When we bought this house a little over two years ago, we were in awe of the fact it had a pool. Is awe the right word? Does that invoke excitement…with a healthy dose of fear and uncertainty?
Even though I grew up on an island, where swimming pools in the 1970s and ’80s were more common than they were in, say, Nebraska, I still didn’t know much about owning them.
Those people who had swimming pools back in Galveston were Pool People. They seemed to wear their bathing suits a lot. And they hung up cute signs about not peeing in their pool. And they talked about cleaning the pool and taking care of the pool like it was a second job.
I can imagine it was.
Because now, after 30 years of pool-technology progress, it’s still a job.
But that’s only one part of having a pool that deserved awe. It really is kind of a lifestyle. Having 4 kids and a pool has kind of turned us into Pool People. No cute signs (although we’d appreciate you not peeing in it, for the record), but the amount of commitment an afternoon in the pool takes still awes me.
Every kid will use at least 3 towels. And leave them dripping wet someplace. Along with their bathing suit.
Speaking of peeing in the pool, submersion in water makes our kids have to go to the bathroom…at least every 30 minutes. Soaking wet and inside. Did I mention our kitchen floor is tile?
You guessed it. A slip about every 30 minutes.
Every kid will feel like an afternoon in the pool entitles them to an alternative bathing place. Their own bathtub doesn’t cut it anymore. They want to shower off in the sprinklers, in mom and dad’s tub, in Nate’s bathroom. And even if they’ve swam happily for hours, this decision will make or break their afternoon,
The pool temperature is a tricky thing. Even where we live, where it’s sunny and humid for more months than not, the pool is always a bit too cold. The kids have been swimming since February, but it’s still a little too cold for me. Thank goodness for the float in this picture, that allows enjoyment of the pool, with no submersion.
Which brings us to Nate. He’s in awe of the pool, too. And, coming up on our third summer, the bigger kids are finally ready for independent swimming (the pay-off for three summers of having at least two of them clinging to my neck and splashing me for two months straight).
Nate?
Still in that oh-no-he-pooped-in-his-swim-diaper and he’s-too-cold-when-splashed and too-hot-the-rest-of-the-time stage.
Which makes riding on Daddy’s big float just awe-some.
