I took my older DC to the pool a few weeks ago during family swim time (called "swim for all" at our leisure centre. Part of the pool was cordoned off for the fitness swimming - it was completely empty. The "swim for all" section was not busy, but had 5 people who had essentially taken it over and turned it into lane swimming. They got very annoyed when I got in with DC1, who just wanted to dive for rings. We didn't take over a huge section of the pool, but I told DC1 not to worry about getting in the way of the "lane" swimmers as we were just as entitled to use the pool as they were.
After a few huffy exchanges and being told to "control my child" (😂), who was being exemplary, I called the lifeguard over who told us we were perfectly entitled to swim there and the others would just have to swim around us. But after my child was kicked in the head (apparently "accidentally") by one of them, I asked the lifeguard if we could move to the empty "swim for fitness" section, which we had to ourselves for the rest of the session.
Why, just why? Why not just book the correct session to begin with rather than getting huffy when kids turn up and want to do kid things in the family session? Can anyone shed any light?