to have been annoyed by this family at swimming?

[CrohnicallyFarting]

We attended a sensory swimming session for under 5s and their parents/carers. It's very relaxing, with lights, music and floats/toys in the water.

There was a mum there with a boy and a girl. The boy was clearly over 5, I would guess at 7 or 8, the girl maybe 3 or 4.

Both the boy and the girl were chasing each other, splashing, doing handstands, throwing toys and sitting on the large floats before throwing themselves in the water (meaning the floats shot out in a different direction).

At one point my DH was hit by a float while holding our DD. We also got splashed heavily in the face once (enough to make DD cough), and lightly from half the pool away several times.

Meanwhile the mum was following the children round saying 'ooh, be careful of the babies, if you can't behave we'll have to go home'. At one point we thought she was going to follow through with her threat, but the boy swam off and she left him to it.

After the float hit my DH, the lifeguard spoke to the boy and removed the floats.

However, the family remained in the pool until the end of the session.

So AIBU to be annoyed?

[Thattimeofyearagain]

YANBU

[WorraLiberty]

I think I'd direct my anger at the staff really

[VanGogogh]

YANBU to be annoyed. I've never been to sensory swimming but it sounds more like a quiet and peaceful activity than is was today.

Did you speak to management?

[HeartsTrumpDiamonds]

No I don't think so! Sensory swimming sounds neat and v calming. Presumably the pool has other public swim times where it is possible to be as loud & rambunctious as you like....

[heronsfly]

YANBU, we run sessions like this at our pool and they are structured
for under 5s.We would probably turn a blind eye to a slightly older well behaved child not all pool staff are ogres but in this situation the older children would be asked to leave the pool .

[WooWooOwl]

I agree that your anger should be directed at the pool who allowed a child over five into the session.

[Shamoy]

Sensory swimming sounds like it's aimed at children with special needs so perhaps that's why the other children weren't behaving exactly as expected?

[CrohnicallyFarting]

shamoy it is aimed at special needs as well, however they run different sessions for special needs and for under 5s, and we attended the under 5s session. I think the boy may have had some sort of SEN as when another parent complained, the lifeguard muttered something about discrimination. While I'm all for inclusion, in this instance the children's behaviour was potentially dangerous- what if the float had hit my DD or one of the other babies instead of DH?

As vanGogogh says, it is normally a calm and quiet session with parents speaking in lowered voices, and with the majority of children being under 18 months, there is little in the way of splashing/swimming sounds either. But today we couldn't even hear the music at some points over the sounds of these children splashing.

I will be registering a complaint with the leisure centre, I didn't at the time as the other parent had no joy with the lifeguard, and by the time we got changed etc DD was tired, hungry and crying so we didn't want to hang around to speak to management.