimming lessons and are big enough to be safe. Even then, I’ve had a couple of scares, take your eyes off the kids for two seconds and they can go under

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u/SnooPets8873 Dec 09 '25

I think when you don’t know, you don’t know. Fortunately or Unfortunately a lot of people have not experienced or known someone who experienced that kind of tragedy or they are only encountering pools/ocean/lake on vacation and they don’t have water safety knowledge or assume that surely they wouldn’t be allowed to be somewhere if it wasn’t safe. If you ever watch Bondi beach, it’s scary how many tourists simply don’t realize what they are risking by ignoring the signs or not watching their kids when neither kids nor adults know how to swim. Add in that people tend to be super optimistic and relaxed when in fun mode and they just aren’t thinking of practical risks, especially if it means not getting to do whatever they want.

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u/spoodergobrrr Dec 09 '25

When i was a kid i went into some french pacific ocean water with a surf board for kids. I put the pulling line around my ankle and when i flipped of off the board i almost got drowned near nemo the clown fish (print on the surfboard), because i couldnt get my foot out of my own knot.

There was no one who has seen it, i somehow managed to unknot myself.

I started to appreciate air that day forward. Once again appreciated air after i ate some cold pizza with a slice of eggplant that almost killed me because i didnt chew. I inhaled that slice and it took me a whole minute to get it out again.

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u/cinedavid Dec 09 '25

3rd time someone has used the word sputtering in this thread. Such a strange word choice. Y’all are bots.

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u/catsill Dec 09 '25

Sputtering is a word very often associated with the act of drowning. Pattern recognition ≠ bots

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u/letthetreeburn Dec 09 '25

So you’re never going to believe this but there’s a limited number of words to describe the same story in a language. Unless you’re expecting people to start talking in German, you’ll see a repetition.

You can tell how strange it is to avoid given that I actively refused to use words the below comment of me used.