Daddy Response Time

Being a mother gives you super-human abilities.  One of them is the fastest reflexes of any human on Earth.  Daddy P denies this.  We get in heated arguments about it.  Our latest heated argument revolves around my very worst fear in the whole wide world:  Kate drowning.  I know other moms have other fears:  their child being kidnapped or assaulted, car accidents, so on.  Mine is her slipping into dark water and that being the end of it.  (Thus I am going to do whatever is humanly possible to repay my dear dear friend for her plan to teach Kate to swim this summer.)

Anyway, there is a fear of mine that my mommy responses will not be of benefit this summer because I will be encumbered with a newborn and that daddy response-time in this feared scenario are not sufficient.  Daddy responses are limited by a) awareness there is a problem, and b) speed.  Even when daddies are made aware there is a problem, moms are still faster at acting.  It just is.  It's like trying to deny that men have stronger arms than women.  You can't:  it's biology.  No judgment, just fact.

I have evidence to back this up, for you skeptics.  I have been around two infants choking.  The most recent was a 1 year old this weekend.  She was coughing at first but only managed to wedge everything further in her airway and suddenly was sitting there, red faced, mouth open, not moving one bit.  The three women at the table moved instantly to do something about it or instruct the fathers (on either side of said choking baby) to do something.  Everything turned out fine -- mommy responses won and the food was pounded out of the baby with a few swift hits to her back.  But the dads never made a move from their seats.

As I'm writing this I'm wondering why I gave up on making Daddy P attend CPR training... hm... I also gave up on making my parents do it even though I require it for all other babysitters.  And we all know that old person response time is even slower than daddy response time...

Gives me something to think about as baby #2 is getting ready to enter our lives. 

I'm not judging you daddies of the world.  I trust you to act as quickly as you are able.  You are just slowed by your Y chromosome.  You can't help it.  Just don't judge me for preferring to hold the baby at the lake and laughing when you try to.