If you WOHM, do you find a private pool membership worth it?
![[Post New]](/jforum/templates/default/images/icon_minipost_new.gif){kind=icon}
Anonymous
nicer facilities, pools (multiple), and far less crowded. |
Anonymous
I'm 10:05. We use the public high school pools year round but they are indoors and it's nice to access an outdoor pool during the summer months. We know lots of people that like Upton Hills, but I always feel as if it's horribly overcrowded with way too many unsupervised tweens and teens. Not relaxing. Even before we had DD I was constantly having to kick teens out of the lap lane who were just hanging out even though they were clearly marked as lap swimming only. |
Anonymous
| Our DS was 2 when we joined our swim/tennis club and have loved it every summer since. He's now on the swim teama and quite a few of school friends and most neighbors have a membership at our pool. During the summer, he spends his entire at the pool with his friends (he's 7). I work part-time and try to get as much as I can during the week. A well spent $650!!! |
Anonymous
OP here. Not sure what part of Alexandria you're thinking of, but 2 of the 3 outdoor public pools are in Old Town, one is for children and their parents only and quite small, and the other one is in Del Ray and I'm assuming gets pretty crowded. We live in the West End, and there are no public pools within 4.5 miles. When we lived in Arlington all the pools that were close by were indoor, and in the summer want to be outside! Fairfax County Alexandria may be different...I don't know. |
Anonymous
| My pool costs $400/summer, but we can walk to it. I would say we go after work maybe once a week (usually Thursdays, as the week is winding down) and twice on the weekends. Like PPs mentioned, it is great for wearing kids out. I also enjoy being outside so it's a plus for me too. As the kids get older I like the community aspect of the pool and running into the parents of kids that are in my DCs classes. |
Anonymous
| Bump- anyone regret joining an expensive pool because they didn't go enough to make it worthwhile? |
Anonymous
I can answer for Arlington. Public pools are indoors in Arlington. In the summer, it's nice to be outside. I do use the public pools a lot in the winter (when most other people don't seem to be thinking to do so, which is nice). The pool membership comes with other amenities and is a nice social outlet...we stay and eat dinner with friends every Sunday night. It's more of a multi-hour activity for the summer...the kids run around, playground, pool, dinner, etc. |
Anonymous
Just saw this is a really old post! So to the person who bumped. I work and no I don't regret the pool membership even though we exclusively use it on the weekends. I've had it since my first was about a year old. It's a great outlet on those unbearably hot summer days. |
Anonymous
We joined a pool 2 years ago (DS was 2). I work full time and we still use it a lot. We go at least 2 days during the week and then 1-2 times on the weekend. I admit that my kid may have hot dogs and chicken tenders with ice cream quite frequently in the summer do to our pool usage, but really, I figure it makes great memories 
|
Anonymous
| We go every night and stay until closing. We take dinner and we also do lots of pot lucks with other pool members. Before we leave at night, my kids even shower there. We've been doing this since my youngest was a baby. |
Anonymous
| I think you will regret not having access to a private swim club. Some of my best memories from when my oldest was little are playing our dolphin games in the pool. When she was four, we moved to an area with only a public pool. My husband said the public pool was “fine” and I had no experience to disprove him. I learned a few things. First, the public pool got so overcrowded that they literally closed the gates and would not allow anybody else in. Meer mortals could rarely swim. Secondly, there was no continuity in who you’d see there, meaning that people played dangeriously rough, or just acted like assholes. Think “Johnny, Billy is little please don’t splash him in the face” and Johnny’s mother saying to you”Why don’t you find another pool, we came here to have fun…, you don’t tell my child what to do”. The moms who couldn’t care less what their kids were doing suddenly swoop down on you when you dare to convey some good behavior lessons to their little darlings. This is on a day when you happen to have learned the names of the particular asshole. The normal “If you don’t behave, we can’t come back” doesn’t work because nobody cared about coming back. They had no friends or social customs or traditions that interested them. I also felt that the lifeguards were not as well trained or as observant as they should be . With private pools, you see the same folks again and again. People want to get to know you if you are at all personable. I was surprised how much I missed having access to a swim club. It’s a great way to spend time on a summer evening and on a random Saturday when you can’t think of something else to do. The cost may be steep, but it sure beats spending money to fix a marriage that got into trouble in large part because we had very little family activity or opportunity to socialize with other families. Swim clubs are wonderful for this purpose. I’d urge you to give it way more then a year given that getting back into that swim club could literally take years. |
Anonymous
| Nanny reports that Junior loves the pool at our club. Thumbs up! |
Anonymous
This is a very old post BUT I just saw it. I grew up in Arlington and went to Dominion Hills every summer. It had a real community feel! I have some incredible memories from my childhood playing at the pool! I was on the swim team for a bit followed by the dive team and in my adolescent years, I spent MANY a summer day at the pool with friends. It encouraged independence and kept us active and social! My parents enjoyed it too as my Mom would be sitting in the shade, watching us and reading a book or lounging in the water keeping an eye on us when I was in elementary school. I have since moved out of the area down to Harrisonburg but now that I have a child of my own- I wanted to join a pool! My husband was resistant as he never learned to swim and thought it was a waste of money insisting we could drive to the public pool 20 minutes away that is ALWAYS crowded! The public pool is really just okay. There is no community feel, you have to be very careful with your belongings, and I just don't feel like it is relaxing. I joined a private pool 5 minutes from my home this summer and I already love it! There's a wonderful and quiet baby pool, picnic tables, a nice playground, tennis courts, some food available to purchase and they hold fun events through out the summer. There's a 'dive-in' movie coming up next Friday night. People seem to know one another and bring their dinners or have pizza delivered. I love that I can pop on over directly from work and it doesn't add any time to my already long commute! Apparently it is less of the norm around here as I've gotten a lot of grief from other local Mom's. These are Mom's who own very nice homes in the area that are worth a solid $100,000+ more than mine. They insist that they don't want to pay that 'ridiculous high amount' for a pool pass....oh well! Their loss. I'm hoping to get to know some of the Mom's at the pool--hopefully they will be friendly!! |
Anonymous
| We joined a pool at 2. We go 2-3 days after work (but I get out by 230pm) and then both Saturday and Sunday. My kid is OBSESSED with the pool. |
Anonymous
|
with one child <3, not worth it. With 2 kids 3 and 6, absolutely worth it. Once kids get older they can hang at the pool longer and go to bed later. 2 working parents and we go 5 days a week including at least 3 nights after work.
So unless it is easy to get the membership back i an few years, I would hold onto it. |