Well, obviously, the title is a joke. There wasn't a real puppy mill at the pool but there were 2 moms with a litter of kids each and kind of treated them like you see dogs in puppy mills treated. You know, sadly over looked and allowed to pretty much do whatever they can do in a tiny area no matter who else is in the area or how offensive the puppies actions might be. And to further my puppy mill references, there was even a bitch feeding her puppy on the tit at the pool! (now that might seem offensive, but it is a completely acceptable way to describe a mother dog feeding her puppy) Fully covered, but it still completes my puppy mill analogy.
Now I know you are reading this and thinking to yourself (a) Rea must really hates kids, especially a family with more than one kid or (b) oh shit! she's gone off her meds and none of this is going to make any sense to anyone outside of the voices in her head. I can assure you neither of those things are true and I'll tell you the whole story. And I promise, by the end, you too will hate the "puppy mill mom" like K and I did. See, I forgot that part, huh...I wasn't alone during this! Haha
K and I decided last night we needed to get the kids (and ourselves) out of the house. After some discussion we decided to take them to the pool at White Beach, which though kind of a drive, is usually empty and has a kiddie pool perfect for our toddlers. We left this morning a little after 10am and made it to the pool around 11am. Just in time to see (a) a van of kids unload (greaaat) and (b) a sign that says "Pool Closed from 1130am to 1230pm Daily for Lap Swim". We quickly changed the kids and hoped for at least a few minutes in the pool before having to leave and hit either the beach or the playground by the campgrounds. As it turned out, the kiddie pool was not affected by the lap swim, so we were all able to stay in the pool area.
We had Nixon and little Miss Macy, who's been mentioned in previous blogs. Another family had 2 boys probably between the ages of 5-8 years old....in the kiddie pool. The family who unloaded as we arrived?? Yeah one mom with: an infant in a carrier (the titty baby), a toddler a little younger than Nixon, what looked like twins around 4 years old and 2 much older child (a boy and a girl I'd say looked to be around 7-10 years old). Again all...in...the...kiddie...pool. Which is a figure 8 shaped pool. And is only 1'10" deep, and maybe 8 feet long. It's really not a big pool, because it's a KIDDIE POOL!!!
We get Miss Macy and Nixon to the pool, and the older kids are jumping into the pool, swimming under water, splashing each other and generally showing that they do not belong in that pool. I put Nixon's floaty vest on him (so to even the most ignorant person, the fact that a kid is wearing a padded bright yellow with flames on it vest would say "This kid is not used to water!") and put him in the pool, while I sit on the edge of the pool so he can hang on to me while getting comfortable. As soon as he is in the water, the older kids are jumping into the pool behind him and splashing us! Nixon starts to kind of freak out, and seeing this PMM ("puppy mill mom", from here on out), spoke "Not everyone wants to be splashed." Then went back to her iPhone and rocking the infant in the carrier with her foot.
I wish I could say that was the worse but it wasn't. Nixon got pushed, from under water, by one of the older kids swimming underwater and not paying attention to the little kids. One of PMM's own kids got his arm stuck in the draining area around the pool and was crying and quite upset. She never moved and waited for an older sibling to go help him (or for him to drown, I'm really not quite sure which end result she was hoping for). K and I got dirty looks from her because we wouldn't listen to her oldest child ramble on about "watch me", "look what I can do", "did you see me?", "where you watching?", "okay, I'll do it one more time, but you have to watch me, are you watching...look here I go". Honestly, I felt bad for the kid, because she just wanted someone to pay attention to her. I also wanted to say "Seriously kid, your siblings are almost drowning my son who actually did come out of my vagina and is kind of really important to me so I'm sorry if I'm not looking at you because you feel like I have enough time to look at you". I did NOT say that, but I was totally thinking it! Apparently PMM felt that since I only had one child to watch I should be honored to be entertained by her eldest child. Sorry, this mommy doesn't care that much about a child that didn't come from my vagina. (But K, I love Miss Macy! Just like I love my nieces and nephews! They're all exceptions to that rule)
Can some please explain to me when publicly correcting your child became taboo?? Nixon got out of the pool and was running around it. Clearly this is unsafe and was not to be acceptable. I told him "Nixon, that's one. You keep running around the pool and you will go in Time Out. Do you want to go in Time Out?" He, of course, said no and left me. All I had to do was watch him and count, with a reminder that 3 was a trip to T.O. He stopped running and would walk, though it was a long gaited walk it was still a walk and not a run, around the pool. K was sitting next to me and we were talking. PMM was sitting on the opposite side of the pool from us and she saw Nixon and I have our discussion and saw me compliment Nixon for walking by me ("Nixon that's awesome! Thanks for walking around the pool. High five!" and "Nixon you are a rock start today for listening and not running!") as he did laps on the outside of the pool. PMM shook her head everytime Nixon walked by and I complimented him, like I was spoiling him or ruining him or something along those lines. Like it was horribly offensive that I might thank my son for listening to me and NOT run around the pool. I get it's not a common approach, but it's my approach and it kept me from yelling at him (too much) and chasing after him (only twice and that was later on). Meanwhile, PMM's litter was still in the pool, with Miss Macy alone this time, being rambunctious and unconcerned for another child's safety. What chafed me was: there was a lifeguard on duty. At several time he should have (in my opinion) come over and asked the older kids to get out of the pool. They were doing unsafe acts, putting other children at risk and were clearly too big for the kiddie pool in the first place. (There's a complaint to the MWR outdoor recreation department coming about that...believe me)
Just when we thought PMM and her litter was leaving....another mom with HER litter (4 kids: infant, toddler and 2 older children, I'd guess between ages 5-9) showed up! More older kids in the pool. More rough housing ensues. Thankfully, they stayed less than 15 minutes and then left to go....well who the hell cares where they went the point is they fucking left! Leaving only the 2 older boys (about 5-8 years old), who thought roughhousing and shit like that was a good idea. Once the pool was empty, Nixon wanted to be in it. I was sitting on the edge (K, with Miss Macy, went to the car to get a drink that she'd left there) and these 2 boys started splashing Nixon and I. I gave them a free pass. Once. Nixon walked to the other side of the pool, and the oldest kid jumped into the pool right over Nixon's head, who he had clearly seen was there, I said "please be careful of the little one." K came back into the pool with Miss Macy and the kids were happily playing in the pool, when the boys started to get really out of control. Their parents totally ignoring the sign that said "Children in the pool must be closely supervised by an adult at all times", were too busy taking, what I can only assume were, facebook photos of each other on the other side of the gate that separates the kiddie pool from the other pool to pay any attention to what was going on until they heard my bitch voice say "Hey, ya wanna knock it off. There are two small children in this pool too". THEN the parents pay attention. Oh, and the lifeguard? Yeah, he came in. To check the pH balance of the water, which given the ages of the kids is a good idea, but it also means he did in fact know how to get into the kiddie pool area so he could have at any time come in and said something to the PMM kids.
We left shortly after that. An hour and a half seemed a fair amount of time in the pool for the kids, who both feel asleep on the car ride home.
I do feel I need to say I don't care how many kids a family has. I do care when you take them out in public and do not interact with them at all, instead expecting them to entertain themselves at the expense of everyone else around you and them. Someone could have been seriously injured and PPM had 2 children who were in potentially dangerous situations, both with drowning a probable outcome and her response was to tell and older sibling to "get your brother". Kids who are over 4 feet tall and jumping into water less than 2 feet deep, is a BAD idea! The bottom of the pool is slippery, if one of those kids slipped...blood and mess and lots of bad stuff. That's what would've happened. She nursed the infant for 10 minutes, the rest of the time he/she was in the carrier with the sun in his/her eyes and PMM was on her iPhone. It's annoying that I take my son to have fun and I get treated like a kid because there are kids in a kiddie pool who are nearly as tall as I am! Yeah, you don't belong in a kiddie pool. Mom needs to get off her ass and play with her kids, not Duggar the responsibility to the older siblings.
And how is it, I put sunscreen on AND still get sunburned?!?!?
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