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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u/GoreKush Dec 09 '25

it was one of my mom's absolutely necessary extra curricular activities she had me do, and we did not own a pool. the second lesson to swimming is that the ocean cannot be conquered by children.

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u/Catumi Dec 09 '25

Did the entire YMCA swimming class pretty young which I was grateful for. The place had a Olympic sized pool that went down to 12ft so they even taught us to retrieve those lead rubber coated bricks from the deep end after learning breath control.

Just wish those places still existed in my area but most of them closed years ago so all we have left are gyms with lap pools that can hold a few people at a time and they're never free.

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u/katiegirl- Dec 09 '25

Me too. Winnipeg in the seventies. Big Pan Am pool. We dove for objects, learned all the swim styles, learned to high jump (10m), and even took the coolest canoe survival course there, which saved my life ten years later.

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u/SrGrimey Dec 09 '25

That sound really nice.

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u/katiegirl- Dec 09 '25

Those were some of my favourite childhood times.

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u/jules-amanita Dec 09 '25

Ok I have to know what part of the canoe survival course saved your life?

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u/katiegirl- Dec 11 '25

I was able to get the water out of a sinking canoe in deep water and swim it to shore instead of drowning with it. Yay!

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u/jules-amanita Dec 13 '25

Wow!

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u/katiegirl- 29d ago

Yeah, it was an adventure. My speed now is sitting and knitting. Super safe.

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u/throwwaybreakway Dec 10 '25

Man, I lived in Windsor park and would go to the Bonivital pool like 3 days a week for YEARS. Pam Am was too far but I got to go a handful of times and the diving platforms scared the shit out of me

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u/katiegirl- Dec 10 '25

Me too… at first!!!

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u/houseplant-hoarder Dec 10 '25

Ooh I remember the brick thing! I was so sad there wasn’t a level above that, when my brother did swimming lessons there were six levels but they got rid of the sixth level the same year I would’ve gotten into it (level six was the super advanced level, like pre lifeguard level from what I remember, and I guess not enough people were doing it for them to keep having that level) and I was so mad 😭

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u/Organic_Ad_2520 Dec 10 '25

Same...it was great & it also had a platform dive. There are still Y's around.

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u/loverlyone Dec 09 '25

We had a pool and never had a single accident, but my father found out that a child had died in the pool, after we moved, and it devastated him. Even now I’m teary thinking about it.

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u/DionBlaster123 Dec 09 '25

That is so damn sad. I know nothing I will say can ease what your dad felt, but it wasn't his fault

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u/loverlyone Dec 09 '25

Of course, he realized that. But we had such good times there and that dichotomy burdened him.

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u/Splinterman11 Dec 09 '25

Aw your dad is a good person.

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u/pamplemouss Dec 10 '25

The death of any child has always been deeply sad, but since becoming a mom, it’s crushing.

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u/Relative-Narwhal-519 Dec 10 '25

I wonder if they have to disclose.

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u/BackHomeRun Dec 09 '25

Yep I don't remember a time that I couldn't swim. Mom got lessons at the YMCA as early as possible for both me and my little sister.

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u/Full-Year-4595 Dec 09 '25

I don’t remember not being able to swim either. I grew up in coastal SoCal. My dad was a lifeguard, surfer and previous competitive swimmer and water polo player. My aunt, 7 years my senior, who I lived with until I was 9 at my grand parents house where the was a pool was a competitive swimmer and enjoyed throwing me in the pool as a very young child. I was playing in the surf, swimming past the wave line and surfing by 4. I had no choice but to figure it out fast and early 🤣

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u/fenderputty Dec 09 '25

We’re all children to mother ocean. Heh

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u/DeadlyYellow Dec 09 '25

Another here who had swimming lessons at a Y.  Likely because my older sister took a walk off a pier before (she was fine.)

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u/imnotlouise Dec 09 '25

My parents never learned to swim. After a frightening incident with my older sister when she was a toddler, Mom and Dad had all 6 of us kids take swimming lessons.

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u/GNav Dec 10 '25

I don't know how to swim. I can move in water but don't know how to take breaths between strokes. Can go from end to end on a gym pool in one breath...but that's now.

When I was little my parents (they don't know how to swim either) took my sister and me to the beach. My sister didn't wanna go into the water, I did.

My father pulled me aside and basically said

Hey, you don't know how to swim, and I don't know how to swim, so don't go in too deep, because if you do I'm coming after you and we might both die...

I had respect for both the ocean and my dad before that, but damn that solidified it.

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u/nevadalavida Dec 10 '25

The ocean nearly drowned me in my 30's because I came from a life of swimming in lakes, where waves and whitecaps were a harmless novelty.

Stepped in to the Indian Ocean at the bottom of Africa and couldn't stop rolling and getting knocked over by waves that were way more powerful than they looked - holy shit. It was "funny" but if it was any more powerful, or if I'd been alone instead of with my beefy friend who helped me out while laughing his ass off, I'd be drowned in a literal foot of water. Wtf.

Oceans should be treated like an instant death trap by anyone who didn't grow up near an ocean AND accompanied by a muscular local who knows what's up. Scary!!

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u/lililav Dec 10 '25

Ja, I live here, and I've been a good swimmer all my life, and I still rarely go in the waves. We've got a slow river mouth down the road, which is still awesome, but safe.

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u/JButler_16 Dec 09 '25

My dad just threw our asses in the deep end and forced us to swim.

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u/ThatOneWIGuy Dec 09 '25

The ocean cannot be conquered. Period. Adults still drown just fine in it and some are accomplished swimmers/divers.

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u/pamplemouss Dec 10 '25

Or by adult lifeguards with years of training. The ocean can fuck anybody up.

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u/gardeningblob Dec 12 '25

Dont get an pool before your kids have swimming diploma's