Seldom has a video generated as much vitriol, fear, and outrage as that of a woman dropping her fully clothed toddler into a pool and then watching him glub, glub, glub up to the surface and then struggle to float while gasping for air. And that was just my reaction.
As adults, we were all supposed to learn something from this, commenters on my Facebook page told me. The video was a teachable moment all right, which is why I bothered to post it. I'm not a rage peddler, but for goodness' sake, this was beyond the pale. How many people will do this to a poor toddler, for crying out loud? As one woman said, "Call CPS."
Many more people — nearly 2,000 people and counting — were far less sanguine about this weird method of "teaching" toddlers to survive a fall in the pool. Indeed, most of the comments were definitely in the camp of: What the hell are you playing at, lady? And: Is that kid OK? Or: How have you not been arrested yet?
I posted the video from an account on X, which originally came from an account whose author wrote in Portuguese, "I tested if my son is waterproof, do you like it?" No. Isso não é bom, bucko.
The account, said to be a parody account of some type, featured this video of a mother genuinely dropping her toddler, who doesn't swim, into the pool.
Turn up the sound, but only if you aren't susceptible to heart attacks.
Who's in this video? There are a lot of people who'd like nothing more than to call CPS on this lady.
— Victoria Taft, The Adult in the Room, FITF Squad (@VictoriaTaft) February 5, 2025
I'm a live-and-let-live guy, but we're not sure if that kid will live much longer if mom keeps it up. That's what is so distressing. We have lots of littles in our family, and this is just a gut punch.
Here's a pro tip: Don't do this to your child. I'm particularly sensitive to this issue because years ago, when my oldest was eight or so, we signed her up for swim lessons. It was her first time at an indoor pool. For a California girl, the green latrine atmosphere took some getting used to. She wasn't happy. It was cold outside. She didn't want to go in, but the teacher and I attempted to convince her to put a toe in. When that didn't work, the teacher grabbed her and threw her in the pool. We never went back. She was mortified. I was horrified and angry and wrote the pool masters and told them about it. Maybe that's why this video bothers me so much. My kid never got over it.
I learned from a family member that tossing your kid into a pool is known as the ISR Method, which, if the method is what is seen in the above video, should stand for Is Seriously Ridiculous. The idea apparently is to trigger the instinct in the child to get to the surface or die trying, but for that, a parent trades in their instinct to save the child in favor of watching the child fight for his life. No human mother would do that to a kitten or baby harp seal. But this lady was fine with watching her kid struggle.
I heard from numerous swim instructors who said what that lady did to her kid was madness and that it was not how any of this was done.
Most comments were like this one from Vince, "WTF. Are you crazy. I was a swimming instructor and that is not the way you teach kids how to swim you IDIOT. YOU SHOULD BE IN JAIL."
Others were deeply disturbed (including me) that this woman did this to her child. Baird said, "OMG, that’s so upsetting. Why the heck would anyone try to 'teach' survival swimming when that baby was so upset. I’ve seen this done and they’ve NEVER done this when the child is upset like this. He was clearly in distress and inhaling water." Yes, he was. You can tell if you watch it with the sound up.
Since Baird the commenter had seen this method before, I thought, aha, I'll look up the ISR Method on YouTube. I discovered they're the people behind those cute water baby videos, like on the cover of the old Nirvana album. It turns out they don't toss babies in the pool to sink or swim. The method is not as death-defying as the above video.
The ISR instructor says in the video below that the first problem with kids drowning is that the child gets to the pool in the first place. She said that while ISR is not the answer, it can help them survive if they fall into the pool.
So there's your public service announcement.
And here's another PSA: You're raising a baby, not a Navy SEAL.
You're welcome.
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