When Panic Sets In

Look at those beautiful faces. I love them all - the little man, my girl and my niece. I have known them all since the day they were born. I have held them all as babes in diapers in my arms. And I learned recently that they all react to panic in completely different ways.

It all started with my girl. On a recent weekend visit to the waterpark, she wanted to try a new ride, one she hadn't tried before. It was a zip line thingy. A little handle above your head, you hang on, zoom down the line, hit the end with a bang and let go, dropping into the water. My girl had been talking about this since we got to the park, and we were finally going to try it. Then she had an attack of nerves. Her little face started to crumble, and I wasn't sure she was going to make it. I offered to go through the line with her, to which she promptly grabbed my hand and nodded yes. So off we went. I left the little man with my niece, and my sister Doe was going to be waiting at the edge of the water to greet my girl after her drop. When my girl and I got to the top, I explained how it would work for her, the whole hang on then let go concept. She seemed kind of iffy, but she still wanted to give it a whirl. I told her she wouldn't be able to touch the bottom when she dropped as the water in the pool was very deep, but that the ladder was just about a foot away and she should just swim over. The pool was marked all around the edges with bright red 8ft 0in all around the edges, and I wanted to give her the heads up that she would need to swim. Then it was her turn. She rode the zip line, it banged at the end, and that's when panic set in. My girl froze. She hung for a moment, swaying in the breeze, then dropped like a stone, apparently forgetting that she does, in fact, know how to swim. The lifeguard had to jump in and help her to the side. While my girl and I were waiting in the zip line line, the little man saw something new he wanted to try. There was a slide that also was part of this pool section, and he does love him some slide. As my niece was in charge, and I use the term in charge loosely here, she directed him up to the top and said she would wait at the bottom for him. The little man listened, went up to the top, slid and came out the bottom, as expected. He also knows how to swim, and after a second, started heading to the ladder on the side.

Now for this girl. She was doing as promised, waiting at the bottom for the little man. When he came out of the tube slide, however, she panicked. Worried the little man might struggle to reach the ladder, she decided that she needed to jump in the pool to get him. Small problem. Remember how I said the pool was deep? Yeah, my niece is all of 5'2" and once the little man reached her, he completely gave up any attempt at swimming and trusted his beloved Kissy to get him to the side safely. With no lifeguard training, let's just say that Kissy wasn't quite equipped for this task. Her swimming turned into a weird, head barely above water doggy paddle. The little man, realizing he was in for a rocky ride, tried to climb to the top of her head to avoid going under. Instead of panic, apparently his self preservation urge kicked in.

The lifeguard almost had to jump in to save Kissy and the man, but instead yelled at her for jumping in in the first place. So what did I learn from this 2 minutes of my life?
1. In the event of panic, you can count on my girl to freeze up completely
2. In the event of a completely non-panic moment, my niece will panic
3. In the event of panic or non panic, the safest bet is the little man