I took my son to a public pool today.
I thought about this outing a lot. I have been taking COVID-19 seriously since the beginning, with my family being extremely limited in going out and extremely vigilant with mask wearing, social distancing, etc.
But my son is six. He needs sunshine, fresh air, physical activity and to get outside. Our backyard and the beach are wearing thin. I saw some pictures online of the pool I wanted to go to, and it was almost empty. I drove by without my son on a weekend day, a time which I would expect to be very busy for a pool. There weren’t a lot of people there. I decided to go for it.
I prepped my boy by telling him the pool only allowed a certain number of people in at a time, and if it was too crowded, we might not be able to enter.
We walked in to an empty pool except for the life guards, and my heart lept with happiness. Masks were required to come through the gates, but once we put our stuff down and got in the water, thoughts about masks and COVID-19 faded away.
Our morning turned into a typical summer day, with cooling water, laughing and having fun. It was a small splash of our old normal, with no worries about illness or case numbers. And it was absolutely wonderful. For over an hour, we – and by that, I mean me – had peace and relaxation.
Another mom came in with her daughters. They took one side of the pool while we stayed on the other. Eventually, more families started trickling in, and my spider senses told me it was time to go. Thankfully, my son was ready and so we left happy and calm.
I don’t know if we will ever get back to the old ways of what was considered normal, where a day at the pool is no big deal. I don’t care if you think I am over-reacting about taking a swim. All I know is, for a short time on a pandemic Tuesday, everything was ok.
