At the pool, do you discipline other people's kids?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Special needs kids need to have even more guidance. Don't use as an excuse for bad behavior, esp at a pool. I've had a run I with such a mom who told me to have more tolerance of her 8 year old with special needs who kept pouring buckets of water over my 4 month old's head in the baby pool.

Special needs are not cured by "guidance."

Kids behaving poorly - special needs or not - isn't acceptable. Special needs may be an explanation but it isn't an excuse. The SN kids in my circle of friends are far better discplined than any other kids I've seen.

I, too, love Psycho mom.

[Anonymous]

18:49,

OMG! I would have lost my shit on any 8 year old pouring water over a 4 month old. Seriously, if I had to say more than, "don't do that again, he is too little for buckets of water on his head," it would be on. And no, I am not the one who threw the water gun over the fence, but I would totally throw that kid's bucket over the fence special needs or not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:18:49,

OMG! I would have lost my shit on any 8 year old pouring water over a 4 month old. Seriously, if I had to say more than, "don't do that again, he is too little for buckets of water on his head," it would be on. And no, I am not the one who threw the water gun over the fence, but I would totally throw that kid's bucket over the fence special needs or not.

So it's not OK for a child to lose control at a pool, but it's perfectly fine for an adult to, as you so elegantly put it, lose your shit?

Hypocrite.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Special needs kids need to have even more guidance. Don't use as an excuse for bad behavior, esp at a pool. I've had a run I with such a mom who told me to have more tolerance of her 8 year old with special needs who kept pouring buckets of water over my 4 month old's head in the baby pool.

You brought a 4m old in a public pool, really? Presumably you were holding him or her since most 4m olds can't sit up unassisted. And an 8yo kept pouring buckets of water over a small baby in your arms? Really?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm going to tell the lifeguard he is "disrespecting the personhood" of the next kid I see him blow a whistle at. Fucking dying here. Thanks for that one PP.

+1000. LOL!!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:self-righteous uptight parents of young toddlers are extremely annoying. Older kids have different energy levels and disrespecting their personhood in the way that above psycho-mom prides herself for doing is worse than the annoying behavior.

+1 and we have little kids too. I have to say that even though we have a wide range of ages in our family, the over protective parents of young singlets have really started to annoy me.

[Anonymous]

Insane Pool Rage Anger Management Bully Mom Here.
You know, posters are acting as if there was a range of choices here from a close-by attentive staffer who I could have easily asked to intervene, to a hovering mother who was eagerly waiting to discipline him, to a self sufficent toddler I could have just abandoned in order to whisk the squirt cannon off to some storage locker, to this little darling (in reality a child way too large for the baby pool) who did not respond to my requests to stop and my good-natured entreaties that he play more nicely. Here's the thing. None of these other magical choices existed or worked. I did what I thought best as you would have as well. Apparently you were all there (NOT) and felt I didn't do the right thing. So sorry I failed you, but hey, I think this kid lived through it without permanent psychological scars. And as several people pointed out, the face that he returned and gave me a very nice apology...to me says that his mother kind of agreed with me about his behavior in the first place.

In an otherwise fairly articulate post (by DCUM standards), it's curious that you described the offender as "way too large" for the baby pool. Was he the fat kid people like to pick on?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Are you new to PGPool? That is the culture there and it is very unlikely to change. We all have a job there and that is what makes it a co-op (shared accountability). It sounds like you spend your time policing the baby pool. I do a lot with plastic city and the sand now, but I was baby pool for a few years, too. We all have our places on the grounds that we frequent, just like our usual spots that we sit in and times that we go there.
Consider posting a message on the listserve reminding people to keep the big kids out of the baby pool. I'm sure you know if you have been there for any number of years that it is usually this time of year that someone does that. Plus, you know to stay out of the baby pool during adult swim, right? That is the only time the bigger kids (6-7 yr olds) go in there.

No, I am not new to PG pool, though that may be relative. This is our fifth year of membership. What makes PG Pool a "coop" is the opportunity to work off 100 bucks of your membership fee, or whatever it is. I note I don't get coop hours for babysitting anybody's kids.

I actually don't mind weighing in and doing my part to keep things on even keel. However, my observation is that many of the parents are of the extreme free range persuasion. I'm amazed that some parents will send their 4 year olds to the toddler pool unaccompanied, though it's against the rules and also against good sense. It happens constantly. What's funny is with the membership bubble last year, people groused about the new members, but I actually think it's the rank and file older members who are so lax. This whole "it's a coop, someone else will be watching" attitude is really, really irritating. I'm not the only person who thinks it, either. There is a contingent of newer members who are there for the pool but endure the "no limits / no boundaries / my kid is just "spirited" parents" with gritted teeth. It's not that we are hyper protective, it's that we're sick of watching your kids, we are sick of not having space in the TODDLER pool for our TODDLERS to walk around without getting tackled by a 7 year old. And no, I'm not getting out of the pool during adult swim. That's the kind of offensive, entitled mentality that turns me off so much about an otherwise awesome pool.

[Anonymous]

Edit:

My last line was missing a relevant phrase.

No, I'm not getting out of the toddler pool during the big pool's adult swim so that older children who do not belong in the toddler pool can take over.

[Anonymous]

I really don't know why the hell pools dont outlaw those stupid foam squirters

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: I really don't know why the hell pools dont outlaw those stupid foam squirters

OUrs does but it is not enforced. They clog the filter and just disintegrate anyway. I don't care about the squirters, though; I'm just concerned about the kids knocking people over.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Insane Pool Rage Anger Management Bully Mom Here.
You know, posters are acting as if there was a range of choices here from a close-by attentive staffer who I could have easily asked to intervene, to a hovering mother who was eagerly waiting to discipline him, to a self sufficent toddler I could have just abandoned in order to whisk the squirt cannon off to some storage locker, to this little darling (in reality a child way too large for the baby pool) who did not respond to my requests to stop and my good-natured entreaties that he play more nicely. Here's the thing. None of these other magical choices existed or worked. I did what I thought best as you would have as well. Apparently you were all there (NOT) and felt I didn't do the right thing. So sorry I failed you, but hey, I think this kid lived through it without permanent psychological scars. And as several people pointed out, the face that he returned and gave me a very nice apology...to me says that his mother kind of agreed with me about his behavior in the first place.

In an otherwise fairly articulate post (by DCUM standards), it's curious that you described the offender as "way too large" for the baby pool. Was he the fat kid people like to pick on?

You may have reading comprehension issues. She was not griping about his weight just the dubiousness that someone his age should be playing/rough housing in the toddler Pool.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Insane Pool Rage Anger Management Bully Mom Here.
You know, posters are acting as if there was a range of choices here from a close-by attentive staffer who I could have easily asked to intervene, to a hovering mother who was eagerly waiting to discipline him, to a self sufficent toddler I could have just abandoned in order to whisk the squirt cannon off to some storage locker, to this little darling (in reality [b]a child way too large for the baby pool) who did not respond to my requests to stop and my good-natured entreaties that he play more nicely. Here's the thing. None of these other magical choices existed or worked. I did what I thought best as you would have as well. Apparently you were all there (NOT) and felt I didn't do the right thing. So sorry I failed you, but hey, I think this kid lived through it without permanent psychological scars. And as several people pointed out, the face that he returned and gave me a very nice apology...to me says that his mother kind of agreed with me about his behavior in the first place.[/b]

In an otherwise fairly articulate post (by DCUM standards), it's curious that you described the offender as "way too large" for the baby pool. Was he the fat kid people like to pick on?

Dear Insane Pool Mom,

Why did you post on DCUM in the first place if you are now angry that people responded?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Insane Pool Rage Anger Management Bully Mom Here.
You know, posters are acting as if there was a range of choices here from a close-by attentive staffer who I could have easily asked to intervene, to a hovering mother who was eagerly waiting to discipline him, to a self sufficent toddler I could have just abandoned in order to whisk the squirt cannon off to some storage locker, to this little darling (in reality [b]a child way too large for the baby pool) who did not respond to my requests to stop and my good-natured entreaties that he play more nicely. Here's the thing. None of these other magical choices existed or worked. I did what I thought best as you would have as well. Apparently you were all there (NOT) and felt I didn't do the right thing. So sorry I failed you, but hey, I think this kid lived through it without permanent psychological scars. And as several people pointed out, the face that he returned and gave me a very nice apology...to me says that his mother kind of agreed with me about his behavior in the first place.[/b]

In an otherwise fairly articulate post (by DCUM standards), it's curious that you described the offender as "way too large" for the baby pool. Was he the fat kid people like to pick on?

Dear Insane Pool Mom,

Why did you post on DCUM in the first place if you are now angry that people responded?

I don't get your post. This is a debate and responding to other peoples' posts doesn't necessarily mean that one is angry. I also think my questions, as stated above, are valid. I've been on DCUM for many years and it seems to me that people on DCUM often interrogate an OP who presents a life situation as if assuming that OP had a "supermarket" of choices and circumstances available to that person that are just laughable. Life is life. One acts based on circumstances as they present themselves. Asking endless "why didn't you do this, why didn't you do that, why didn't you try this" or offering that your own parenting is far superior and that you could have done much better....what do you get out of that? I guess it makes YOU feel protected in some way.

At any rate, this thread is stale.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: I really don't know why the hell pools dont outlaw those stupid foam squirters

OUrs does but it is not enforced. They clog the filter and just disintegrate anyway. I don't care about the squirters, though; I'm just concerned about the kids knocking people over.

My pool does enforce the water gun ban, and after reading this thread I am thankful for that!