Anonymous wrote:Could “take one from the lost and found” have meant just for practice? It’s very common at our pool to take & then return items from lost and found.

Yes, ours too, and I don't have a problem with that as long as the item goes right back where it came from after practice is over. Our pool has a "goggle box" and a "toy box." The toy box is a rotating hodgepodge of lost and abandoned items, mainly small dollar-store diving toys and things like that (we don't allow inflatables, and there are enough balls on property that no one needs to bring those on their own). Most of the goggles in the goggle box are of the toy rather than the sport/racing category, but I always made sure my kids put them right back after borrowing them.

The culture of the pool itself is such that a lost item is usually right where you left it a day or two later, or even well beyond that. I've found towels of ours months after they were accidentally abandoned, because they were at the bottom of the lost-and-found textiles hamper - yuck!

Anonymous wrote:I am hoping that these are very clean lost & founds to take something out & put on on your eyes or head

As you jump in the pee filled pool . . .

Anonymous wrote:Could “take one from the lost and found” have meant just for practice? It’s very common at our pool to take & then return items from lost and found.

So stealing is common.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cap from the lost and found for a race (that then gets returned to the lost and found) is fair game.

I agree, borrowing is harmless. Keeping is wrong.

Very little gets retrieved from lost & found.

We once found our kid's jacket at the local library, two weeks later. That was a cosmic win. Didn't remember it was left there.

Some things that are common but unlabeled, so kids are no longer sure if it's theirs.

You aren’t borrowing it if you are it without permission. That’s stealing and someone may be looking for it. We had someone steal our swim bag. Weeks later about half showed up. It was a fortune to replace. It was all labeled. You borrow from a teammate but that’s always why you keep extra goggles and a suit in the swim bag.

I am hoping that these are very clean lost & founds to take something out & put on on your eyes or head

Could “take one from the lost and found” have meant just for practice? It’s very common at our pool to take & then return items from lost and found.

Anonymous wrote:One of the swim instructors at RSFC had our kick board one time. She just found it in the RSFC equipment room.

Are you adding that to your complaint to defund the Rockville pool? Did 🌹 get her kickboard back?

Most kids keep an extra suit, cap and goggles in their swim bags. Never heard of kids going to lost and found. Borrow another kid, sure but not stealing.

Anonymous wrote:When my kid was 8 I gave her snack bar money and some little sh#* sold her candy for like 4x the snack bar price. He’s probably a little delinquent now.

No. He is probably making more money than you. That is called learning market forces.

Anonymous wrote:Cap from the lost and found for a race (that then gets returned to the lost and found) is fair game.

I agree, borrowing is harmless. Keeping is wrong.

Very little gets retrieved from lost & found.

We once found our kid's jacket at the local library, two weeks later. That was a cosmic win. Didn't remember it was left there.

Some things that are common but unlabeled, so kids are no longer sure if it's theirs.

When my kid was 8 I gave her snack bar money and some little sh#* sold her candy for like 4x the snack bar price. He’s probably a little delinquent now.

My kid left his goggles at club swim practice (big urban athletic club) when he was 7 - we were directed to lost and found and he was asked what day he had lost them. We were surprised to find that they had a ledger book with an entry for each item with description and day it was found. We claimed the lost goggles and left our name and contact - I assumed they took the information in case someone else came along and claimed the same item. I can only assume stealing was an issue. Now we are in a small town, the lost and found is a big box, and kids definitely borrow as needed from the box.

I think using something from the L&F for a race and then returning it is way different than just swiping something and keeping it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At an A meet yesterday I overheard a big group of girls who were probably 11/12 in a bathroom. One of them didn’t have her team suit and another was missing a cap. Some of the girls chimed in and were like “just take one from lost and found or look for one in someone’s bag”.

I did intervene and got a bunch of rolled eyes, but it reminded me of the towel stealing. Obviously this is something kids do, but how alert do you need to be to it and how can it be stopped if kids see it as normal?

I send my kids with bags that zip and our team caps have the kids’ name on them, but goggles definitely seem to considered fair game if left unattended for even a minute. Our pool and team are small so it’s not like there are 1000 families and 300 kids and it’s an anonymous crime.

Were they wearing kneeskins or doping in the bathroom? We should have volunteers posted in the bathrooms and at the lost and found to help curb the behavior of 12 year old girls from taking things that aren't theirs.

I always wonder about the people who get super defensive about these kinds of posts

I was thinking the same thing.
- DP

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Idk the swim coach tells kids to take spare goggles from the lost and found if they've forgotten theirs

Yeah my kid definitely showed up to a practice last summer without a swimsuit (whoops) and we borrowed one from L&F, washed it that night and returned it the next day. I see pilfering the L&F as completely different than going through someone's stuff.

I can’t really imagine borrowing a swim suit at all, but I’m with borrowing a pair of goggles or a cap in a pinch and return it a couple hours later after using .