Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our neighborhood pool is a 2 minute walk from the house and costs $500/summer. Kids do swim and dive teams and we are there almost every day from late May to late July. It's a total no-brainer for us. I think the better question is "why don't people join a pool?"

Because by the time we found out that's what you're supposed to do to go to pools in this area, it was too late. If we got on the waiting list now, we might get a membership by the time our kids are married.

Um, that is nuts. That's kinda on you. We recently moved and local pool options/sport clubs/schools/commute/yard, etc etc...It's just one of those natural things on the list. I mean, it's not a make-or-break, but you could easily have figured that out before moving.

Also -- who has time to go to a pool EVERY DAY? If we were members of the closest pool, we might manage it 5-6 times per summer. So that's, what, a nice $200 per visit?

Anonymous wrote:Our neighborhood pool is a 2 minute walk from the house and costs $500/summer. Kids do swim and dive teams and we are there almost every day from late May to late July. It's a total no-brainer for us. I think the better question is "why don't people join a pool?"

Because by the time we found out that's what you're supposed to do to go to pools in this area, it was too late. If we got on the waiting list now, we might get a membership by the time our kids are married.

I found the pool culture here very weird after growing up in the LA suburbs where every housing development has its own pool that's included in with the HOA dues. You didn't "join" the pool and there were no waiting lists. Ours was a short walk from home and my siblings and I were there pretty much every day of our childhoods. All the kids in a particular neighborhood go to the same pool.

Unfortunately, I didn't give pools any thought when we moved to Arlington. So, when we had kids and I did think about it I discovered that the outdoor pool options are Upton Hill -- very crowded on weekends but can be good on weekdays -- or years-long waiting lists for private pools that cost a LOT of money. There's no pool in our neighborhood that would be a natural choice to get on the waitlist and when the kids were little our friends were using a variety of pools. So, when I was a SAHM we just did summer passes to Upton Hill and enjoyed day trips to other swim parks included in the membership. My kids liked the big slides and water play structures at the NVRPA pools. We did join Knights of Columbus for one summer but the kids missed the features of Upton Hill. Eventually I went back to work and the kids weren't really interested in swimming on the weekends because they'd often go to the pool with their day camps. It might have been nice for them to do swim team but they were never particularly interested and I don't know how I'd manage it with our FT jobs now anyway.

I think if you want your kids to get into swim team and/or are a SAHM who enjoys spending all day hanging out at the pool, then it can be a worthwhile expense.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where are these public pools I read about on DCUM? The indoor rec centers? My kids like to swim. I don't particularly like hanging out with the people at the pool and we have to drive a bit because the closer ones have ridiculous wait lists. I join for the kids.

Reston.

It's a little baffling for people who grew up in Reston to move elsewhere as an adult and hear people asking, "So, do you belong to a pool?" So different, just a few miles away.

Reston pools are not public. You have to be a member of RA or buy a pool membership to go.

I wrote that there are not any public pools. We looked into Reston. They are farther away than the pool we joined and according to the reviews online they are frequently closed and/or filthy. It would cost our family $20/visit or over $500 for a membership the last time I looked into joining RA. It made more sense to join the closer pool.

We do go out on weekends and weekdays and take a 2 week vacation somewhere. But both my kids love to participate in our pool's summer swim team. They also like to spend afternoons playing with their friends at the pool. We often go with friends and order pizza or subs or bring something for dinner and stay until the pool closes.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All of our friends are at the pool. The BBQ occurs at the pool. The kids go to the zoo and museums as part of school field trips. They're not interested in going on the weekends in the summer.

+1 People I know with pool club memberships want to be with people "like themelves" at the club.

Which I think is the problem with this society. White people want to be with white people, black people want to be with black people, immigrants want to be with immigrants.....so on. Why can't people just all be together and enjoy each other than segregating yourself?

Hello 1960.

The pools are not segregated. They look like the community, which in our NOVA fc neighborhood means diverse.

People join their neighborhood pool to:

Easily socialize with their neighors and kids' school friends
join the neighborhood swim team
Keep their kids busy during the hot days of summer
Someone in the family loves water and swimming
Easy, somewhat cheap recreation
They are low key people who like relaxing and don't want/need to be go go go
Public pools and waterparks are dirty and crowded. We always find seating at our neighborhood pool because the lifeguards keep a tight tally on entrance and never go beyond the posted capacity limits
They want recreation that is close enough to walk to.
It is the only outdoor activity you can do during the hottest months of summer.

We go the last hour or two that the pool it open and it tires our kids out so they go right to bed

Anyone can join the neighborhood pool as long as they haven't run out of memberships.

Actually, anyone can join the neighborhood pool as long as they have the money to pay for the annual/summer membership. Since race and $ are linked in this country, there are some very white pool clubs in this area.

Ours is $420/summer. Kids and I go almost every afternoon. We do still go to the zoo (in the fall) and museums (Sunday am before the crowds build) and we have friends over for dinner. Anyone who can join.

What a stupid question.

In FFX county, it's $8/pp every time you go to a public pool. From where I live it's over 30 minutes one way to the nearest public pool. The swim club we belong to is about a 10 minute drive away, and costs $800 for the summer, along with the tennis team, swim team, dive team. If you have multiple kids participating in those sports and going daily, it's not hard to figure it out.

Anonymous wrote:We like to swim. We joined the pool.

This. Have excellent public pool nearby, but the membership pool is walking distance, less crowded, offers longer hours and more activities for the kids. Also most their friends are there too.

We have a very nice pool in our backyard but we still are members of a country club because of the swim team. We go almost daily to the pool. They have great events for the kids like movie nights, tye dyeing t shirts, parties. They have a bar and snack bar.

Growing up in a country where the weather was such that there is no such thing as outdoor pools, summer pool membership is heavenly!! An absolute joy. We have been county pool members in the past and now have a pool across from us so we join for $600/summer and use the hell out of it, including swim team. In my opinion the pool saves us money overall.

We love being outside in the summer. Museums are for the rainy, cold days of winter. We never go to the zoo because i don't enjoy it and find it depressing. I also don't want to have to think about summer activities. I'd much rather just say "let's go to the pool."

The pool we join is about 3 minutes min from our house. Closest public pool is more like 15 min.

membership is $575/summer so nothing crazy. My kids do swim team and love it, seriously highlight of their year. We tend to spend much of the weekend there and go ~ 3 nights a week.

We love going to the pool to see our friends. If we went to a public pool we'd likely not know anyone versus seeing our entire neighborhood and a lots of my kids friends there. Kids also have lots of summer/pool friends that they love seeing.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All of our friends are at the pool. The BBQ occurs at the pool. The kids go to the zoo and museums as part of school field trips. They're not interested in going on the weekends in the summer.

+1 People I know with pool club memberships want to be with people "like themelves" at the club.

Which I think is the problem with this society. White people want to be with white people, black people want to be with black people, immigrants want to be with immigrants.....so on. Why can't people just all be together and enjoy each other than segregating yourself?

Hello 1960.

The pools are not segregated. They look like the community, which in our NOVA fc neighborhood means diverse.

People join their neighborhood pool to:

Easily socialize with their neighors and kids' school friends
join the neighborhood swim team
Keep their kids busy during the hot days of summer
Someone in the family loves water and swimming
Easy, somewhat cheap recreation
They are low key people who like relaxing and don't want/need to be go go go
Public pools and waterparks are dirty and crowded. We always find seating at our neighborhood pool because the lifeguards keep a tight tally on entrance and never go beyond the posted capacity limits
They want recreation that is close enough to walk to.
It is the only outdoor activity you can do during the hottest months of summer.

We go the last hour or two that the pool it open and it tires our kids out so they go right to bed

Anyone can join the neighborhood pool as long as they haven't run out of memberships.

Our neighborhood pool is a 2 minute walk from the house and costs $500/summer. Kids do swim and dive teams and we are there almost every day from late May to late July. It's a total no-brainer for us. I think the better question is "why don't people join a pool?"