Swimming Pools
Memorial Weekend seems to be the trigger for all things pool activity in our area. Not only are the public and private pools now open, but all the backyard pools are up and filled with activities.
Until the past couple of years the only pool that was viewable from our backyard was the neighbor friend’s house, Katie & Steve. They had invited us over several times to take the girls swimming and we had a lot of fun. It is a nice pool. It is a safe pool, as far as pools go. It is in a protected area behind locked gates. Most importantly, responsible adults owned it! Well, Katie and Steve moved last year... but the pool remains and while our new neighbor guy is quite nice, and responsible, I don't exactly see us going over to his house to swim. But really, it isn't this pool that is causing any problems.
The house next to Katie & Steve's house, Dopey's house, built a big pool and deck a couple of summers ago. But really, until this summer the girls really haven't taken an interest in Dopey. He is their youngest child and still quite a bit older than the girls. I'm not even sure the girls realize their is a big pool in their backyard. Bonus for us! Just like Katie and Steve's pool, it is safe and protected from little kids wandering into the backyard to check it out. We really appreciate that! I hope that whoever buys their house will continue pool safety.
Then the house next to Dopey's house also has a pool. But again, fortunately it hasn't drawn the girls’ attention.
THEN there are our other new neighbors directly to the West of us. They are relatively new neighbors as well. They have two daughters who are old enough to be terrible influences on the girls and for the girls to totally admire them. For this alone I would absolutely love to move. Not all kids their age are terrible influences, but these girls definitely are. They are living examples of so many things we reinforce as bad ideas in our daily life. But, as you can imagine, to the girls they are gold.
Guess who also has a new backyard pool? You guessed it! They acquired this pool at the very end of last years summer season. Well, they brought one home and set it up to discover that it wasn't big enough. Then a bigger one appeared. Glorious! Their lack of pool safety aggravated me last year, but we had time on our side. They setup their pool this weekend and we have a long summer ahead of us. Something must be done.
I think their girls asked our girls to go swimming, which was quite nice of them, but we just can't let them. First, the pool is too deep for the girls. They could touch the bottom but their heads would be completely covered in water. This is fine if they were proficient in swimming and the pool was actually big enough to “swim”, but they aren’t and it isn’t. I even took Abby into their backyard (see fourth gripe) and we stood next to the pool so she could see just how deep it was. We talked about it being too deep for her to safely get in without Mommy or Momma's help. She agreed! Second, these girls have terrible judgment. I just can't trust our girls to be around them without us being hawks watching their every move. I have to be more vigilant with watching the girls when the neighbors are out than I do if we are out by ourselves... and this is on dry land. Third, I'm not about to go swimming in their pool with a bunch of 7-9 year olds with no other adults around. It isn't my place to keep watch of their kids and friends. It completely escapes me how you can let these kids go swimming without even being in eyesight and/or earshot of them. I am shocked that our neighbors across the street let their son go swimming with the girls knowing that there was no adult supervision. They are smart people and clearly if both the parents are in the garage off the front of the house, the kids are swimming unsupervised. We have a better view of them from our deck than they do from their garage. Fourth, and this is the one that has me all riled up, they leave their gate open to their backyard. It is a tall privacy fence. It could be safe from little beings wandering into their backyard... but it isn't. Yesterday I found the gate propped open with a bucket of sand... intentionally! I closed it and asked the girls to keep the gate shut. While they were good about shutting the gate behind them yesterday, I don't see it doing any good long term! I see that I'll need to have a talk with the parents about keeping the gate shut and locked. Maybe our other neighbor who is better about confrontation will have this chat. If they don't put a lock on it, I will!
Now... I am not water phobic in the least. The girls love to swim and that they do. They are in the water for a good share of the summer. If they aren't playing in their pool on our deck, we are at the lake at my grandparent's cabin. At the lake we have pretty decent water safety rules, I think. With huge amounts of water and small children as far as the eye can see, water safety is important.
I felt so sad for Ellie yesterday as she watched them swim through the slats of our deck. She didn't say anything about being sad. They didn't ask to go swim with the other kids. But still, I felt bad that she was watching them have fun. She is our water girl! She loves to swim! I got her attention away from that and we went and had our own fun. It may be a long week, but their new swimming pool is scheduled to arrive on Friday and they are getting it for their birthday on Sunday. We plan to have it blown up and ready to go prior to the party. Weather permitting the kids can actually use it at the party on Sunday. So... if you are reading this and are coming to the party and it isn't raining and you have kids... bring their swimsuits.
Soon they will be able to enjoy water play in their own environment! I hope it is enough to draw their attention away from the neighbor girls.
Until the past couple of years the only pool that was viewable from our backyard was the neighbor friend’s house, Katie & Steve. They had invited us over several times to take the girls swimming and we had a lot of fun. It is a nice pool. It is a safe pool, as far as pools go. It is in a protected area behind locked gates. Most importantly, responsible adults owned it! Well, Katie and Steve moved last year... but the pool remains and while our new neighbor guy is quite nice, and responsible, I don't exactly see us going over to his house to swim. But really, it isn't this pool that is causing any problems.
The house next to Katie & Steve's house, Dopey's house, built a big pool and deck a couple of summers ago. But really, until this summer the girls really haven't taken an interest in Dopey. He is their youngest child and still quite a bit older than the girls. I'm not even sure the girls realize their is a big pool in their backyard. Bonus for us! Just like Katie and Steve's pool, it is safe and protected from little kids wandering into the backyard to check it out. We really appreciate that! I hope that whoever buys their house will continue pool safety.
Then the house next to Dopey's house also has a pool. But again, fortunately it hasn't drawn the girls’ attention.
THEN there are our other new neighbors directly to the West of us. They are relatively new neighbors as well. They have two daughters who are old enough to be terrible influences on the girls and for the girls to totally admire them. For this alone I would absolutely love to move. Not all kids their age are terrible influences, but these girls definitely are. They are living examples of so many things we reinforce as bad ideas in our daily life. But, as you can imagine, to the girls they are gold.
Guess who also has a new backyard pool? You guessed it! They acquired this pool at the very end of last years summer season. Well, they brought one home and set it up to discover that it wasn't big enough. Then a bigger one appeared. Glorious! Their lack of pool safety aggravated me last year, but we had time on our side. They setup their pool this weekend and we have a long summer ahead of us. Something must be done.
I think their girls asked our girls to go swimming, which was quite nice of them, but we just can't let them. First, the pool is too deep for the girls. They could touch the bottom but their heads would be completely covered in water. This is fine if they were proficient in swimming and the pool was actually big enough to “swim”, but they aren’t and it isn’t. I even took Abby into their backyard (see fourth gripe) and we stood next to the pool so she could see just how deep it was. We talked about it being too deep for her to safely get in without Mommy or Momma's help. She agreed! Second, these girls have terrible judgment. I just can't trust our girls to be around them without us being hawks watching their every move. I have to be more vigilant with watching the girls when the neighbors are out than I do if we are out by ourselves... and this is on dry land. Third, I'm not about to go swimming in their pool with a bunch of 7-9 year olds with no other adults around. It isn't my place to keep watch of their kids and friends. It completely escapes me how you can let these kids go swimming without even being in eyesight and/or earshot of them. I am shocked that our neighbors across the street let their son go swimming with the girls knowing that there was no adult supervision. They are smart people and clearly if both the parents are in the garage off the front of the house, the kids are swimming unsupervised. We have a better view of them from our deck than they do from their garage. Fourth, and this is the one that has me all riled up, they leave their gate open to their backyard. It is a tall privacy fence. It could be safe from little beings wandering into their backyard... but it isn't. Yesterday I found the gate propped open with a bucket of sand... intentionally! I closed it and asked the girls to keep the gate shut. While they were good about shutting the gate behind them yesterday, I don't see it doing any good long term! I see that I'll need to have a talk with the parents about keeping the gate shut and locked. Maybe our other neighbor who is better about confrontation will have this chat. If they don't put a lock on it, I will!
Now... I am not water phobic in the least. The girls love to swim and that they do. They are in the water for a good share of the summer. If they aren't playing in their pool on our deck, we are at the lake at my grandparent's cabin. At the lake we have pretty decent water safety rules, I think. With huge amounts of water and small children as far as the eye can see, water safety is important.
I felt so sad for Ellie yesterday as she watched them swim through the slats of our deck. She didn't say anything about being sad. They didn't ask to go swim with the other kids. But still, I felt bad that she was watching them have fun. She is our water girl! She loves to swim! I got her attention away from that and we went and had our own fun. It may be a long week, but their new swimming pool is scheduled to arrive on Friday and they are getting it for their birthday on Sunday. We plan to have it blown up and ready to go prior to the party. Weather permitting the kids can actually use it at the party on Sunday. So... if you are reading this and are coming to the party and it isn't raining and you have kids... bring their swimsuits.
Soon they will be able to enjoy water play in their own environment! I hope it is enough to draw their attention away from the neighbor girls.
posted by Sonya at 9:49 AM
3 Comments:
I am a safety maniac and would go crazy knowing that there was an unsafe pool accessible to Katie! UGH! I hope they have a good time in their new pool! Happy early birthday Ellie and Abby!
Water safety is a priority in our house too, especially because our girl CANNOT resist water. She is the epitomy of a fishie. LOL! We are fortunate in that there are no pools in our neighborhood. If she wants to go swimming, we either go to the local water park (of which we have season passes) or we head to the gym (which has a wonderful childrens' pool).
Hope the girls have a blast in their own pool.
Happy Birthday Abby and Ellie... Hope you enjoy your new pool.... Brenna sure would LOVE to come see you guys and play in the pool with you...too bad we don't live closer!
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