Public Pools

I hate public pools.  I really do.  Especially crowded city pools.   It feels almost blasphemous saying this since I grew up a swimmer.  From age 6 thru 17 I was on a summer swim team, and the high school team.  Later in college I played water polo.  Don’t get me wrong I love the water and I love swimming.  But public pools.. especially during free rec swim…ick.    I yearn for those days when I lived in a hot place and there were always outdoor pools.   Since I grew up on a swim team, and it wasn’t a community pool nearby my house, I don’t have memories of hanging out at the pool during rec-swim, I just have memories of lap swimming during practices.   A few friends had pools, and later my parents did, but it was always still a little hard for me just to hang out and play.  I wanted to swim. 

#tbt: 1990

Now that I have two little kids, I really want them to learn how to swim and for a while they were taking consistent swimming lessons and were learning and enjoying it.  Unfortunately we had to cut back on the lessons when I lost my job and we haven’t found a regular (and cheaper) class to replace it.   Both my kids like the water, but my daughter really loves it.   This morning I came out to find her in her swimsuit and goggles sitting on the couch.  The last time we went swimming was three weeks ago, and we had no intention of swimming today.  She just likes to wear the gear.

She and I had a free afternoon together today so I thought I would surprise her and take her swimming.  I sought out some free-swim time at a local pool and told myself to suck it up for her sake.   It’s a newer pool and nice so I thought I could handle it.   And then we got there…and it was packed with splashing bouncing kids of all ages.  And, oh… the locker rooms.  That is really the reason I hate community pools… they gross me out.  Nothing is ever clean enough and I hate hate hate seeing other people’s hair everywhere.  Ew ewe w – gagging now just thinking about it.  But again, I told myself to suck it up for my daughter and I kept my flip-flops on as much as possible.

We got into the pool and I took her to find a little space of our own near the wall so she could practice jumping in and kicking.  I couldn’t help but glare at the tween-age boys who kept splashing us.  They didn’t know what they were doing but I still was annoyed.  By the time we got to the pool there was only 35 min left of free-swim so I figured that would be plenty of time to make my daughter happy and also wear out the kid so she would nap nicely later. 

She was enjoying it and we were having fun.  We walked across the entire length of the pool (it was all shallow) so I could get her a noodle to float with.  About 10 min in we were just getting into the groove when the lifeguard blew his whistle and said “Everyone Out!!”  “What?!”  I wanted to scream.. “Do you know how hard it was to get us down here and in the pool???”  Since the building was so cavernous I couldn’t understand what he was saying as the reason for our exit.   We got out, and when he came closer I asked what happened.  “Someone threw up in the pool”.

OMG!! (btw, what did we say before ‘OMG’ became popular – because that really suits my feelings here).  OMG!!!!!  This is why I hate public pools!!!

Despite only swimming for ten minutes, she still had a good nap today.