Water warning **PLEASE READ**

I've thought about it, and I will tell you about what happened yesterday to make me aware that Honey is not as good swimmer as I thought she was.

Call this a pre-emptive warning. I certainly have heeded what happened!

Yesterday was Buddy's first trip to the pool, and just like when we took Honey for her first swim, we wanted to get lots of pictures to remember how he liked the water, what he wore, what we wore, etc, etc.

You know where this is going, don't you?

Honey started swimming lessons when she was six months old and continued them right up until just before Buddy was born, when she took a term off. Admittedly, she had not been in the pool for a long time, but I thought she'd be OK for a moment.

When we got to the pool, Honey was mega-excited and jumped into the toddler pool where I was watching her to see how she was going. The Man grabbed my phone and tried to take a picture of Buddy but was failing, and so I jumped out to take a picture or eleven.

We literally took our eyes off Honey for five seconds, when The Man said Honey was in trouble.

I turned around and saw Honey face down in the water, just floating in 30cm of water, I don't know how she got to be there. Maybe she wasn't used to walking in the water (you know, how it slows you down - she's never walked unassisted in the water as her swimming lessons are in a rehab pool and she can't touch the bottom), or perhaps she tried to swim? I don't know.

It happened so quickly that no one else noticed that she was struggling. I jumped into the water and hauled her out as The Man still was holding Buddy, and Honey just stared glassy-eyed at me for a few seconds (the longest five seconds of my life) before she snorted half of the pool out of her nose and started crying.

Poor love, she was scared out of her mind. And then she wouldn't go into the pool without holding my hand. Then when she actually got into the pool, she wouldn't move from where she was standing. Finally by about the time we had to go home, she'd decided the water wasn't that bad and was playing happily.

I however lost ten years of my life, and can't forgive myself for not watching her. It could have been much much worse than it was.

Click here for Water Safety Victoria who have some good ideas on how to keep your kids safe around the water during summer.