Nice Way to Say Thanks
I was a lifeguard at a lake. There was a mom with a baby and a toddler, and the mom had a friend with her.
She was sitting in the shallow water with her newborn, talking to her friend and facing away from the water toward the beach.
I had an eye on her toddler because it was driving me nuts that she wasn’t paying attention to him. He dropped his ball and the small waves started taking it out. Of course, he reached for it and fell over.
He slowly started floating and struggling, face down, getting father and farther away. I jumped down, ran in and grabbed him, and probably terrified him as I patted his back over my knee while he vomited out water.
The poor kid kept trying to look at me. His mom noticed nothing until I was carrying him back over to her. She casually thanked me and I tried to warn her of the possibility of dry drowning.
Her response made me so mad I wanted to scream. She snapped at me, yelling that she was a nurse and that her son would be fine. I saved her son’s life, and she repaid me by yelling in my face.