Frank Behrendt: We stay cool, even without a pool.

When the temperatures rose, our children shifted up a gear and pulled out all the stops. “It would be so nice if we could cool off in the pool,” they whistled between two forks of spaghetti. To make matters worse, we experienced the only really enjoyable European Championship game of our team against Christiano Ronaldo and Co on a humid and warm summer evening with friends who recently treated themselves to a small swimming pool.

After eating grilled sausages and cold drinks, it was of course wonderful to keep your legs in the cooling water. After every goal our boys scored, the children jumped into the water screeching loudly in their national jerseys. Four times they had the pleasure. Many craftsmen groaned when someone called again to inquire about an appointment to plan a home bathing area.

Parents think of costs

An acquaintance told me that a company had reimbursed him for the pool that had already been paid down without any problems when he had to cancel it again due to the lack of a success fee. “They had so much to do that they were more than happy to take a deep breath,” he told me. “Come back when they are liquid again”, the head of the company had given my friend on the way. The pool mania seems to continue for a long time, gold rush mood in blue. Some pools that are posted here and there are more reminiscent of the size of the fatigue pool of a medium-sized football club, but a pool is a pool, if you have it, you show it. During before-and-after shots at various homes, it was observed that there was hardly anything left of the small, fine garden after the wet area had been installed, but that was accepted with approval.

Additional water costs, constant cleaning, non-functioning pumps, leakage problems that many owners often complain about – don’t worry. A little more Hollywood from Attendorn to Wanne-Eickel, that counts. And so I bravely went on every evening in the argumentative battle against our offspring. My points made, that after the approach of a construction company for the popular basketball court, the large trampoline and the lush space for several airtrack tower mats would have struck the last hour, were wiped away ice-cold. The cooling off, the daily swimming, the future permanent pool parties were depicted in the most dazzling colors. We parents, too, could “do a little water aerobics with pool noodles like in the Robinson Club” in the slots, if the pool was not used by the children, as my daughter remarked.

Alternative inflatable pools

Thank you very much. I referred to our inflatable pool, which had always served well before Corona and which served the purpose of cooling off. The live shitstorm was not long in coming: It would be “embarrassing”, “far too small”, “only for babies”. Experienced parents let the rebellious teenagers’ sayings drip off easily on the bow wall of indignation and smile towards the property line. I rummaged in the box of memories and thought of my own childhood. I spent it in a place where the temperatures were significantly higher than in our latitudes: in the tropics, in Rio de Janeiro. When in this country – as happened again recently – “heat-free” was prescribed in school, then it was more of a joke for Brazil. What counts as heat here is rather pleasantly warm there. We couldn’t sleep without the air conditioning in my father’s study. My parents had set up an old swimming pool made of tarpaulin on the terrace that friends had bought. That didn’t bother us, the main thing was to cool off in between, we didn’t want and need more.

Of course, some wealthy school friends had stately pools in their vacation homes, which was nice, but it wasn’t essential for us to survive. Perhaps the expectations of children were different in the past, after all, there was no permanent fire from any influencers on all digital channels that show you the supposedly desirable world of luxurious apartments, corresponding clothes, cars and private wellness oases. The ownership and brand competition has also increased significantly in schools.

Who has what shows, who has less often feels bad. I recently spoke to a teacher who tries every day to teach students the true values ​​of life apart from long-term posing – tough bread. Recently, however, there was a breakthrough on the discussion front at home: Now that the summer holiday by the real sea on Sylt is not far away, the topic of pool has, thank God, been dealt with for the first time. Invitations to friends with a swimming pool are also no longer so popular after it was discovered that you could seldom swim a lane in it, that surfing was not possible and that the helicopter parents always looked out of the kitchen window to make sure that everything was going well. “The pools can’t do anything, you can also go straight to the bathtub,” said my junior expertly and waved him off when the little sister dared to venture again. I did not contradict him …