It’s summer again and you know what that means - pool season! Time to pick all the yuckies and the nasties out of the water, shock it with chlorine, and get your laps in.
Where I’m from, having a pool is a privilege, so it’s only natural that the people with pools often get a lot of requests from people wanting to take a quick dip.
Today’s story is like that - some family members asked to use a couple’s pool, but forgot to disclose that they were gonna start a whole party, leading to a small family conflict.
More info: Reddit
Pools are a luxury and it's no surprise that people love to come over for a splash if they've got the chance to
Image credits: Thibault Om (not the actual photo)
A woman took to the internet to vent about her fiancé and the impromptu pool party his brother organized
Image credits: u/silver_endings
Image credits: Vlada Karpovich (not the actual photo)
Her fiancé's brother asked to use the pool but "forgot" to mention the fact that he'd be bringing about 8 more people
Image credits: u/silver_endings
The party, which ran for about 6 hours, upset the poster as it seemed the guests had no interest in interacting with her, only the pool, but her fiancé disagreed
Now that you’ve got the long, short and the middle of it, let’s discuss. And by discuss, I mean I monologue for the rest of the article, while you respond to me and the story in the comments below.
Don’t forget to share your thoughts, I mean it!
I feel like this whole thing would be a non-issue or at the very least a much smaller issue if the fiancé’s family hadn’t brought a whole entourage of friends along, especially unannounced.
Guests are already pretty draining a lot of the time if you’re more of a welcoming person and want them to be happy at your place, as you’ll be doing a lot of jumping around them, making sure they’ve got food and whatever else they need. And they brought 3 kids along with them! I bet that would put any person’s “good host” anxiety meter into overdrive.
But, as you know, that’s only the first dark cloud far off on the horizon.
I did some first-grade math and if my estimates are correct, instead of just the future-brother-in-law and his family of 5 coming over, it was a total of 13 people! Imagine thirteen people having a full-blown party above you, on a Sunday, all while you’re trying to work in your basement.
I don’t think anyone would feel bad about not having a pool, having heard of this story.
Image credits: Kindel Media (not the actual photo)
The poster could have just said no, but she didn’t know what was going on and her fiancé was cajoling her, saying that it’s all good and normal. Also, it’s not often a good move to pick a fight with your family members and friends.
The poster remained diplomatic and chilled inside, doing the chores she had planned to do on that day, while 14 people (her fiancé had joined the fray by now) partied on for a total of 6 hours.
This led to some friction between the couple, as the fiancé thought it was rude of her not to come out to hang out with the guests, while she felt justified in her actions, as everything the guests did indicated that they came over just for the pool and not for their company.
Image credits: MarcTutorials (not the actual photo)
If you were wondering what was meant by saying “pool season” in the intro, it turns out that’s kind of a thing. It happens on Memorial Day weekend at the end of May, when pool stores are jam packed with people buying supplies.
This would also probably be a lot less of a problem if the story had happened in New Zealand, as the country holds the record of pools per capita according to the 2006 census, with 65 thousand home pools for 4.1M people.
Going back to the story, many people said that she doesn’t have a guest problem, but rather a fiancé problem. Perhaps the problem is wording it a bit harshly, as the couple simply seems to have different boundaries, with the guy being OK with random guests using the pool, while she isn’t.
Neither of these is wrong, but it’d probably do the couple good to talk about it.
The original post collected 8.5k upvotes in less than a day with 1.6k comments. The community judged that the poster wasn’t a jerk, saying that the guests are kinda odd for just rolling up like that, but even more so that the couple needs to hash it out before moving on.
Share your thoughts about this debacle below, we’ll be waiting for your thoughts!
The community judged the poster not to be a jerk but suggested she have a talk with her partner
