To think kids shouldn't take priority at gym

[MojoMoon]

My local park has a set of calisthenics bars (for pull ups etc) along with some other "green gym" equipment - stuff you can perform exercises with/against - people bring their TRX or exercise bands to pull against them.
Very much for adults - they are high up so for tall people (slightly higher than ideal for me).

Very well used by young men. And me even though I am not a young man. They are usually quite sweet and encouraging even if they look a bit tough.

Etiquette is someone uses a bar to do a routine set of exercises - ie ten pull ups, then rest for 60seconds then ten fly pulls then rest for 60 seconds then something else etc. Maybe some squat jumps in between that don't use the bars

It's clear when someone is resting between reps - and it isn't that long. When they've done their set, they take their straps off and step away to something else.

I was mid way through a set - done some assisted pull up, Trx band hanging there waiting for next set, just doing ten squat jumps when a woman came over and said " can you move that because my children want to play on the bars".

I politely said no and I was part way through something and she really kicked off.

Kids were maybe 7 and 8 years old so wouldn't get up on the bars without help anyway.

There is a large kids playground literally the other side of the path so I suggested they use the monkey bars there and she said kids were allowed on whatever bars they wanted and I couldn't stop them using these ones.

One of the other bars was free so I just moved there rather than get into it any further.

She didn't ask any of the young men to move their stuff.

aibu to think that the adult calisthenics bars should primarily be used by adults and that kids can go use their playground? I feel it would be weird if I went and worked out in the kids playground.

If the adults bars are not being used, then fair enough but to ask an adult to move part way through what is clearly a set of exercises seems unreasonable to me.

[greendale17]

YANBU- but to ask an adult to move part way through what is clearly a set of exercises seems unreasonable to me.

It is unreasonable and rude

[lalaloopyhead]

YANBU, and woman was very rude. My dd likes to have a go on the gym equipment in our park but I do always say it only ok if other people aren't using it.

She is building a nice sense of entitlement in her child!

[Lottapianos]

Oh dear. Sounds like her and her little darlings must be allowed to do whatever they want whenever they want because they say so Lovely

Totally with you OP. Those outdoor gym equipment bars are for adults.

[GettingAwayWithIt]

**She didn't ask any of the young men to move their stuff.

I hadn’t even got to this bit and knew that she wouldn’t have asked any of the men to move Some people just think the world revolves around them and their children should get everything they want when they want it. It might have been good for the lady to tell her children to wait their turn but then she doesn’t sound like she was that sort of person.

Like you say, there’s an entire section of the park for children which they can use freely.

Fair play to you for not getting into an argument with her, she sounds like a knob.

[LoveInTokyo]

YANBU.

The children will be spoilt, entitled little shits who will grow into equally shitty adults.

(Like the woman behind me at the swimming pool yesterday who kept deliberately swimming into me and when I told her to knock it off she shouted at me and called me a bitch. I really hope she doesn't have children because we really don't need more of her kind in this world.)

[SneakyGremlins]

I bet the children's playground is three times the size of the adult gym too.

[TrudeauGirl]

YANBU the excerise equipment is for adults/teens the playground is for young children. She was being an idiot.

[5foot5]

Is it worth contacting whoever is in charge of the park for clarification on who can use these? It may be that they are considered unsuitable and unsafe for children and if the park keeper or whoever knew that people were letting their children on them they might put up a sign about it. E.g. "Nobody under the age of 16 permitted to use this equipment."

After all you get notices about age limits in children's play areas.

A nice prominent notice might get the message home to entitles woman that her DC shouldn't be on there at all

[BarbarianMum]

I don't think this should be adults vs children, I think it should be first come, first served. In this case you were there first so her kids should have to wait. If they had got there first then you/another adult should wait.

[ikeepaforkinmypurse]

Just a CF, some people live on a completely different planet. I would have just ignored her and carried on.

[LoveInTokyo]

I don't think this should be adults vs children, I think it should be first come, first served. In this case you were there first so her kids should have to wait. If they had got there first then you/another adult should wait.

I disagree.

This is clearly exercise equipment, not play equipment.

An adult doing a set of reps on a piece of exercise equipment will be using it for a few minutes, then they will move on and the next person will get their turn.

Children treating it as play Equipment could easily monopolise it for an hour or more.

[reallyanotherone]

If there were another set of bars free why couldn’t the kids use those?

[MojoMoon]

If there were another set of bars free why couldn’t the kids use those?

Not sure really but would guess that it was either because they were higher - I was on the lowest bar which is even a bit high for me at 5ft 3 so moving to a taller one is not optimal but manageable.
Kids needed lifting up to the lowest bar anyway.

Or because the other bar was right in the middle with young men on either side and my original one was the one at the edge of the gym-park so somehow less hemmed in by the young men?

[roseblossom75]

Maybe she was a bit behind the times and thought the adults were having a little play on the kids equipment? Was she their Grandma?
Most adults would understand that it's gym equipment for adults as lots of parks have them now.

[Mummyoflittledragon]

Ywnbu at all. The gym equipment at the park did have signs all over it when first installed that it wasn’t safe to be used by children. Users had to be over 18 perhaps. I forget.

[CloudIllusions]

It doesn't really matter whether children should be allowed to use the equipment or not. The point is, you were still using it so they needed to wait their turn.

[DarlingNikita]

I don't think it matters about them being kids, apart from that she clearly thought that meant everyone should move heaven and earth for her and her darlings.

The point is that if someone says politely that they're part way through something, you accept it and you don't kick off.

Maybe talk to the staff about making the etiquette clearer?

[ThumbWitchesAbroad]

Last time we were in the UK, we went to the local park to my Dad's, and it has a fenced playground with various monkey bars etc. and an adult gym equipment area outside of that.
There was no one using the gym stuff, so I let my boys try their luck on some of it - but if any adult had come along I would have moved the boys off immediately.

It's bloody obvious that they're for adults, not for kids, and that woman was a total fucking arse for trying to move an adult off obviously adult equipment for her spoilt kids.

[gillybeanz]

We have one of these in our park, the adults tell the dc to get off as there's a sign saying not for under 16's due to H&S.
There should be signs up for this type of equipment.
Can you contact the council and ask where the signs are as this isn't equipment for kids.

[IWannaSeeHowItEnds]

You shouldn't have moved - you just reinforce for her the idea that her kids get priority.

[blackteasplease]

She was very rude. They are for everyone equally and no one gets priority, kids or adults. She was ok to ask as you may have finished but incredibly rude and selfish to kick off.

7 and 8 is also old enough to accept no - not even a toddler having a moment which might have gone some.way to explaining things.

[blackteasplease]

I should say our local one is for kids ans adults - I note from pps that this varies!

[DiegoMadonna]

The young men are BU to use straps

[BarbarianMum]

Our local ones are for kids and adults also.

[Vickster99]

Partly. I agree she was rude and shouldn't have asked you to move in the middle of your exercises.

However, I think it's ok for kids to use adult gym equipment, particularly if they use it properly. My 7 year old DD is a gymnast and uses the adult bars at our park to practise her bar routines. The monkey bars in the kids bit really aren't suitable for this. Why should an adult get priority over her as long as she waits her turn?