bizarre swimming goggle rules

[lucykate]

dd (age 9) wears prescription goggles for swimming (poor vision), there is already a bit of a contradiction in our area when it comes to goggles in that she is allowed to wear them for her paid swimming lesson, but not allowed to with her school swim (same pool, same teaching staff, although we have special permission as she cant see without them)

been swimming to a different local pool today, dd went on the slide with her goggles on, the lifeguard knew and said it was ok. second time she went on, and now we're told by a different lifeguard she can't wear them. it does say in the pool rules no goggles, fair enough, but i'm a bit puzzled as to why they have this rule. the manageress said it was because goggles can hit the face causing injury, but...

1. surely goggles have gone through health & safety testing before actually being put on sale as a product?

1. olympic swimmers wear goggles while traveling fast through water.

1. how can something already strapped tightly to the face, hit you in the face?

1. they were quite happy for dd to go on the slide without her goggles. to climb quite high, up steep, wet, slippery steps without actually being able to see where she's putting her feet. is that not more dangerous?

so, aibu?, are these goggles rules needed or is it health & safety gone mad?

the hats rule is to keep the pool filters clean which in turn keeps the pool water cleaner as the filters are not clogged up with hair of any length- so I can see why everyone male or female, long or short hair should wear hats into the swimming pool.

googles rule is bizare to me, why not let dc or adults wear goggle if they want, why have to send a letter with the goggles to school swimming lessons, but there you go and someone one day will explain to us the bizare googles ruling

ivykaty44 I use three local pools. None of them force people to wear hats!

local to where? if you are local in Portugal or italy then this is very unusual not to have the pool staff force you to wear spedos and hats - if you are local to france or UK then it is not the done thing to wear speedos or hats! So where are you local to?

mumwithadragontattoo - they wouldn't let her do that

teenieleek - dd didn't go on the slide when she was unable to see. the point i'm making is that on all previous occasions when she's been on the slide, she has worn her goggles. on this occasion, she was told not to wear them. i did tell her she couldn't go on, but it was a bit hard to swallow as a parent when she's in tears watching all her friends go on without her. yes, she has poor vision, but it's not a disability and is easily corrected, with prescription goggles!

cuttingpicassostoenails - i think dd is more likely to get injured without the goggles on than with. plus i would imagine the health & safety testing goggles go though before being put on the market would cover this. probably why the lense has a rubber surround, to protect the face from any injury.

at the pool in question, you can wear goggles while swimming, just not on the slide. never heard of the swimming hat thing though!

You could try speaking to the pool manager, followed up by a letter. I'd ask for a risk assessment of the dangers of extremely shortsighted people falling and injuring themselves on the slide, and mention in passing that excluding people with vision problems from using the slide might have implications under the Disability Discrimination Act.

I've found that countering H&S rules by pointing out the risks attached to the enforcement of these rules often has a magic effect . . .

(I also sympathise as someone who has been known in a strange changing room to have to ask someone to show me where the pool is when going swimming with no corrective goggles!)

Neer heard of a no goggles pool that's mad!

no goggles in a pool is madness.
no goggles on a slide i can understand. My brother wore googles on a water slide, turned on to his side half way down, face pressing against the bottom, goggles slid and turned with the eye piece moving off the eye socket and pressing onto his eye. just burst blood vessels and seeing funny for a few weeks, but it does happen...

the issue is not swimming with goggles on it's diving or sliding with goggles on.

ZOMBIE!