Back to the Pool

The past two weeks have been hot as hell. Several days had temps in the low 90s. What is August going to be like when late May and early June are in the 90s already?

I bought a new bathing suit this past Friday. Not only did I need a new size, but my old two pairs are 5 and 10 years old. Something that has annoyed me for several years about men’s bathing suits is why is the style so damn long? I mean, we have disgusting bikini bottoms, or we have freakin’ knee-length pants. Why are women’s swim suits getting smaller and smaller, (no complaint from me about that), and men’s suits are getting longer and longer.

Anyway, I got new trunks. Also, we just joined the local YMCA. We’ve talked about it for years, and the place is really fantastic, huge. When they ran a good deal recently, we decided to go ahead and join in, at last.

The YMCA pool is pretty damn nice. For one thing, it has three pools — a main pool for everyone, a wading pool for young children, (and parents who want to just sit in the water), and a lap pool for the athletes and exercisers. Plus there’s a fountain area with water spraying and geysering up from a couple dozen pipes under the ground. And plus plus, there’s a great water slide — something like an amusement park would have. I’m really impressed with this YMCA.

I took the boys to the Y pool on Saturday. I lathered them up with 50 SPF sunscreen, (30 SPF for myself — I want some sun to get through), and we loaded towels and snacks and water bottles into the car.

We were at the Y for about 3.5 hours, and the boys played in the big pool and in the fountain area. I went down the water slide twice, and then lounged under an umbrella. (Yeah, I know I can’t get a suntan while under an umbrella.)

At the table next to ours was a family of a mom, dad, and little girl. I noticed the dad had on the exact same bathing suit as I did. I mentioned to him, “Hey, cool bathing suit.”

They laughed, and the mom said, “Yeah, we can tell you shop at Target, too.”

During our day at the Y pool, I noticed two other guys (a teenager and another dad) wearing my suit, but in a light blue color rather than my dark blue. I guess I have an eye for what’s the popular style.

The boys kept asking me to get in the water with them, and I did a couple times. But on that hot and crowded day, “playing with Dad” meant “climb and hang all over Dad.” I love my boys, but damn I don’t want to just be a jungle gym in the water the whole time. Either one was wrapped around my chest and the other was wrapped around my back, or they were wrapped around my right and left sides. I couldn’t really swim or play in any way.

After two hours, I reapplied sunscreen to the boys and myself. Unfortunately, we discovered that night that both were mildly sunburned on their shoulders and back. Fortunately, ibuprofen and a slathering of medicated lotion seemed to keep them comfortable. Calfgrit5 says his skin doesn’t hurt. Calfgrit9 says it stings a little, when the meds have worn off.

So, I’m a good dad for taking my kids to the swimming pool for half a day. But I’m a bad dad for letting them get too much sun. I’m a good dad for getting in the water and playing with them for twenty minutes at a time. But I’m a bad dad for getting out of the water after only twenty minutes at a time. I would say +2 and -2 balances out to neutral, but I think the sunburn lingering for day or two pushes the equation over into the bad dad.

I’ve learned my lesson: no matter what advice you’re given about what and when to apply sunscreen to kids, do more and do it more often.

Bullgrit