Friends keep asking me if we’re swimming yet. The answer? A resounding yes. Yes, we’re swimming twice a day, every day.
I’ve only been in the pool once. Not because of this, but because we’re in the middle of the coldest, cloudiest, rainiest late-spring/early-summer I can remember. It’s so cold that every time I go in past my waist there’s a lot of yelping and howling on my part.
Totally lame, I know. Apparently sometime after I hit 30, I turned into a total diva.
A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2016.
David / If my pool style is “in a chaise with a margarita,” this is David’s. Mid-air and wild, with his best friend.
Mary Virginia / The first day we opened the pool, David and Mary Virginia got in and Mary immediately started crying because it was cold. An hour later, she was still in the pool and David was wrapped in a towel, shivering. I would have confidently bet a lot of money that it would have been the other way around.
In the pool, Mary Virginia has been the biggest surprise. She loves playing on the steps, singing, twirling, and practicing her mermaid moves. She doesn’t like being splashed, constantly jumps out to wipe her face dry, and never gets her hair wet, but she’s been as enthusiastic as (and maybe more) David.
Thomas / Our littlest fishy can’t quite decide what he thinks about the pool. The water has been cold, plus he’s been fighting a bad cold and ear infections. So far he likes splashing while I carry him around, chasing beach balls around the sidewalk, and showing off his very adorable bathing suit bod and sunscreen hairdo.
Oh envy envy – a pool! It looks like loads of fun, now all you need is a bit of sunshine to warm it up!
My parents have a pool, and Danny and I (quite seriously) have considered buying their house from them. But he wants to fill in the pool if we did!! He fears the safety and how much maintenance it would be. How is yours set up? How do you keep the kids safe? Is it a lot of work to maintain? Ugh I’d be so sad if we actually did buy their house but lost the pool! We go every day to the pool in our neighborhood which is a big reason I don’t want to move, but we have very much outgrown our little townhouse. Do share!!
so. i’ll try to answer as well as i can, but if you have any follow up questions let me know 🙂
– we bought this house in large part because of the pool! i grew up with a pool (did you? or did your parents get it later?) so i really wanted it because we love to host parties, and pools are great for parties 🙂 i also just love the idea of my kids growing up with a pool like i did.
– my parents got our pool when i was 8, my sister was 9, and my brother was 3. we both knew how to swim and my brother did not, but he learned quickly. unlike that scenario, my kids are little and not confident swimmers. my parents had a deck leading out to the pool and one night my sister sleep walked out to the deck. only then did they get a locking fence. our pool has a fence around the perimeter that locks when you close it. because of that, i feel good about my kids playing outside. we check the fence CONSTANTLY. we’ve also talked to the kids a lot about the pool, about how if they’re inside the fence without me or tom then they can’t swim for the rest of the week. if they get in the pool without telling us, then same consequence. and, honestly, we’re still working on rules for other kids. we have a swim test if someone wants to swim sans-floatation device.
– yesterday my best friend came to visit and she has 7 kids that range in age from 13 to 1. the first thing they did was go outside, open the gate, and go to the pool. i had a heart attack. if i had older kids that could open the gate (and potentially leave it open for my child to enter) then i think we’d have to set up additional safeguards.
– my dad has our pool chemistry down to mostly autopilot, but tom says there’s a steep learning curve. he’s pretty dedicated to learning it down to the marrow though. he’s spending a lot of time at the pool every day learning and cleaning 🙂 like, a lot.
– this is why i asked about three kids at the pool! i’ve done it but it’s tough. my worry is that if something happened i couldn’t just put thomas down. so i have a plan that if i need to jump in, i’ll set thomas outside the gate first 🙂
– at the beginning of this comment i initially typed that i was going to write succinct answers. then i erased it bc this is completely long-winded!
This would be fantastic for all parents. Your family become my role model. Thanks.