It was an ordinary Sunday morning and like every other Sunday morning, our day usually starts with Spud going for her swimming class.

She has been swimming solo for more than 6 months now, and every week, we can clearly see the progress she is making with her swimming skills. So agile and comfortable she is in a water level at 1.5x her height that her skills could easily put an adult like me to shame. Under the watchful supervision of her very capable instructor as she goes solo with four or five other kids in her swimming class, parents like us are happy to stand by the sidelines, watch and cheer on when their kids manage to master a new skill.

We do the same too, and if not being distracted when trying to run after Squirt and making sure that he isn’t a distraction during the lesson, my eyes are usually glued to Spud and her friends.

This last week was of no exception and towards the end of the lesson, I witnessed Spud going OFF the slide, somehow managed to maneuver herself off the slide as she almost hit the water, tumbled over, bounced off in the air for a little bit and literally crashed on the concrete side of the pool before she hit the water.

From where I was, I thought I saw that she had hit her head on the hard wall of the swimming pool. I froze, but stayed calm. I then immediately heard another parent behind me let out a gasp that gave me goosebumps. I remained as stoic as I could be as I waited for her to surface, and as soon as she surfaced, she let out a very shrill scream that could have woken the dead.

As Teacher Tom pulled her to him, I calmly walked to the edge of the pool to get to her. My first immediate reaction was to hold her, ask where it hurt and if she had hit her head. Her teacher thought he saw that she hit herself on the plastic slide – I told him what I saw from where I was, to which he replied that, if so, she would bruise.

While trying to assess her condition and calming her at the same time, I saw an immediate bruise forming on her left cheek. In between her loud, loud sobs, she told me that it hurt a lot. (I can imagine! She really did bounce off the concrete wall!). I then asked her if she wanted to continue or get out of the pool, and in between her cries, she decided that she was going to have another go at the slide. (Go! Little, Brave Spud!)  I was surprised that she would  go for another round really, but I also felt relieved she wanted to do that, as  that  gave me a good indication that she was OK.

My heart had a rude jump-start that morning. In all honesty, though,  I don’t think anyone of us could have prevented it from happening. No one could have seen it coming, and  it was nothing more than an unfortunate accident in an otherwise perfectly safe environment.

This seems to ascertain that my daughter can now be certified as a clutz, unfortunate incidences which only she could create. I can only be grateful that it wasn’t her head that she bumped; it was a very scary thought for a fleeting moment. Spud realised that she needs to learn to be more careful, and for now, she is very aware of the bruise on her cheeks which she has to live with for at least a few days more.

From afar, she now looks like she has as dimple!

 Yeah. Ouch.