Dear Public Beach Lifeguard,
What the hell kind of beach has rules against water wings??? And where do you get off enforcing rules that aren’t posted anywhere and, in my experience, have never been enforced?
While I totally understand your concern that water wings may provide parents a false sense of security, asking me to remove one little bit of confidence my daughter (who is terrified of deep water) has, is just cruel. If you want to make sure kids are safe your rules should require parents to keep kids within arms length. I’m just trying to help my kids learn to be safe and comfortable in the water and your taking away their security blanket totally screwed my strategy.
And you’ll have to forgive me if I don’t totally trust your promise to be watching my children to prevent them from drowning when there are 300 other people in your charge. Â I believe it’s my responsibility to supervise my children. Your stupid slippery slope argument (“if we let you, we’ll have to let everyone”) is ridiculous. If you’re making up rules as you go, just make up another one!
Bottom line, you can’t enforce rules that aren’t posted. And you officially cemented my daughter’s hatred of deep water. Consider yourself warned: I’m bringing the water wings with us next time and if you want them, you’ll have to pry them out of my cold, dead hands.
With unmitigated hostility,
A local parent
