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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to have lost my patience standing, dripping with water in the swimming pool foyer?

24 replies

betterwhenthesunshines · 27/05/2011 12:53

I'll try to keep this short... I'm trying to teach my daughter to swim (age 6 Blush . We have 2 local pools we go to regularly (one less so as it has been closed so often due to broken boiler). Both pools had noodles and floats of their own you could borrow.

Last time we went, we got changed, went to the pool and got in ( 2 children in tow) and I looked around for a float but couldn't see any, so I got out and politely asked the lifeguard where they were. Was told thay had been taken off to the teaching pool which is in the same space but was closed to the public that day. I explained they usually had floats and my daughter was using them to learn to swim - could he ask if we could borrow one today. So off he went to the other 2 lifeguards where they all had a discussion and he walked back to me. "No" Hmm Started to get a bit fed up, but still polite, he said I could go and ask at reception.

So I get out of the pool with 2 wet children and we go to recpeption and wait. Patiently. Then I ask the lady if I can borrow a float as they all seem to be in the other pool. She said if the lifeguards say no, then no. Then I ask to speak to manager who comes out and explains that some floats have been damaged /stolen so they can't lend them to people anymore. Confused so i say well, I won't damage it, but we are here now and my daughter needs one to swim. He says there's nothing he can do. Well yes, you can stop accusing me of being a tea leaf and make an exception now that we are here, surely a public swimming pool should helping to promote swimming not make it harder. By this stage I admit I was pretty cross, but only after 4 jobs-worths had refused what I though was a perfectly reasonable request.

Upshot is that I had to get a refund, get 3 poeple dry, drive to another pool. Borrowed their floats OK - this is the same London borough and part of the same chain. They looked at me as if I was crazy when I asked if they had floats to borrow and said of course.

What do u think?

OP posts:
Bathsheba · 27/05/2011 12:57

Write to the first pool and ask, in writing for their policy on flaots, because I'll bet you find the next time you go and someone else is the duty manager it'll be different...

We recently had to leave a pool before getting in (not as annoying as you had there) because there wasn't the right ratio of adults to children. We phoned another pool in the same council region, explained who we had and we were fine within the regional policy which was displayed in the 2nd pool.

There seems to be a lot of inconsistancy in pools - I'll genuinely put money on it that the lifeguards today just couldn;t be bothered tidying up the floats so they were locked away today, whereas someone tomorrow will feel differently

controlpantsandgladrags · 27/05/2011 12:58

I think you were unreasonable to make your young children stand and wait at reception dripping wet and presumably freexzing cold!

Pools in our are don't have floats or swimming aids for the public to use. They only unlock them for lessons. Did the pool not have a shop you could have bought one from?

nijinsky · 27/05/2011 12:59

I can't speak for your local area or anything, but as a regular swimmer, I always have my own "pool toys" ie pull buoy, float and swimming mits. I think the pool's swim toys are for clubs which buy them and keep them there, or for lessons. I suspect if anyone was allowed to borrow them, they go missing. If you want to buy your own, try www.swimshop.co.uk

I once had a mother with child borrow my pull buoy (with my name written on it) which I had left at the end of the lane I was swimming up and down. That was quite funny!

Original poster
betterwhenthesunshines · 27/05/2011 12:59

The floats weren't even locked away - just sitting in a pile about 30ft away. That's why it seemd so bloody ridiculous they wouldn't lend me one.

OP posts:
MumblingRagDoll · 27/05/2011 13:00

Our pool gt all funny when we asked last time....we also hav a DD who at 6 can't swim...Blush

They DID give us one but reluctantly...we bought our own.

Seona1973 · 27/05/2011 13:01

our local pools dont have floats available for public use so we bought our own and take them with us - ds loves his noodle.

LyingWitchInTheWardrobe2726 · 27/05/2011 13:03

Can you not just buy a float, OP? Confused

I understand your annoyance but what if they had had a class on when you arrived and all were being used? Get your own and you'll never be disappointed again... unless you forget to take it with you.

ProfYaffle · 27/05/2011 13:04

We bought our own and got told we couldn't use them! Hmm

Original poster
betterwhenthesunshines · 27/05/2011 13:06

The pool shop only sells goggles, not floats. We do have our own woggle which I used to take, but it used to get taken by other children all the time. Which was fine, I just used to ask for it back when we needed it. But this pool used to have woggles and floats so I had stopped taking ours and been using theirs instead as it seemed simpler.

We have our own dive sticks etc, but I hadn't bought a float as you need them for a short while and it hadn't been necessary until now.

controlpants - it's ok, they weren't cold - it was one of those hot days. I suppose I just wanted to make a point :)

I can understand the initial situation but it was the way there were SOO fixed and wouldn't deviate. It was a real 'computer says no' type of response that got me so mad.

OP posts:
Marrow · 27/05/2011 13:08

Well I imagine that OP can use her own but hadn't brought any with her as she has always been able to use the ones at the pool before.

Marrow · 27/05/2011 13:09

X posted with OP

Original poster
betterwhenthesunshines · 27/05/2011 13:09

Lying Witch - they have about 200 floats (4 stacks up to my chest) so unlikely not to have enough.

I hope she'll be swimming without one soon, but until then I guess I'l just go to other pool (which is warmer anyway :o)

OP posts:
Original poster
betterwhenthesunshines · 27/05/2011 13:10

Prof Yaffle - why couldn't you use your own ?! Don't they actually want people to swim??

OP posts:
PumpkinBones · 27/05/2011 13:12

Have never really used floats but I have noticed at our local pool there are often problems with "personal" floats being appropriated by random children - not in a deliberate way, they just assume, as there are often pool floats knocking about too, that any in the pool are fair game. if your child holds their own float all the time then fine, but most of them don't hold the float / woggle constantly the whole time.

cunexttuesonline · 27/05/2011 13:13

YANBU, they sound like a bunch of twats.

Original poster
betterwhenthesunshines · 27/05/2011 13:17

Hooray! Nice to have someone back me up. :)

DH says I lost the moral high ground once I got cross and grumpy but it had been like talking to a brick wall with not one drop of common sense. Angry Feel much happier about the bunch of twats now. And will continue to go somewhere else.

OP posts:
ProfYaffle · 27/05/2011 13:18

The 'being taken by other people' thing is what we were told. Fortunately it wasn't our local pool.

OTheHugeManatee · 27/05/2011 13:26

They sound a tiny bit U. But couldn't you just buy your own float?

COCKadoodledooo · 27/05/2011 13:38

I think you should probably just spend £4 on a noodle of your own.

Once the lifeguards had said no, I wouldn't have taken my wet children to reception, I'd have dried them and gone to get a refund as you did.

FabbyChic · 27/05/2011 13:42

Sorry but why don;t you just buy your own floats? Or is that too hard?

BeeLister · 27/05/2011 13:54

When dd was having swimming lessons last year. It was so annoying when other people helped themselves to the teachers stuff. She was forever having to ask for it back.

I can understand why the swimming pool do not want to lend out their swimming lesson equipment if it does go missing but it is odd if their is no consistency across the borough. Asking for their policy is a very good idea.

Maybe it was the large poacher pockets in your costume that put them off lending to you Wink

ohnelly · 27/05/2011 14:07

Yanbu!! Miserable sods!

nijinsky · 27/05/2011 14:16

Its worth buying a float or a pull buoy OP, as you can use them for the purpose of each other. When your daughter no longer needs a float, she can use it to isolate her arm stroke when doing front crawl.

tyler80 · 27/05/2011 14:22

The pools we attend don't lend out floats just because they can get damaged/worn just through normal use. I can't blame them for wanted things they invested money in to last as long as possible.

Yanbu to be annoyed at the inconsistency in rules, but standing in the foyer in your swimsuit arguing the point just makes you look like a bit of a loon

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