Ratting Out the Neighbors
It seems like everyone in our neighborhood was kicking-off their July 4th celebrations at our community pool party. We had a DJ, free food and fun games for the kids. I’ve never seen our pool so full of people, and not only were most families planning to spend yesterday pool-side, they were planning to spend today and tomorrow relaxing and splashing as well.
At 4:00 yesterday afternoon, it happened again … someone pooped in the pool, which requires an immediate closing that lasts 24 hours.
You may remember fecal contamination closed our pool several times as the season started, but parents seem to have wrapped rubber pants around the problem and we’ve been fecal-free for a few weeks.
Shit happens, right? Well, the following excerpt is from an email sent by our neighborhood property manager yesterday. I had already left the pool by the time the dirty deed was done, and I have no idea who’s responsible, but even if I did, I’m not sure that encouraging neighbors to rat each other out is the way to build a real community. If you knew who the pooper was, would you tell?
“…Some parents are not being responsible with their children at the pool. They are not taking their children to the bathroom. The guards checked the children under 3 all day today and made a loud speaker announcement that children under 3 must wear a swim diaper and rubber pants. The accident more than likely came from a child over the age of 3 who had not been taken to the bathroom during the day. If you have any information on who the child’s parents are, please let us know. All information given will be kept confidential. This will allow us to suspend this family from the pool for a period of time.”
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Comment by Amy on 5 July 2008:
My first thought is YUCK! This must be stopped and indeed it does need to be stopped BUT parents need to be responsible — these young children who are 3,4,5, or even 6,7,8 year old just may not have the complete body control that they should! I just think that punishing the children is NOT okay! And we all know that most likely if the parent is punished the child will be too!
Maybe gathering anonymous information on how to handle the issue from all community members would help — ask the question of how to handle the older child and accidents, maybe even the culprit will have some ideas that will help in the future!
I agree with you Tricia, finding someone to BLAME does not build a community! Hey, just my thoughts!
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Comment by Mrs. G. on 5 July 2008:
No way!
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Comment by Doug on 5 July 2008:
That’s amazingly inept. Nothing unites a community like asking neighbors to snitch on one another. A more Solomon-esque approach would be closing the entire pool for a Saturday as a “tough love” message to all neighborhood parents that they have to take pre-emptive action against their children’s accidents?
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Comment by The Other Laura on 5 July 2008:
Even if you knew, (and yuck how would you really know) I think this is a situation that calls for diplomacy more than snitching or tough love.
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Comment by Memarie Lane on 5 July 2008:
Why do people always assume it was a kid? Could have been anybody.
Comment by WickedStepMom on 6 July 2008:
That is just crazy that it keeps happening. I imagine that if they cannot find the culprit, they will just have to close the pool for the summer, which would be worse than ratting out the neighbors. Good luck finding the poop-itrater.
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