Kids taking stuff at the pool

[Anonymous]

Backpack with chain lock. Slip through zippers etc and chain to fence or chair.

Get a bag with straps. Put your stuff in, lock to chaise before you jump in pool.

Shame people on next-door.

Post signs at pool saying that thieves are rampant at the pool.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I had my jaw on the floor reading some of these! We're at a MD pool and I have never had any hesitation leaving our bag, towel, food, stuff out on table or chairs while swimming. It's always been there when we've come back.

My daughter did have a swim team hoodie go missing one year, but it didn't have her name on the tag, and I'm chalking that one up to an honest mistake.

We are at a NVSL pool. We have been members for years and nothing like this has ever occurred. I don’t worry about my things at the pool at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here it goes… don’t wear expensive stuff to the pool. She isn’t going to die or struggle if she walks to the pool with cheap flip flops or sneakers. Use the lockers that they have to lock up the stuff. Get a bag and have a lock on the bag. So many options.

We don’t have lockers at our pool annd I can’t think of pools we’ve swam against that do. Are they common outside of rec centers?

I wish the solution in comments was “you’re right, kids shouldn’t take stuff” instead of “show up at the pool with nothing but a swimsuit otherwise you deserve for your stuff to be taken.” It’s a strange attitude but maybe your kid is a thief.

I agree. And you wonder why kids are stealing stuff? It’s not pool culture, it’s the culture and values at home. Until that changes in a meaningful way, you can only be on the defensive & try to protect yourself.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I had my jaw on the floor reading some of these! We're at a MD pool and I have never had any hesitation leaving our bag, towel, food, stuff out on table or chairs while swimming. It's always been there when we've come back.

My daughter did have a swim team hoodie go missing one year, but it didn't have her name on the tag, and I'm chalking that one up to an honest mistake.

We are at a NVSL pool. We have been members for years and nothing like this has ever occurred. I don’t worry about my things at the pool at all.

Same!

We have been members at our NVSL pool for 10 year. My kids spend a lot of time there and leave their stuff all over during practice, A meets, B meets and dive meets both at our pool and others. They have misplaced a few things at swim meets, and team shirts always end up getting mixed up, but they have never had anything stolen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We've had adults gather up our pool toys and deny it until I showed them they had our name on them.

This is the main problem at our pool. Not outright stealing, but a sense of entitlement that anything unsecured must be theirs or is free for the taking. Or if it's not in use, they should be able to use it. I've had a kid argue that she should be able to use our float because my daughter "isn't using it right now." We hadn't even staked out our lounge chairs yet. Rather than correcting this, adults then attempt to gaslight you into thinking this all encourages neighborhood fellowship. Mi mermaid goggles es su mermaid goggles.

I just accept that the neighborhood pool brings out uncouth behavior. Don't get me started on how parents discipline their children when there's industrially chlorinated water present. I understand why people spend so much money to put in a private pool.

Yes, it's super weird to me. It's not that the guy picked them up, which could have been an accident, but he was so weirdly defensive and accusatory toward me when they were ours all along.

I also don't understand the entitlement. I've shared towels, toys, sunscreen, snacks when asked or just to be friendly, but why is any parent letting their child use other people's stuff without asking? If my kid did that, I'd correct them.

But I do wonder if like how OP.mentioned being poor, it has something to do with how our families of origin treated possessions. We weren't rich or poor, but things were always seen as "valuable" because someone paid for them and they were supposed to be cared for even if they only cost a few dollars. I wonder if some people just don't care about the cost to replace pool toys and towels so it doesn't matter whether theirs go missing and assume others don't care either?

Another here sick of the entitlement. Do you have so much stuff that you don't notice a strange towel or sweatshirt at home? I still remember who gave us what for our wedding 20 years ago and the provenance of every item in my house. I don't get people who just grab things and genuinely think they are theirs. I guess they never had to work for stuff, huh?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We've had adults gather up our pool toys and deny it until I showed them they had our name on them.

This is the main problem at our pool. Not outright stealing, but a sense of entitlement that anything unsecured must be theirs or is free for the taking. Or if it's not in use, they should be able to use it. I've had a kid argue that she should be able to use our float because my daughter "isn't using it right now." We hadn't even staked out our lounge chairs yet. Rather than correcting this, adults then attempt to gaslight you into thinking this all encourages neighborhood fellowship. Mi mermaid goggles es su mermaid goggles.

I just accept that the neighborhood pool brings out uncouth behavior. Don't get me started on how parents discipline their children when there's industrially chlorinated water present. I understand why people spend so much money to put in a private pool.

Yes, it's super weird to me. It's not that the guy picked them up, which could have been an accident, but he was so weirdly defensive and accusatory toward me when they were ours all along.

I also don't understand the entitlement. I've shared towels, toys, sunscreen, snacks when asked or just to be friendly, but why is any parent letting their child use other people's stuff without asking? If my kid did that, I'd correct them.

But I do wonder if like how OP.mentioned being poor, it has something to do with how our families of origin treated possessions. We weren't rich or poor, but things were always seen as "valuable" because someone paid for them and they were supposed to be cared for even if they only cost a few dollars. I wonder if some people just don't care about the cost to replace pool toys and towels so it doesn't matter whether theirs go missing and assume others don't care either?

Another here sick of the entitlement. Do you have so much stuff that you don't notice a strange towel or sweatshirt at home? I still remember who gave us what for our wedding 20 years ago and the provenance of every item in my house. I don't get people who just grab things and genuinely think they are theirs. I guess they never had to work for stuff, huh?

I agree. A friend of my DD’s borrowed a towel at a pool party and never returned it and the parents were really indifferent about the whole thing. I didn’t make a fuss to them but in my head I was thinking, that’s a whole towel! How do you misplace a whole towel?

But I also have my own summer swim team sweatshirt and things like towels from the 60s from my late aunt’s wedding shower that I still use for the dog’s baths, so I acknowledge that I’m maybe the weird one here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We've had adults gather up our pool toys and deny it until I showed them they had our name on them.

This is the main problem at our pool. Not outright stealing, but a sense of entitlement that anything unsecured must be theirs or is free for the taking. Or if it's not in use, they should be able to use it. I've had a kid argue that she should be able to use our float because my daughter "isn't using it right now." We hadn't even staked out our lounge chairs yet. Rather than correcting this, adults then attempt to gaslight you into thinking this all encourages neighborhood fellowship. Mi mermaid goggles es su mermaid goggles.

I just accept that the neighborhood pool brings out uncouth behavior. Don't get me started on how parents discipline their children when there's industrially chlorinated water present. I understand why people spend so much money to put in a private pool.

Yes, it's super weird to me. It's not that the guy picked them up, which could have been an accident, but he was so weirdly defensive and accusatory toward me when they were ours all along.

I also don't understand the entitlement. I've shared towels, toys, sunscreen, snacks when asked or just to be friendly, but why is any parent letting their child use other people's stuff without asking? If my kid did that, I'd correct them.

But I do wonder if like how OP.mentioned being poor, it has something to do with how our families of origin treated possessions. We weren't rich or poor, but things were always seen as "valuable" because someone paid for them and they were supposed to be cared for even if they only cost a few dollars. I wonder if some people just don't care about the cost to replace pool toys and towels so it doesn't matter whether theirs go missing and assume others don't care either?

Another here sick of the entitlement. Do you have so much stuff that you don't notice a strange towel or sweatshirt at home? I still remember who gave us what for our wedding 20 years ago and the provenance of every item in my house. I don't get people who just grab things and genuinely think they are theirs. I guess they never had to work for stuff, huh?

I agree. A friend of my DD’s borrowed a towel at a pool party and never returned it and the parents were really indifferent about the whole thing. I didn’t make a fuss to them but in my head I was thinking, that’s a whole towel! How do you misplace a whole towel?

But I also have my own summer swim team sweatshirt and things like towels from the 60s from my late aunt’s wedding shower that I still use for the dog’s baths, so I acknowledge that I’m maybe the weird one here.

No I'm the same way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We've had adults gather up our pool toys and deny it until I showed them they had our name on them.

This is the main problem at our pool. Not outright stealing, but a sense of entitlement that anything unsecured must be theirs or is free for the taking. Or if it's not in use, they should be able to use it. I've had a kid argue that she should be able to use our float because my daughter "isn't using it right now." We hadn't even staked out our lounge chairs yet. Rather than correcting this, adults then attempt to gaslight you into thinking this all encourages neighborhood fellowship. Mi mermaid goggles es su mermaid goggles.

I just accept that the neighborhood pool brings out uncouth behavior. Don't get me started on how parents discipline their children when there's industrially chlorinated water present. I understand why people spend so much money to put in a private pool.

Yes, it's super weird to me. It's not that the guy picked them up, which could have been an accident, but he was so weirdly defensive and accusatory toward me when they were ours all along.

I also don't understand the entitlement. I've shared towels, toys, sunscreen, snacks when asked or just to be friendly, but why is any parent letting their child use other people's stuff without asking? If my kid did that, I'd correct them.

But I do wonder if like how OP.mentioned being poor, it has something to do with how our families of origin treated possessions. We weren't rich or poor, but things were always seen as "valuable" because someone paid for them and they were supposed to be cared for even if they only cost a few dollars. I wonder if some people just don't care about the cost to replace pool toys and towels so it doesn't matter whether theirs go missing and assume others don't care either?

Another here sick of the entitlement. Do you have so much stuff that you don't notice a strange towel or sweatshirt at home? I still remember who gave us what for our wedding 20 years ago and the provenance of every item in my house. I don't get people who just grab things and genuinely think they are theirs. I guess they never had to work for stuff, huh?

People on Buy Nothing regularly give away way more of a given item than we've ever owned in 20 years, whereas all of our beach towels or kitchen gadgets are in regular rotation and I don't buy more than I'd use and don't get rid of them unless they're unusable, and them they go in the trash.