The Evil Pool

Eli is taking his second round of swimming lessons this week, and we are at a different pool because the lessons at our normal pool were full. I don’t like the new pool. The people are evil. Dude! It is not cool when I get a “talking to” by a couple of 16-year-old employees. And sometimes it is really hard to control myself from saying “go f*ck yourself” to evil people while we are in front of the children.

At our normal pool, we always took Georgia, and she played in the baby pool while we waited for Eli to finish his 30-minute lesson (as did the rest of the swimming lesson parents who had younger children). At the new pool, I didn’t dress Georgia in her swimsuit the first night because I didn’t know if they even had a baby pool.

They did. When she saw it, she ran over and jumped in fully clothed. I was immediately approached by a teenage employee who told me that in the future I needed to put her in a swimsuit and a swim diaper. Grrrrr! Like I had planned to come and toss my daughter in the pool fully clothed.

The next night (Wed), I put her in her swimsuit so she could play in the baby pool during Eli’s lesson. When she went over to the baby pool, I was approached by a different teenage employee who told me I needed to pay to use the baby pool. Excuse me?! I don’t f*cking think so. I’m already paying for swimming lessons. I asked why the other city pools didn’t have that rule and why Georgia was able to swim in the baby pool the night before. The girl just repeated that I needed to pay to use the baby pool. I walked away.

So the girl went to get what I assume was a supervisor. The supervisor looked to be about 17. She approached me, and started in on how I needed to pay $3 PER PERSON. I told her that if she thinks I am paying for my daughter to splash in the baby pool for 20 minutes (they close the baby pool early), she was insane. I call that a kind refusal since I didn’t call her a bitch or an overzealous control freak. Eric reminded me that I did go into a tirade to the girl about how they have arbitrary rules that they pull out of their asses, and how they are obviously trying to screw people for money. But I didn't attack her personally, so I think I was being good.

At that point she left me alone, but told me that if I wanted to use the baby pool again, I was going to have to pay. Today, I sent emails to the city, the parks and rec department, and our city councilmen. They all sent me emails back saying they have forwarded my concerns to the aquatic supervisor. So, we’ll see what happens now.

Yes, I will admit that I have a bit of a hot-headed temper. But my war is not over with these Mary-Kate-Jennifer-Love-Felicity-looking things.