I want to start this thread by acknowledging that what happened was nobody else’s fault, and that the responsibility for it lies with my wife and myself as hard as it can be to digest it.
Wife and I were putting a few thousand pounds of rock in our driveway on Saturday. 8 and 4 year old were at her parents and we had the 14 month old fearless one. I consider myself safety conscious, especially when it comes to my wife and three boys. I was sure to see Jon (the little guy) was in my wifes arms prior to pulling or backing the truck and trailer.
Once we finished I pulled Jon out of our small garage and shut the doors behind me. I grabbed the shovels and tamping tools and walked through the big garage to close the garage door. As I walked around the back of the truck I said, “Hey, where’s Jon?”
She didn’t know so we immediately started looking. She went around the front of the house and I went around the back, down the hill, and toward the pond. Didn’t see anything on quick glance so I started jogging toward the end of the house to meet my wife and presumably the baby on the other side.
But before turning the corner of the house I looked once more out over the pond. My first instinct was quite literally, “what the **** is the river otter doing down there?” (We’ve had a family of them visit a few times a year and this year one has stayed longer than usual)
I can’t describe the immediate disbelief/fear/horror/adrenaline whatever you want to call it when I saw a blue shirt sort of rolling back and forth on top of the water 20 yards away, about 7-10 feet off the shore. I don’t really remember the sprint across the yard, but I do remember thinking “no no no no” to myself. I half expected the water to be cold, but it wasn’t. It was like the water didn’t have a feeing.
I snagged my boy and carried him out of the water yelling for my wife who got to me just after I was a few yards up on the grass. He never coughed, never cried, never spit up a drop of water. My wife said her heart sank when she heard my splash, probably the same way mine did when I realized what was happening.
After drying him off and getting him in clean clothes he went about his business like nothing happened.
I didn’t post this for sympathy, or to be judged (though I understand some people might)
I had a hard time sleeping Saturday night, a little last night, but every waking moment I can’t stop picturing him in the water and thinking about how close we came to something awful happening.
I imagine this is like some kind of pussified version of ptsd. Was wondering if anyone else has had a serious scare and if they experienced these feelings. Do they subside? Is it normal?
I also get it if nobody wants to talk about it. Everyone knows it only takes a few seconds for a kid to disappear. I just got lucky and know that not everyone is as fortunate.
Wife and I were putting a few thousand pounds of rock in our driveway on Saturday. 8 and 4 year old were at her parents and we had the 14 month old fearless one. I consider myself safety conscious, especially when it comes to my wife and three boys. I was sure to see Jon (the little guy) was in my wifes arms prior to pulling or backing the truck and trailer.
Once we finished I pulled Jon out of our small garage and shut the doors behind me. I grabbed the shovels and tamping tools and walked through the big garage to close the garage door. As I walked around the back of the truck I said, “Hey, where’s Jon?”
She didn’t know so we immediately started looking. She went around the front of the house and I went around the back, down the hill, and toward the pond. Didn’t see anything on quick glance so I started jogging toward the end of the house to meet my wife and presumably the baby on the other side.
But before turning the corner of the house I looked once more out over the pond. My first instinct was quite literally, “what the **** is the river otter doing down there?” (We’ve had a family of them visit a few times a year and this year one has stayed longer than usual)
I can’t describe the immediate disbelief/fear/horror/adrenaline whatever you want to call it when I saw a blue shirt sort of rolling back and forth on top of the water 20 yards away, about 7-10 feet off the shore. I don’t really remember the sprint across the yard, but I do remember thinking “no no no no” to myself. I half expected the water to be cold, but it wasn’t. It was like the water didn’t have a feeing.
I snagged my boy and carried him out of the water yelling for my wife who got to me just after I was a few yards up on the grass. He never coughed, never cried, never spit up a drop of water. My wife said her heart sank when she heard my splash, probably the same way mine did when I realized what was happening.
After drying him off and getting him in clean clothes he went about his business like nothing happened.
I didn’t post this for sympathy, or to be judged (though I understand some people might)
I had a hard time sleeping Saturday night, a little last night, but every waking moment I can’t stop picturing him in the water and thinking about how close we came to something awful happening.
I imagine this is like some kind of pussified version of ptsd. Was wondering if anyone else has had a serious scare and if they experienced these feelings. Do they subside? Is it normal?
I also get it if nobody wants to talk about it. Everyone knows it only takes a few seconds for a kid to disappear. I just got lucky and know that not everyone is as fortunate.
