Jellyfish in the Baby Pool

My family just returned from a 4-day weekend at the beach.  Aside from the jellyfish in the baby pool we all had a wonderful time.  “Jellyfish in the BABY POOL???!!”  you say, ”WHAT sort of nonsense is that?”    I KNOW!  Some dad brought a jellyfish into the baby pool as a toy for his son.  Who DOES that?!?  There’s a metaphor in there, I just know it.

Just this past weekend I was lounging, carefree, by the baby pool with my children and husband.  Nice, enclosed, sand free baby pool.  No crashing waves, hopefully no poop.  Just a lovely, cool baby pool.  It is where you go when you want to make sure your children are protected, not like that unpredictable ocean.  So I’m sitting there and I hear a little boy saying, “Where go?  Where GO?”  And after his dad fishes around a bit he says, “Sorry buddy, it’s gone!”

“What are you looking for?”  I ask innocently.  

“Jellyfish,” he says.

*blink-blink*  (stunned pause)…

“I’m sorry, WHAT?”  I finally reply.  ”A TOY one, right?”     

“No, a real one.”

*blink-blink*  (stunned pause)…

“A REAL jellyfish in the baby pool?”  *blink-blink*  (yet another stunned pause)… “It could sting someone!”

“Naw,” he replies, “When they’re dead, they’re dead!”

*blink-blink*  (flabbergasted pause)… “Excuse me…” and I ran to go get the lifeguard. 

Oh yeah, I was a tattle-tale.  It’s what I do.    

Just to be clear, his response “When they’re dead, they’re dead!” showed a basic lack of understanding of those little nasties.  Even if they’re dead they can still sting the heck out of you if their stingers are intact.  Jellyfish just go with the flow.  They don’t actually swim up and BITE you, they float up against you, their tentacles get wrapped around your body (as my poor sister recently discovered), and burn, burn, burn!  And I was NOT about to let that happen in the BABY POOL!  No siree!

The lifeguard was horrified,  “What?!?”  she cried.  ”I KNOW!” I said smugly.  She immediately sent someone to check it out.  After some searching they declared the jellyfish was gone, but I had to hide until Jellyfish Dad vacated the premises so he didn’t call me a tattle-tale. 

When I rejoined my family I stepped into the baby pool and immediately my foot landed squarely on something slimy.  I don’t do slimy.  I leaped out of that pool faster than a boy being chased by his mother with a spoonful of medicine.

I stood by the side of the baby pool, regaining my composure, making a quick life-or-death decision.  I knew what I had to do.  I chose to make the ultimate sacrifice and risk my own flesh for the sake of all those precious children.  I reached in to the bottom of the pool where I had stepped, found the jellyfish, gingerly picked it up, (“Eeew, ick, slimy, eeek…”) and quickly scurried over to the fence, hurling it into the sand dunes.  I was a hero! (at least in my own eyes)

The other parents stopped and stared at me. 

*blink-blink*  (stunned pause)…  “What WAS that?”

“Jellyfish,” I replied, and told them the whole sordid tale.  

“WHAT?”  they all cried, horrified.  And I said, “I KNOW!  Who DOES THAT!?”  It was decided that we would put a jellyfish down that Dad’s pants if we ever saw him again.  We all talked self-righteously about the issue of jellyfish in the baby pool for the next 10 whole minutes, and how we were SO much better that THAT dad.  After that we began discussing that parenting staple, poop.

Turns out that the jellyfish was a Moon Jellyfish, the clear kind that looks like a breast implant and can’t sting you.  But why risk it?  Why bring something into that safe haven that can be potentially harmful to the children?  The baby pool is supposed to be generally free of organic matter anyway!  It is where you go to ESCAPE the beasties and sand and seaweed.  But there was a JELLYFISH in the BABY POOL for heaven’s sake! 

Jellyfish in the baby pool.  Catchy little phrase, chock full of metaphoric goodness.  All kinds of symbolic potential there, I may use it as the title of my first book. 

So what do YOU think?  What sort of metaphor can be drawn from the image of, “Jellyfish in the baby pool”?  Please share.  I look forward to reading your thoughts, you clever people!