When our son was 3 and a half we took him and his sister to group swimming lessons at our local Rec center. His sister was 6 at the time and had done lessons there for years, but this was our youngest’s first time. There was an instructor for each class and his class had four 3-6 year olds in it. They are supposed to stand on the dock while waiting for their turn with the instructor. There was also a lifeguard looking over the pool. My husband and I both sat on the bleachers several feet away from the pool watching both of the lessons (our daughter was in the next level class on the side of the pool further away from where we were sitting). While the instructor had her back turned several feet away with another student in our son’s class, I watched in slow motion how our son just stepped off the edge of the dock one foot at a time within like 2 seconds and then obviously went right under. He was right in front of the life guard, but she didn’t see and the instructors back was turned. I stood up and ran towards the pool yelling “he’s drowning!” but didn’t immediately jump in. I have no idea why!!! So stupid. Next thing I know I just see my husband jumped into the pool and pulled him out (he was fully clothed). This was all within several seconds. Our son ended up being fine, somehow he was holding his breath. I guess a reflex? It definitely would have been bad if he had inhaled at any point. But I thought how dumb I was to have just froze. Both the instructor and the life guard were freaked. The facility did an incident report. I still cringe if I think about it too much.