What is Drown?

My parent's house is the size of, oh, about 10 of our houses, and navigating the space with a semi-independent three year old is pretty daunting. And all is not even-steven in the world of P either. I am not to wander off without a full report and, typically, the child and all of his current playthings in tow. P, on the other hand, no longer thinks twice about suddenly leaving one part of the house unaccompanied and, say, meandering outside. In the blink of an eye. At home he has full reign of his kingdom. This is an easy gift to give, I can hear him breathe from every corner of the space :) But at my folk's house a strong yell often elicits nothing from his out of reach ears and lends to daydreams of permanently implanted GPS, or, at least, a set of walkie talkies.

I really don't think my current consternation is the product of helicopter parenting :) Last Thanksgiving morning, amidst the busy baking, P briefly wandered off and came back to report that he had taken some of Grams' vitamins (thyroid pills for breakfast anyone?) All ended well with the child, but I'll readily admit it was the scariest thirty minutes of my sheltered existence. Second only to being charged by a bull or watching my little brother almost drown.

Which brings me to the second problem with P being out of earshot: the pool. Though he fears death, he doesn't really comprehend he can die. I shared my childhood trauma with him concerning Uncle Cash's close demise so he would understand why he needs adult supervision when venturing outside.

P: But, why mama?
Me: So someone could help you if you fell into the pool.
P: If I fell in the pool I'd just Zoom (upward flinging motion with his hand) back out of the water.
Me: Umm....

So we are working on swimming as a gateway to outdoor independence. Because, really, the kid can't yet reason through certain safety measures :) and keeps running to the pool without a second thought (or an adult).

The first day we swam he tossed in Baby Brother and jumped down the pool steps after him, plunging into the pool without any hesitation. We eventually needed to chat again about water safety and I again mentioned the word drown. He looked at me curiously and asked "Mama, what is Drown?" Ahah! So this is why our discussions about drowning never seemed to feature the ominous tone I was after. The next day I deflated his floaties a wee bit, thinking a little less air every day and whalah! - he'd be swimming in no time. But he took on a lot of water and asked to be fully inflated, so this process may take a while longer than planned....

In the meantime I'm thinking about RFID tags. Yesterday, he promised to stay in the front courtyard with his sprinkler while I went inside and upstairs to fetch BB. As I came back down the stairs he rounded the backdoor (the one on the Other side of the house). Yet he was miffed at my dismay. I'm totally not into the words "obey" or anything, but I thought I'd made a sound argument for safety. "But mama," he said, innocently confused, "I know how to go around the house and come inside." Ahhh, that fine line of supporting his self-assurance and independence and yet keeping him safe may just kill Me ;)