Wee turns a different colour in swimming pools

When I was younger my parents would tell me that if I peed in the pool it would rise to the top and spell out my name.

ashley

When I was a kid, my mom told me that they put something special in the water at the pool, so that if you peed it would change the water around you into a different color and everyone would know what you did. I was so afraid of this happening that I always scrubbed myself off (down there) before putting my suit on because I didn't want there to be even a trace of anything on me that would alter the water color. It took me years until I found out that that's not true.

Anon

When I was little my parents took me swimming, and they warned me that if I had an accident, it would react with the chemicals and a bright trail would follow me and everyone would know. Needless to say i was terrified that it would happen and their warning did work. I actually did beleive this until I was almost 12! I will definately be using this on my future kids!

Anon

My parents told me that if i peed in a pool, the water around me would turn purple and surround me for the rest of my swim.

chelsea

My parents use to tell all the neighbourhood children that if they did a wee in the pool it would go red and a trail would follow them and everyone would know and for affect my dad would sometimes put food coloring in - the children never did a wee!

Anon

My grandparents owned an in ground pool in their back yard that me and my cousins loved to play in at a young age. They took great pride in that pool and the garden around it and were determined to keep it clean. In order to do that my grandmother told us that if you peed in the pool the chemicals in the pool would make it turn bright red and everyone would no what you did! All of us believed in this until quite recently!

Caugh Red Handed?

when i was little and we went on holiday. i used to be a complete pool baby and i wouldn't get out of the pool. so when i needed the loo i'd just go to the loo in the pool. i know it's disgusting but so was the toilet.
anyway my mum found out and then said calmly to me: "sarah,if you wee in the pool you'll get a purple ring around you when you swim"
i believed her for ages and never did it again.

sarah beakhan

My big brother told me that if you peed in the pool, it would turn purple and chase you.

Elizabeth

When I was 8, I would go to my elementary school's after-school program and every Friday we would all walk down to the pool at another school. The teacher that was with us made everyone sit down (every week) so he could explain the rules. The most important rule was to not pee in the pool because it had special chemicals in it that would make a purple ring would appear around you and everyone would know you did it and make fun of you. He even told us this whole elaborate story about how when he was little his brother told him the same story and he didn't believe it and when he peed in the pool the purple ring appeared and everyone made fun of him for the longest. Then, at my summer camp, one of the counselors told a similar story, except at that pool, apparently, the chemicals made the water turn red instead of purple. Needless to say I always made sure I got out to go to the bathroom after that (but only at those 2 pools!) Long story short, the tales were so convincing that I believed them all the way up until yesterday when I first heard about this site. I was reading the list of the most common beliefs and saw it listed, so I asked my mom if it was all a lie and she just laughed at me! I was so stunned! I couldn't believe it! I felt so ashamed that I was 15 years old and just finding this out!

Yasmine (15-years-old)

My cousin told me that in her local swimming pool they had a chemical that turned your wee bright red and it would follow you around so everyone would know what you'd done. Sure worked on me, I made the effort to get out and use the loos after that!

Claire UK

when i was little my older sisters told me that if i peed in a pool the water around me would turn red so everyone would know i peed! it took me a few years to figure out it wasn't true...

Anon

When I was little I used to believe that if you peed in the pool, the water you peed in would turn yellow and everyone would get out and laugh at you. Now I know that that was a lie. How do I know? You figure that one out

dontjello

When I was about eight my dad told me that when you pee in the pool, it would turn red and follow you around so everyone would know. I used to tell people to swam in my pool not to pee because we had 'the detector', as if it was some well known mechanism. I still don't know if it is true or not... so if I let a little bit of pee come out in the pool, I swim very far away, very quickly.

Alana

I used to believe around age 5 That if you peed in the swimming pool water there's a special chemical in there that makes pee show up as the color purple. Boy was I scared to wee in the pool! One time when no one was looking I peed in the pool, and, to my surprise, all I saw was a few sprays of faint yellow spurt out into the water.

My Nana and PapPap told me this when I was really young to prevent little "accidents" in the pool. It worked for a while until I discovered the truth later on.

Goatgirl

when i was younger when i used to wee in the swiming pool my mum told me that if i ever did it again that a special dye would turn red and then the alarms would go of,

jess watso

my afterschool teacher(who held afterschool at her home) told all the kids that she put a chemical in the pool the reacts when you pee in the pool be forming a red trail behind you. i was always so scared to go swimming because i thought i might accidently leak urine into the pool. every 5 seconds i looked behind me and one time i was just seeing things but i thought i saw the red trail and started crying because i thought i peed in the pool and didnt know it

Anon

When I was a child I used to believe that if I pee in the swimming pool the water around me will turn blue and everybody will see what I have done.

Josef Kalina

I used to believe (up until about 3 minutes ago) that if you went for a wee in a swimming pool, special chlorine in the water would turn the water pink or green around you. The sad thing is the only reason I now know this not to be true is from reading other peoples beliefs from this site and coming across someone who believed the same thing as me. AND I AM TWENTY THREE YEARS OLD lol!!

J

My cousin once told me that the city had a special chemical that could detect if people had peed in the public pool. She said it would cause the urine to turn the water green, thus outing the perpertator for everyone to laugh at. I still don't like to swim in public pools for fear of seeing the water turn green.

Brandy in 'Bama

My neighbors got a brand new pool one year and we all went over to swim. Before we got in the dad came over and told us "Now, we put a special liquid in the water that turns colors if you go pee in the pool, so don't pee in the pool or we will all know you did it."

I didn't believe him... not completely, but I never peed in his pool either.

bendaini