It’s summertime, which for our family, includes lots and lots of time in the water: lake, ocean, pool, it doesn’t matter as long as it’s water! A few weeks ago on our family vacation, we had a near-incident that reminded me the importance of wearing life jackets.
We met a super sweet family on this tiny island, who also have lots of kiddos, homeschool, and love Jesus. We had so much hanging out with their family- all of our kids had a counterpart to one of theirs in age (or close enough!) and the parents are just precious.
On our last day there, they graciously offered to take us tubing on the back of their boat. Canaan wanted a turn, so I took one for the team (not really, I love tubing!) and so I took him, Evie and one of the other family’s children on the tube. We all had lifejackets on- thank GOD.
A few seconds after the boat took, I realized that the kids weren’t strong enough to help me hold up the front of the tube and immediately the tube filled with water, knocking us all out. The three kids went three different directions, some of them under the water for a second, and I immediately panicked.
The water wasn’t that deep where we were, but deep enough that I couldn’t touch the bottom and no way could any of the little ones touch the bottom. I am a good swimmer, but not strong enough to carry 3 extra children with no life jackets. I grabbed Canaan first because he was closest to me and the most scared. Our friends’ daughter began swimming towards me and I grabbed her and then Evie. (Evie was laughing saying, “It was cool.”) It all happened so fast and my heart is pounding still thinking about it. All I could think was, “If these kids OR even I didn’t have on life jackets, this all could have ended very differently.”
Ben saw what was happening from the shore and began swimming out to help me, and one of the teenagers on the boat also swam out to help- but if any of those sweet little ones had gone under, they would have been much too far away- I shudder even thinking about it.
If this post serves as a reminder to even one person, it will have served its purpose. No, lifejackets aren’t necessarily cute or comfortable, but THEY.SAVE.LIVES. That is what they are meant to do. Even if you are a prolific swimmer, if you hit your head on something and pass out, you can’t swim at all. Please, please, if you’re on a boat, wear your lifejacket or at least have one very close by. Make your kids wear them. Your kids WILL complain, they will whine, and they will eventually get used to it. We are the parents, we have the responsibility of making sure they are as safe as possible. (You can find a whole bunch of them here!)
Please share this post- hopefully it will serve as a refresher of the importance of wearing life jackets!
About Kelli Hays
