The Home Swimming Pool – Is This Still A Thing?
As I travel to and fro on the back roads and byways of my community – you know what I DON’T see a lot of these days?
Swimming pools.
Above ground, in ground – whatever. I just don’t see a lot of homes with swimming pools anymore – especially in new construction.
Growing up, it seemed that friends who had a pool were to be envied. Their house had it all. As a kid, if only I could have stepped outside my back door and fallen into a pool of liquid bliss, carelessly splashing the summer afternoons away – ahhh, the dreams of youth. All we had growing up was one of those plastic wading pools with a mini-slide (with an accompanying bucket to dip one’s feet in before getting in to keep the grass clippings out of it). My Mom hated the wading pool – because it killed the lawn underneath, leaving this gaping, round, circle of dirt after two weeks. I couldn’t wait to be invited over to a friend’s house who had a “real” pool. You better believe I’m coming over.
As I grew into adulthood, I slowly came to realize what all pool owners seem to know (and will gladly tell you).
Owning a pool is a PITA (pain in the *ss).
Like owning a boat (where the old adage – the best days in the life of a boat owner are the day one buys it and the day one sells it), pool owners adopt a similar stance. Once it’s in, there comes with it the constant maintenance and upkeep. Want to keep that pool sparkling and picturesque? Good luck trying to keep the chemicals in balance on a hot day, followed by rain, followed by cool temps. The science required to keep a pool in clear perfection would make Einstein reach for a bottle of Advil – but it has to be done, because no one wants to take a dip in green or yellow pool.
Then there’s the debris. If your pool is not screened in (and even if it is), there’s the constant vacuuming, filter cleaning, and filter maintenance. You could, or course, ask the kids to do it. Ha-ha-ha-ha! Whoooo! That’s a good one.
Does it have a deck (for an above ground pool) or surrounding landscaping? More upkeep. In-ground model? That requires a fence so someone doesn’t accidentally fall into it and drown (and will also need a pool alarm, just in case). In my neck of the woods, it will also need a cover for the winter months. Cha-ching!
Just look at the face of a Mom or Dad who has a swimming pool. The kids are having a great time, but the parents have the look of someone who was just handed a second property tax bill or is having a sudden hemorrhoid flare-up. If you’ve been to a barbeque or cookout at a friend’s home who has a pool, ask them about it. They’ll rant about it for hours. Thinking of purchasing one for your own home? They’ll actively and seriously try to talk you out of it.
My kids begged for a pool and I ended up getting one of those big inflatable wading pools from Sam’s Club to keep the whining at bay. Want to know how many times they used it? Once – and then it became this slimy, green thing filled with hot water and dead Japanese beetles that they wouldn’t touch anymore. It rested – half-inflated – in my storage shed for years before I finally disposed of it. At least it was only a $40 mistake – not a $5,000 one (or more).
So, if your kids are complaining about the summer heat, do what I do.
Point at the garden hose.
2 thoughts on “The Home Swimming Pool – Is This Still A Thing?”
Unless you can afford a pool maintenance company be prepared to spend a lot of time and money keeping up with a pool. After several years of no one using ours (the grandkids had gotten older) we took our above-ground pool apart and sold it. Tore down the decking, filled in the hold and planted grass — at least that only has to be mowed.
Have good friend who has had in- ground pool for at least 30 couple years. For at least the last 29 years, or so, he has complained about maintaining it and threatens to “fill the dm’d thing up with dirt”. So far wife, grand kids anf about to arrive great grand kids have kept him from doing so.