My family has decided that the vacation gods are against us, and at this rate no one will ever want to go on vacation with us. Last year we went to Disney World and even though we managed to have a great time we did share the week with a fairly impressive hurricane named Floyd.

So this past weekend we decided to go to Gulf Shores with some friends of ours. Nothing long, just a few days in the sun. You know, lay by the pool, watch our kids splash around in the surf and basically just relax. Incredibly enough while we were there the first shark attack in 30 years took place.

Now let’s talk about this parenting dilemma. I know most of you are saying the answer is simple, you just don’t let your kids go in the water. Well, that answer would have cost you your chance at the million dollar prize and most likely your life at the hands of angry children.

But then, how is it going to look if you send your sweet babies out into the deep blue sea and they don’t come back? We aren’t talking about explaining a bad sunburn to your in-laws. Can’t you just see me telling Joyce and Bobby Hall, &uot;I don’t know what happened, Matthew and Emily just seem to be gone!&uot; I see them running me out of town tarred and feathered.

And it certainly didn’t help that the local television stations were running a picture of the shark from the movie &uot;Jaws&uot; every time they talked about the attack.

The other mom looked and me and I looked at her and we both looked at our little sun worshippers. I mean what can you say to a 7-year-old covered in her new green sunblock?

And yes, we let them go in the water. My logic being No. 1, the men who were attacked were pretty far out in the water, and No. 2, my child had to get out of the water at Lake St. John the weekend before because an alligator was swimming to close to the pier.

When we got to the beach I was surprised that there were lots of people in the water, many on rafts and fairly far out in the water. I couldn’t let mine get on a raft (that whole movie scene kept playing in my mind). After a few minutes I figured with the Coast Guard flying low overhead and the noise being made farther out, my kids were relatively safe. We stayed close to the shore and soon the salt water and sand got old and we headed for the pool. As we trudged up the walkway I glanced over my shoulder, certain I could hear the &uot;Jaws&uot; music playing quietly in the distance.

Christina Hall is the lifestyle editor at The Democrat. She can be reached at 445-3549 or by e-mail at christina.hall@natchezdemocrat.com