Flashback: I'm hanging on the side wall of the swimming pool with five minutes to go before swim lessons are over. I can't hold it any more I have got to pee. My, "please can I go to the bathroom?," is turned down by my instructor. Extremely annoyed and ready to explode I turn to the girl next to me and ask, "how come you never ask to go to the bathroom?" She responds with, "I just pee in the pool." I ask the boy on the other side and he responds like wise. Shock and horror!!! All these years I had been swimming in a giant toilet bowl.
Today: I'm chatting with a lady when all of a sudden her thirteen month old snot rockets into the swimming pool. Instead of going to the bathroom to wipe his nose she says, "Ew, ca-ca's" and wipes it with her fingers, holds it for a second as if I would look away or forget, then washes it off in the water. (At this point I have visions of Fort Rucker and scooping up loogies during water aerobics running through my head followed by inner shuddering.) Seriously lady, ya, it's your kid but what if every other mother did the exact same thing? Gross!!! I had to put it out of my mind in order to continue swimming with Makena.
So friends...what are your thoughts about the cesspools that we so gladly let our children play in. Are we at peace with the fact that even though hundreds of people have peed in the pool they are able to balance the PH with a little chlorine and other chemicals? or are we dry heaving at the idea of swimming in recycled toilet water? Is it ok to wipe your nose, your kids nose or anyone else's nose in the swimming pool? Today I would say heck no!!!
Am I overreacting? Of course, but when I relive these past traumatic experiences it takes me a while to calm down. I'm just saying that it might be a while before Makena and I head back to the pool.
2 comments:
Oh-I am just laughing. As a life-guard, I have seen all this from up in a chair (when someone thought no one was looking). Of course, pee is harder to track, but I know that if someone poos in the pool, they clear it out and do a thorough cleaning.
I prefer to swim in a lake or ocean anyway...but then, you're swimming in animal and fish pee AND poo, so I guess there's no winning. Just don't think about it. :)
A little pee from a little kid, in hundreds of gallons of water filled with chemicals, really doesn't scare me that much. However, the little tiny kiddie pools-yah-I don't step foot in those, and won't want to let my kids either. Yuck.
About the snot thing, yah, that's gross. But, if I really thought about it, I'm sure that I've had wiped (clear) snot while swimming instead of getting out to get a tissue. Who takes their kid to a pool sick though (colored goop) and then puts IT in the water. That's kinda nasty.
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