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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]My kids are 5 mo 4 and 8. We joined a pool for the second year in a row and I really want it to work for us. I see families with kids my age..sometimes even 4 kids or families with a set of twins...staying at the pool for 3,4,5 hours everyday. I can't seem to get that down. I try and stay organized.  A bag for towels, cooler, bag for toys, bag with extra clothes and diapers.  It seems by the time I get everyone in their gear, get the bags ready, get into the car and going we are - 45 minutes.  Older kids do well for the first hour usually. I try and get the baby to sleep in the stroller and join in. My 4 year old is fine in the baby pool so we maybe splash with the little one until she tires out. Then kids want to eat and then by hour 2 we generally break down. Baby either is up and overstimulated or tired and can't get into a good sleep. 4 year old wants to do more in the big pool but I'm unavailable for that. 8 year old sees friends and wants to stay longer but little kids can't handle it. It seems like I spend 45 minutes getting ready, maybe 90 minutes there are decent, last 30 terrible, then 45 minutes to get everyone back home and changed and repack the bag/wash towels/empty cooler. I don't know what to do to make this easier and longer?? What am I missing here??[/quote]

I'm really fascinated by all of you that only stay for an hour or 90 minutes.  How terribly [b]wasteful[/b] and boring...

1- We do bathing suits at home, and sunscreen, and they eat lunch on the drive or walk to the pool.  I set up camp in the middle of the big and little pool, so I can keep a monitor on all, and nobody swims alone unless they can pass a swim test.  I'll do laps of the pool deck with the stroller, or put baby in a carrier and stand up to my knees on the stops with the 3-5 year olds.  Also, ALWAYS shower there, or at least rinse off, and if nothing else, everyone takes off suits and puts on dry clothes/diapers or undies.  The drive home has never not made anyone of my 6 fall asleep, in 13 years of doing this.  We go at 11 or 12 depending on the day, and are there until 4 usually.[/quote]

What, exactly, is being wasted?

And you can't say time, because to my kids and to me, 1.5 hours is a great amount of time to be at the pool. That's a great and fun time for US.

Tell me what's being wasted? My community pool membership is built into our HOA fees. So using it a few days a week for as long as *we want to* feels just fine for us. And we aren't pinching pennies and desperate to make the most out of anything like that. [/quote]

Right?  What's wasteful about it?  We used to go to a pool that was a five-minute walk from our house.  The nice thing about it was that we didn't feel like we needed to stay all day to make it worth the trip--we could go, swim a bit, have dinner and head home.  It didn't have to be a Big Thing.  If you're having fun and want to stay longer--great!  If not, what's the problem?  To me, boring would be staying at the pool even after everyone was tired of it and it wasn't so much fun anymore.  [/quote]

Effort. Effort is being wasted. Its a lot of work to get everyone ready to only stay a short while. I only have two kids but didn't take them much by myself until the older one was a decent swimmer on her own.[/quote]

It always shocks me how DCUM women are terrified of a little bit of effort and work.  [/quote]

I'm not "terrified." But my kids were always content to play in their own little world at home. And I could keep an ear out while switching the laundry, prepping dinner or (gasp) reading a book. I didn't have to worry about sunburn or drowning. It always shocks me how DCUM women are "terrified" of entertaining their kids at home. Some people must ALWAYS be going SOMEWHERE.[/quote]

My kids play on their own at home and I watch them play at the pool and—gasp—also get in with them for part of the time. We are home a lot because, wait for it, we’re not at the pool all damn day. See how that works?[/quote]

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