Poolside sharing

Now that it is summer and it's blazing hot our apartment's pool is open. Jordan and I went swimming tonight with our friends Lesley and Elliott, and we were taught a valuable lesson in pool etiquette: All your belongings are up for grabs.

For example, if you bring your own water paddles and paddle ball, this does guarantee that you will be the one playing with it. Our friends brought their set and literally as soon as we got in the water, this 8ish year old boy said, "Ooh! That looks fun. Can I play with that?" We politely told him that we brought it to play together, but this was not the answer he was looking for....so he tried again three minutes later. "Hey guys, can I have a turn?" "Uh....sorry we really wanted to play this together."

Ten minutes later Jordan and Elliott gave the paddles to me and Lesley to play. Apparently this was seen as another window of opportunity for the boy. "Did you know I'm really good at tennis?" "Oh you are?..That's neat." "So...can I have a turn with those?" "Sorry, we're still using them." I was pretty annoyed and was hoping for get a parent to intervene soon. I asked the boy if he was swimming with his mom and he smiled and pointed to a woman who was right behind me, smiling at us. Really, lady? You have no problem with your son pestering strangers for their property? Ugh...

In between his intervals of begging to use our stuff, the kid would swim under water with goggles on. At one point while he was under water, a different boy (I'm guessing age 7-9) came up to me and asked, "Can I wear his goggles?" "HUH? uh, no. You can't. I mean, well, you have to ask him, I guess." Sure enough, as soon as the boy came up for air the second boy asked if he could borrow the goggles. The boy looked defeated and handed them over, as if he had no other option than to say yes (which was most likely why he did not seem to comprehend us saying no to him.) Now, where was that boy....oh yeah! "So, is it my turn yet?" "No, we're still playing." Then kid number 2 (goggle snatcher) wanted in on the fun. "Wow! Can I play?" AUGH!!!! Their plan eventually worked - we got worn out by the compulsive asking and gave up the goods.

It didn't take long for me to see where this learned behavior came from. A group of adults had a big floaty raft in the pool. Two women (not from this group) swam up to us and asked, "Whose raft is this?" as they hopped on it and played with it without any hesitation. Another lady asked loudly, "Whose floaty be dis?" as she grabbed it and placed her baby in it. Whaaaaat?

So people of earth, I ask you to NOT let your kid take strangers' pool toys. It will lead to an ongoing social pool cycle of mayhem. This really needs to end. That is all.