Their Compasses Work

We've always had a health club with a pool in our town, but at the end of summer last year it closed due to financial reasons.

No one was happier than my kids to see that it recently aquired new owners and was once again going to open to the public.

They advertised everywhere with a flyer that read, "Grand opening pool party, everyone welcome". It then listed the membership prices. Well, to me, it read like there would be free swimming, so we showed up on Saturday ready to swim. We soon found out that it was not free at all but $9 for the first person, and $5 for every person thereafter in our group.

I told them I wasn't interested, but took a minute to go say hi to a friend I saw sitting poolside. She said she read the flyer and thought the same way I did, that swimming was free, but since she already told her kids they could go, she paid $24 to swim for the afternoon. She said she was even charged for her infant.

The girls were pretty disappointed. We left and headed for the car and to go swimming at the pool where I work, which is free for us, when the owner came out and said, "Hey, what's it worth for you guys to swim today? Five bucks?" I thanked him, but told him no, I misinterpreted the flyer and we were just going to go somewhere else. Then he said we could just go in for free. Again, I thanked him, but at this point was feeling a bit awkward.

He finally left, and I asked the girls what they wanted to do. They had really wanted to go to this pool with it's fun slide and everything, but to my surprise they said no, they didn't want to go in for free because it wasn't fair. They said how could we got sit next to our friends and use the pool for free after they had to pay so much money?

I was pretty proud of them all. Their moral compasses are working.