Another S.T.U.P.I.D. Award

At the pool the other day, a little girl was trying to get her mother's attention to show Mom the new, exciting thing she could do. "Mom! Mom! Mom! Mom!", she kept yelling. I glanced behind me and, sure enough, the Mom was sitting there talking on her cell phone. The little girl got out of the pool and ran to tell Mom to "watch me!" Mom nodded and waved the little girl away. She ran back to the pool, jumped in and started to show Mom that she could go underwater. Ah, nuts! Mom wasn't watching. "Mom! Mom! Mom! Mom!", she shrieked. "Watch me! I can do it now!"

I glanced behind me. Mom was still on the phone, smoking a cigarette. The little girl was screaming for her to watch. I was getting sick of it! Put down the damned phone and watch your little girl do something that she'd never been able to do before. Going underwater and living to tell about it is an awesome feat! But, no, Mom was still on the phone. She was even starting to turn aside, so she couldn't be disturbed by the frantic waving and jumping up and down that the little girl was doing.

After getting in and out of the pool, running to her Mom several time to no avail, the little girl finally gave up and began playing with her friends. Mom wasn't affected by this. She was still on the phone, but now she was turned completely away from the pool, facing the wooded area.

A little later I heard the lifeguard's emergency blast - two short blasts on the whistle. The other guards began running to the waterslide tube area. One of the guards had already jumped in to pull a young boy out of the water. He appeared to be about six years old. Evidently, he can't swim, yet he decided to go down the waterslide anyway! I heard the guard asking the little boy where his mother was. You guessed it! The Mom who was turned away from the pool, facing the woods. Still talking on the phone. The little girl ran over to her and told her what happened.

Still not getting off the phone, she turned and looked at the scene of six lifeguards, the manager of the pool and her little boy. Even seeing the commotion, she still stayed on the phone. At last, when the manager of the pool beckoned to her, I heard her say "I gotta go. I gotta go talk to the damned lifeguards!"

As she was walking over to them she said to her son, "I told you not to go down the waterslide, didn't I?"