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SeaStar
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| Posted: April 10 2012 at 6:24am | IP Logged
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Yesterday opened pool season for my dc. They apparently have no genes for sensing cold and were delighted to be in the "brisk" water.
They are water babies, and we spend hours and hours in the water all summer. But already yesterday at the pool there were two middle aged ladies in bikinis...not a good look, but par for the course here, and there will be much more of that to come all spring and summer.
Anyway- we don't have a pool in our yard and would not put one in here, but I can't help thinking how nice it would be to have our own pool. Then I think of the maintenance and safety concerns and believe I am insane for even entertaining the idea.
The pros for us would be convenience and possible having an awning over the pool for shade in the summer, which would be a huge plus. My kids are young and don't really notice all the scantily clad ladies, but I get annoyed, so we wouldn't have that at home, either. I would not have to pack snacks, pool toys, towels, etc every day and cart them around.
The cons would be one more thing to clean and fuss over, safety concerns, loss of yard area, kids always wanting to jump in the pool at inopportune times...
Anyway... just day dreaming.... would you have a pool in your yard?
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Melinda, mom to ds ('02) and dd ('04)
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guitarnan
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| Posted: April 10 2012 at 6:49am | IP Logged
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I wouldn't. This comes from a childhood spent helping friends clean their pools (as in, "You can't go anywhere until the pool has been cleaned."). It's a ton of work.
I would worry terribly about our neighborhood children, who think nothing of playing in our yard instead of their own (even though they have a huge area, a pool and an amazing number of Little Tykes toys). (They play in the street, too, and although we're on a one-block street, that really worries me.) If we had a pool, not even a pool alarm would make me think they would stay away.
I understand your concerns about too much sun and too much, well, everything else...and it does sound tempting to get rid of all those problems by investing in a backyard pool.
I'm just lazy! 
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Nancy in MD. Mom of ds (24) & dd (18); 31-year Navy wife, move coordinator and keeper of home fires. Writer and dance mom.
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Mimip
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| Posted: April 10 2012 at 8:39am | IP Logged
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Ok I'm going to preface this by reminding all that I live in S. Florida and A LOT of people have underground pools......
WE LOVE OUR POOL!!!!!!!!!!!
We are in the pool everyday from about mid may to Mid September. Yes, it is a TON of maintenance and quite a bit of electricity and at least once every winter we let the thing go horribly green (like it is right now from lack of chlorine), BUT I can't imagine life without it.
The one major thing that is that all of my children have learned to swim from a very early age (before a year). We don't have a pool fence but there are no neighborhood children here and we have a locked yard fence anyways. 99% of kids in our area know how to swim but no one plays in our yard if they can't swim. That means that when toddlers come over they have to be supervised by a parent at ALL times when outside. The reality is that if you come over during the summer to my house you come for the pool so everyone is in the pool, adults included.
I know pools up north are totally different but I thought I'd chime in about our one positive of the extreme heat we get all summer. 
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Mimi
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3ringcircus
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| Posted: April 10 2012 at 9:11am | IP Logged
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We won't have one. It's mostly for concern over the LOs, and my convenience, too, truth be told. I like to send them out in the yard and get things done in the house. I can glance out there, but don't have to directly supervise. If we had a pool, I wouldn't feel comfortable doing that. SIL/BIL have a new pool. They elected to have an inground and no fence. Instead of chit-chatting while the cousins entertain each other, DH & I now switch off hard-core guard duty w/ our LOs.
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Christine
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CrunchyMom
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| Posted: April 10 2012 at 9:25am | IP Logged
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3ringcircus wrote:
| We won't have one. It's mostly for concern over the LOs, and my convenience, too, truth be told. I like to send them out in the yard and get things done in the house. I can glance out there, but don't have to directly supervise. If we had a pool, I wouldn't feel comfortable doing that. SIL/BIL have a new pool. They elected to have an inground and no fence. Instead of chit-chatting while the cousins entertain each other, DH & I now switch off hard-core guard duty w/ our LOs. |
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Ditto.
Though, I new last year, one good friend and SIL moved to homes with pools, and it IS nice having the private access to a pool for all the reasons you give, Melinda. I have always hated public pools since I was a child. It really made me uncomfortable to swim with strangers. But, I like letting my little ones play outside on their own too much to ever get one myself.
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SuzanneG
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| Posted: April 10 2012 at 11:13am | IP Logged
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I would consider it, if we lived in a warmer climate, of course. It wouldn't make sense in Seattle, where there are about TWO days over 80 degrees.
But, if we lived in warmer temps, I would consider it ONLY IF....
:: kids were old enough to help with some maintenance. Once my oldest was about 11 or so. Otherwise, NO WAY! Or, I had money to pay someone to do the maintenanace.... 
:: it had a retractable, automatic safety cover thingy.
:: it was totally fenced in with a LOCK, separate from the rest of the yard with a LOCK.
So, LIKE THIS.
LOVE the activity-level of a pool, the running around, etc...that it provides. LOVE that littles could learn to swim without ridiculous lessons. LOVE NOT being at public pools with all the noise, gross-ness. LOVE having a pool for adult-exercise RIGHT in your OWN backyard.
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JodieLyn
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| Posted: April 10 2012 at 11:52am | IP Logged
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Oh I day dream about a pool. But we don't have a long enough summer to manage to teach the little ones to swim (so that we'd have little ones that couldn't swim or might not remember at the beginning of every season)so then I think about a locked fence.. and then I realize that my 2 year olds can climb a 5 foot fence without slowing down.. and then I start thinking about things like well if it was a taller fence.. or if I had planter boxes of vicious thorny plants at the top outside of the fence (hard to climb over something that juts out.. especially if it hurts to touch it).. but in reality it would be a lot of work and expense for 2.5 months of use. 
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ShannonJ
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| Posted: April 10 2012 at 12:09pm | IP Logged
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We do have pool, but only because it came with the house we are renting. Honestly, it freaked me out a bit when we first looked at the house, but after the first summer was over I was glad that we had it available.
When we first moved in it was GREEN. Not just I forgot to take care of it for a bit green, but it hadn't been opened in three years GREEN. It took us about a month to clear it up, but as long as we kept up with the daily maintenance after that it wasn't too difficult. I just kind of lumped pool maintenance in with yard maintenance once a week and skimmed and added chlorine as needed throughout the week, usually first thing in the morning.
The owners of the house have an elevated deck attached to our main deck that provides pool access. We just put up a baby gate and told the children that they were never allowed up to the upper deck without a parent. After the drowning children speech we never had a problem. We also don't allow neighborhood kids on any portion of the deck and added surprisingly cheap liability insurance to our policy.
I must say that I never enjoy going to a public pool, so this has been really nice to just hop in to the pool for a few minutes each day during the summer. I don't really have much of an excuse NOT to let the kids swim. It doesn't get warm enough to open the pool until next month and we close it in October. So we maybe get 4-5 months of use out of it.
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Grace&Chaos
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| Posted: April 10 2012 at 12:42pm | IP Logged
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One of our biggest issues when looking for our new home were POOLS. It seemed that every house we looked at had a pool. Why not we live in Southern CA.  My dh, unfortunately, has a big issue with pool safety due to a very sad misfortunate in his family. We give the kids swimming lessons and enjoy visiting friends with pools during really hot days but just have never wanted the responsibility (safety & maintenance) of one in our home.
I have very over energized adventurous children, a nice roomy backyard was what we really wanted for them. Thus, the abundance of outside time has been wonderful.
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lapazfarm
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| Posted: April 10 2012 at 1:21pm | IP Logged
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I can't have one here, but we did once when we lived in So FL and it was awesome! I would have one again in a flash if we ever moved back south.
I suppose it is different in other areas, but in South Florida practically everyone has one, so it isn't really a big deal as far as neighbor kids. You just have to know which can swim and which can't and require a life jacket for the ones who can't if they want to play around the pool. And then shoo them away if you can't be there to watch them. Same way as if you live on a lake or canal or (dreaming here) beachfront.
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Angie Mc
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| Posted: April 10 2012 at 1:29pm | IP Logged
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Melinda, there was a time when I was anti-pool. Seriously anti-pool. I'm more of a "happy by the side of water" rather than be in water type. I remember all of my reasonable arguments against owning a pool. When Dave came to AZ to look for a home I remember saying, "No Pool!" Then we purchased a home with a pool  .
Now...
I can't overstate how much WE LOVE OUR POOL!!!!!!
Long Use: April through September my kids are in the pool (because they, too, like it cold.) If we get a pool heater, we could be in even longer.
Our 4' Locked Mesh Pool Fence meets or exceeds all state requirements for safety, even for purposes of providing foster care. Animals and children cannot climb it. We keep it up 24/7 but it can be removed for adult parties and such. The gate is auto shut/lock. We also have a locked block fence around our whole back yard.
Our public pool is close to your home, is new & clean, and full of cool activities. We go there often during the summer. Yet, it doesn't compare to the convenience, privacy, and aesthetic of our pool.
My backyard is absolutely more attractive and inviting because of the pool. In the desert, I especially appreciate having a beautiful wet oasis to enjoy while outside and to view from my kitchen. The pool adds water to the air in a way that allows me to have more lush plantings around it compared with other areas of my yard. Being originally from the east, I sooooo appreciate lush!
It is fun! My boys play games galore in it. We have been here 8 years and they have not tired of it. They expend energy in it. Take breaks between lessons. It is cool (literally and figuratively).
Ours is a play pool so while we can't do traditional long laps or dive, we can swim some extent and do other types of water exercise (with floats, etc.) This was GREAT when I was pregnant with JP.
Our home is popular in the summer because many of my friends don't have pools! We often host a 4th of July party because it is so flaming hot here that without a pool there is little enticement to be outside. When we have parties, we rotate adults who are specifically on duty as Life Guard.
Speaking of flaming hot...when it gets to that point in the summer, the pool is absolutely the best gift. I would not go outside (other than from my AC home to my AC van to an AC store and back) if it wasn't for the pool. And night swimming...so lovely, lovely, lovely!
Our pool is a place where my dh and I can hang out, resort style. We have 2 chaise lounges, umbrellas (which we can light at night), drinks with umbrellas...a deluxe staycation!
While I don't hire a home cleaning service, we PAY a guy to care for our pool. Worth ev.ry.pen.ney.
My boys are in the pool right now...giving me enough time to write this reply  .
ETA: Our yard is good sized...enough to fit the pool and a big grassy yard (complete with the latest addition of a huge batting cage  .)
Love,
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DominaCaeli
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| Posted: April 10 2012 at 1:52pm | IP Logged
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We just bought a home and ruled out the houses with pools. I anticipate having littles in our home for quite a while yet, and I felt we would get more use out of a grassy/nature-laden backyard than a pool when we have that kind of an age range. I don't always have time to hang out in the backyard when they're out there playing, so a safe space to play was more of a draw for us than a pool. The maintenance was also a factor, as was the weather: while we live in Northern CA and have a decently-long dry and warm season, we also don't have many of those 100-degree days when going outside isn't an option without a pool.
All that said, I think with the ages of your children and their interest in swimming, Melinda, I might go for it! When I was growing up, both sets of my grandparents lived five minutes away and had pools, so my brother and I spent every day of the summer swimming. We learned to swim early and LOVED it. And I know my grandparents always felt the maintenance was worth it (one set did it themselves, the other had a pool guy come to handle it).
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vmalott
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| Posted: April 10 2012 at 2:58pm | IP Logged
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We don't have the space for one and we live in the north (SW OH), albeit in a much milder tclimate han the the one in which I grew up (upstate NY). I grew up with a pool next door (my uncle), across the street (friends), and a few miles away (aunt), so I was one of the lucky kids who didn't have to pay to swim at the local public pool.
We also live in a neighborhood that has a pool, which I *hate* going to for various reasons, but which I usually get pestered into taking the kids to a couple times each summer.  We are fortunate that my in-laws have a pool and are surrounded by several acres of farmland, so we have our own private little "country club". They live about 30 minutes from us, but it's worth the drive to have the privacy and less worry over the little ones.
I tend to get really anxious when taking the kids to the local pool by myself (even though I have several capable older children to help), so it's not a relaxing experience at all. It's especially challenging when there are lots of people there, since I find I need to count heads frequently (we have no lifeguard).
Anyway, like others, the worry and maintenance are big concerns. And since we have access to a private pool, it's really not something we dream about. Perhaps we would feel differently if we didn't have the grandparents to go to?
Valerie
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SeaStar
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| Posted: April 10 2012 at 3:01pm | IP Logged
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It has been great reading all these helpful comments. Thanks, everyone!
I have always said that I would never have a boat or a pool.... had to eat my words already once about the boat, and now I am rethinking the whole pool thing. We would not put one in our current yard, but if we move, I am seriously thinking of it.
My dc are good swimmers, and I truly believe that as they get older they might enjoy a pool as much as a nice yard. (wouldn't it be nice to have both ). Especially my ds- he has always loved water- it is a good out let for his energy.
Like many of you, I am not a fan at all of public pools. Our neighborhood pool is marginal- too small for the crowd that gathers there in the summer and not always kept on track with the chemicals (we've been asked to get out of the pool several times because the test results were so off...  ). We do have access to the pool in my mom's neighborhood, which is much nicer and is where we usually swim (in fact, just got back...)
But I think we'd all really enjoy having our own pool, and as the kids grow up I would much rather be the house where friends gather vs. having my kids always gone at another family's house., yk?
I figure I should collect my pros and cons now so that I can be prepared if a move comes up.
Of to check out all the llinks that have been posted....
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Melinda, mom to ds ('02) and dd ('04)
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JodieLyn
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| Posted: April 10 2012 at 3:41pm | IP Logged
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Angie, I would have to see that fence keep my kids in to believe it. Of course sometimes they "cheat" and use something else to climb on to get to the top of the fence.. but really.. I have a very hard time keeping littles safely in (or out) of an area the way they climb. 
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Jodie, wife to Dave
G-18, B-17, G-15, G-14, B-13, B-11, G-9, B-7, B-5, B-4
All men who have turned out worth anything have had the chief hand in their own education.
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mom2mpr
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| Posted: April 10 2012 at 3:43pm | IP Logged
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We just replaced the pool (above ground) that came with our house. IT was about 20 years old and very old. Our pool is only open for 3-4 months of the year but the kids love it. They are in it all summer. They have not had swimming lessons and have just learned by being in the water for a few months every year. I do enjoy grabbing a bag of pretzels, water bottles and towels and heading out the door to the yard. A clean bathroom is steps away and if we do need anything, it's close. I know the pool is clean and well maintained--I do it
I review safety every year with the kids. I took WSI and lifeguarded in high school so they get the whole course--age appropriate of course.
The newer pools have great filters and maintenance is easy. There are cartridges of maintenance "chemicals" or minerals or salt, whatever you choose to sanitize your water with. My trickle chlorine cartridge is replaced monthly and the mineral cartridge every season.
I check my ph once a week. Shock every other week with a gentle chlorine, and throw in clarifier the opposite week. I usually hose clean the filter cartridge every other week or so. Vacuum maybe once a month, but we do live in a field, so no trees helps .I usually do pool care Saturday mornings and it averages 15-20 minutes a week.
Now opening and closing require a little more time and effort. Closing is usually a whole weekend affair by the time it gets vacuumed, shock placed and circulated with the filter, then drain, cover, etc. Opening seems easier as the time spent closing pays off .
Good luck in your decision.
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JodieLyn
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| Posted: April 10 2012 at 3:46pm | IP Logged
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Oh and Melinda, if I had kids all old enough to swim and follow rules.. and we had the money for the maintanance and space and all.. even here it might well be worth having a pool.. we all love getting to play in the water. But that's one of the reasons that I would find a fence that would work difficult.. the temptation would be much greater than any sense of dread of any punishment you could think of.. plus none of my kids so far have shown even a healthy respect for the water let alone anything that approaches caution until they're much older.
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cathhomeschool
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I never thought I wanted a pool either. A rule when house hunting in years past was "NO POOL." BUT, we bought this house over a year ago and put a pool in last summer after making an offer on a different house that had a pool. We LOVE our pool! Even though most of the houses on our block have pools, the neighborhood kids still come swim. They go from pool to pool. This year the younger set was in the pool by early March. The high schoolers had a birthday party in the pool over Spring Break but I did heat it for a few hours first. It is so nice that even if they have a few minutes they can jump in. It is great exercise and we didn't swim nearly as much when I had to take them to the city pool. I enjoyed the hot tub this winter -- getting in for 20 mins after everyone was in bed and chores were done if I'd had a long day. We have a "play pool," as Angie calls it with a small shelf area for moms and littles but we also have a swim lane so that the kids can do laps. Last summer we hosted lots of gatherings for friends who don't live in our neighborhood and don't have pools. Getting the chemical balance right on the pool last summer was a lot of work, but that was partly because we were starting from scratch and I had a big learning curve! I don't think this summer will be as bad, though it will definitely be work -- don't get me wrong! I have a pool rover thing that cleans up anything on the bottom of the pool, so I only have to add chemicals and skim the top of the water some. Now, all that being said, if I had a 2 or 3 year old, I wouldn't want a pool -- no way.
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leanne maree
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We have a POOL. We had it built and its concreted shell with extra fine pebblecrete and tiles.
We Love it. We use it often...Dh cleans the pool once a week, and we skim it often.
He finds it relaxing to clean the pool. I have suggested a creepy crawly- self cleaning device..but he turns his nose up..
Here in Australia, we have strict rules on fencing. So all pools must be fenced and cannot be accessed through the house. We have a 1/2 acre, so we made sure we had a large area around the pool for sitting and sunning ones self.
We have solar on our pool as well, and it does help extend the swimming season, but mostly I like warm water, not cold water to swim in.
When we first got our pool build we had a lady come and teach our youngest dd to swim, she was 3 at the time.
All our others could swim..
We tend to stay around when kids are swimming and we are fairly strict on keeping an eye on who is in the water.
We live on the East coast of Oz mid way up NSW so its a great climate for pools.
So yeah, WE LOVE OUR POOl
Leanne
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Leanne
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Erin
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We had a saltwater inground pool in our previous house and loved it! Saltwater is very low maintenance. Like Leanne said fencing rules in Australia are very strict and really such a blessing.
We don't have a pool here (still saving for one) and I've noticed the difference at swimming lesson time. My younger children have had to spend half the time on pool confidence, never a problem with those dc who grew up with a pool.
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4Real Forums : Our Lady's Loom, Larder, and Laundry
Topic: Do you/would you have a pool?
