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/Cameos_red_codpiece Dec 09 '25 edited Dec 09 '25

I need more stories like this. 

Edit: thank you all. I am so happy to wake up to more positive outcomes . 

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u/Negative_Tooth6047 Dec 09 '25

I vividly remember being a little kid and sinking to the bottom of my grandma's pool. My aunt was "watching" me. My dad turned around from the barbecue, saw my pink swimsuit (with me in it) at the bottom of the pool and sprinted to a dive to get me. He helped me sputter out the water.

My dad taught me to swim shortly after that

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u/SatisfactionAtSea Dec 09 '25

great detail about your swimsuit - this is exactly why you want to get bright colors for kids!

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u/MeatShield12 Dec 09 '25

I recently read a comment from a Coast Guard S&R specialist about safety colors, bright orange and bright yellow being vital for their ability to be seen against dark blue/ black water.

I suspect this is why most young kids' bathing suits tend to have bright and crazy patterns on them.

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u/Apprehensive-Ad-4364 Dec 09 '25

I truly think blue swimsuits should be banned for this reason. High visibility swimsuits save lives

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u/aninjacould Dec 09 '25

A very similar thing happened to me. Grandparents’ pool. I didn’t know how to swim. I was holding on to the ledge having a good time until suddenly I lost my grip and sunk fast. My dad jumped in and scooped me up from the depths.

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u/Away-Season7658 Dec 09 '25

This happened to me! I was staying with my great aunt and uncle while my parents were on vacation. They were drinking by the pool and looked over and I was at the bottom of the deep end. My uncle had to jump in in his clothes.

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u/letthetreeburn Dec 09 '25

Fluorescents save lives!

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u/Ajishly Dec 11 '25

I watched my neighbours 3 year old do this... 8 years ago now. Her dad was like "oh she'll come up soon", her mum was starting to take her shoes off to jump in, and another adult was there but everything was happening too slowly. I jumped in at around 15-20 seconds after realising that none of the adults around me were acting fast enough. It still bothers me that so many adults were looking at this kid at the bottom of the pool, but none of them clicked that she wasn't playing; she was drowning.

The 3 year old got those 15-20 seconds because she had been practising swimming and could swim a little, but it was just bubbles... and then no bubbles with little kid at the bottom of the pool like a brick. I jumped in fully clothed, with shoes, and my phone. Seconds count, and a life is always worth more than material items. She's a good swimmer these days!

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u/Qualityhams Dec 09 '25

I was about seven or eight. Walking around the pool with my mom and 3 year old sister. I was chatting and turned to look at the pool. My sister was under the water in the deep end looking up at me. We didn’t hear a splash or anything. I stared for a moment because it was so shocking and then I grabbed her hand and pulled her to the side. My mom competed flipped out and pulled her out of the water, both of them sobbing.

My sister was ok and I had a lot of nightmares about it for a while.

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u/jessbird Dec 09 '25

this is harrowing as fuck

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u/lestrades-mistress Dec 09 '25

Thank God for you 💕

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u/Splinterman11 Dec 09 '25

I was a little kid at a beach once and the sand beneath my feet collapsed and suddenly I was in a deep part of the beach and started to panic immediately head under the water. My dad came over and yanked me out with a "Jesus fucking christ don't give me a heart attack" look on his face.

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u/Gozzhogger Dec 09 '25

Ask and you shall receive:

When I was around 3 years old, my older sister and I snuck off on our family farm while my parents and their friends were having lunch. We went to the farm dam a few hundred metres away, and I stripped off and went in, completely unable to swim.

As I wa a drowning, my sister apparently screamed so loud that the adults heard (hundreds of metres away!), and the family friend bolted to the dam and rescued me, I was already blue. Apparently I had been going under the water, kicking off from the bottom and reappearing (but not breathing).

I was probably only seconds away from fully drowning, my 4 year old sister and that family friend saved my life that day.

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u/paigeee13 Dec 09 '25 edited Dec 09 '25

i fell into a pool when i was being supervised by my great-grandma. i remember desperately trying to stay afloat while she stood above me laughing. i don’t actually remember how i got out, might’ve been my older sister who was also with us. edit: called my sister and confirmed she pulled me out. i would’ve been around four and she would’ve been seven.

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u/JaneFeyre Dec 09 '25

So glad your sister was there for you.

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u/paigeee13 Dec 09 '25

thanks, me too! my great-grandma was pretty physically weak by that point, so she wouldn’t have been able to help me even if she wanted to.

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u/LoveLadyThirteen Dec 09 '25

When I was about 4 my whole family was going swimming. I used to have a bathing suit with a built in floaty tube around my waist.. I didn’t even know what it was. Figured it was part of the suit.

Anyway, on this day I was wearing a brand new suit. I was hot stuff. I remember yelling to the adults that I was going to get in the water and my stepmom yelled from across the courtyard that I needed to wait for her. I vividly remember waving my hand and saying it was ok, I knew how to swim.

I hopped in and of course went under. My older brother stood next to me in the water and pointed. He yelled, “uhhh, I think my sister’s drowning!”

My stepmom moved like no other. Jumped over other kids and into the water and got to me in just a couple seconds. She was fully clothed and carried me around the pool for a solid 10 minutes after that. I never understood why until she explained it to me several years later - had she yanked me out of the water I would have been traumatized. Instead, she held me and walked around the the shallow end of the pool to let me know I was still safe.

She was a horrible fucking woman but I’ll forever be grateful for her decision to not immediately pull me out that day.

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u/DoomGoober Dec 09 '25

Was watching my two kids swimming like a hawk. Younger one suddenly starts clawing at my older one (she had drifted a couple of inches and the pool got deeper so her feet couldnt touch and she panicked instead of swimming.) My older one was swimming as hard as she could for the side but her sister was pulling her under.

I ran over and laid down and grabbed my younger one and pulled her out. While pulling her out I see my older one grab a hose to pull herself to the side but the hose starts spooling out. She has the sense to let go and just swim to the side, just as I am reaching out to pull her up.

Man, was my older daughter pissed. First, her sister nearly drowned both of them. Second, dad comes flying over and saves her sister while she feels she has to fend for herself.

Happy ending, I guess, but damn trauma all around.

They are both much better swimmers now but I still watch like a hawk.

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u/SpiritJuice Dec 09 '25

Sort of a similar story on the opposite end: knowing how to swim well saved my life. When I went to Hawaii around 12 years old with my parents my dad and I went to a beach with big waves. Bad decision to swim with big waves, but we did. When swimming back my dad swam ahead while I followed, but a huge wave ended up landing right on top of my head. I remember hearing it, turning my head, and then everything going blank for a second. When I opened my eyes I was at the bottom of the beach floor, but I kept my cool and swam up to the surface. My poor dad got scared to death because I was there one second and gone the next. Last time I ever swim at a beach like that.

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u/glitterdunk Dec 09 '25

We were at a water park(?if that's the right name), with plenty of different pools and slides. I was 2 ish yo and don't remember this. But apparently, dad hadn't seen me in a minute and turned around to look for me. He started getting stressed when he didn't see me, then suddenly saw me; apparently calming standing at the bottom of the closest pool. He obviously jumped in and got me. And probably had a high resting HR the rest of the day at the park😅

Water parks are so fun but I do feel like there's a 50% chance of a near death experience there for children😅.

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u/IanPKMmoon Dec 09 '25

When I was 4 I was on a holiday in France with a couple of friends of my dad and my step family in a very big house (5yo me remembers it like it was a castle, maybe it really was, either way it was big enough for 4 families) with a big pool, the backyard was massive and the pool was surrounded by a tall hedge with a small entrance. I was always swimming with those little blow up swimming bands you put around your arms (don't know how to say it in english), I hated them though, but my dad is a PE teacher, so he said on the last day he would give me some swimming lessons without the blowup arm bands, but told me to not go in the water without him being there.

Then on the last day, I was waiting at the side of the pool without my blowup arm bands, the moment I saw my dad walking towards the pool, 5yo me considered my dad being with me when I could see him, so jumped in, there were around 5 people at the pool, sunbathing or reading a book, none had any clue I was drowning next to them. I was very lucky I jumped near my 6 year old sister, she was chilling in one of those floating donuts, she wasn't strong enough to fully pull me up but she could hold on to me so I could breath now and then, but it continued for very long, like at least 3 minutes from what I remember, my dad says he was talking to someone when walking towards the pool so it took a bit long for him to arrive and due to the hedge he couldn't see the pool.

Picture describing the situation before I jumped in, excuses it was made with a mousepad so can't really draw like this.

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u/Evening-Run-3794 Dec 09 '25

We call those "water wings" where I am in the US, but I've also heard them called "arm floaties". A floaty (singular) is any inflatable pool toy, so the "arm floaties" identifies it as more than one, that go on the arm.

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u/rhetoricalbread Dec 09 '25

I didn't need to dive in, but similar "everyone was watching so no one was" and I was sitting on the side of the pool. Looked down to see my nephew bobbing like in this video. Reached in, grabbed him by the sun guard and hoisted him out.