Virgin Active New Swimming Rules

[Fiona142]

Hi

I wasn't sure where to post this. Whilst pregnant I left my local Esporta and just used my Local Authority Pool with my DS aged 4. However when my now 10 week old was six weeks I rejoined the club which has now been taken over by Virgin Active primarily because they have a great crèche and to be able to take my two children swimming. Yesterday they announce new swimming rules that I will not be able to take my two swimming together as I must be 1:1 with the baby unless my child passes "the shark test" which includes swimming 50m in 2 mins baring in mind this is a 20m pool and my son is never 3 m away from the
Edge or a rope. Having spoken to my son's swimming teacher they have said they doubt that many under 8's will be able to do this. I am so angry having spoken to the club there response was much along the lines of get a babysitter or use the crèche. If I had known at the time of joining I would have joined my (considerably cheaper) local authority gym and asked my parents to look after my youngest and gone to the gym whilst my eldest is at nursery.

They do not seem to be listening to reason;

1. My son is an excellent swimmer for his age and has been attending Puddle Ducks since he was six months old. He has his 5m badge and I would be happy to put armbands on him if my younger DS was in the water. He is in the pool with 8 other children and two adults in his swimming lessons!

1. My local authority pool allows me to take one child under 4 and one between the ages of 4 - 7. I find it astonishing that a private club has stricter rules than an LA one! I can only think that Virgin Active want to exclude famalies or force people to use the crèche. The crèche is not open all hours

1. I find this completely patronising that I can not look after my own two children. I will not be able to take my older DS swimming now and fear that his swimming will suffer as a result.

1. At the time of joining I mentioned I wanted to take my two children swimming and was not told I wouldn't be able to as I can't afford to take them to another pool.

Does anyone know how easy Virgin Active contracts are to get out of. Will this constitute a change to their terms and conditions.

Sorry for the rant!

Fiona

Their rules are their rules, regardless of what you think of them. However it should have been made clear to you, especially if you specifically mentioned taking two kids. I think that will be your strongest argument, not that you think their rule is silly.

Argument for getting out of the contract I mean.

I would agree that your argument is with their changing terms and conditions. We can only take one child under 5 at our local pool.

Would your parents not look after the baby whilst you take your ds swimming?

They would have the baby but I'm going to have to wait until the baby is four and my son is eight to be able to take them swimming together under their rules. The kids were with me when we joined and my son has a membership so they can't argue that they didn't know. I think the problem was we joined the week before Virgin actually came in to rebrand/train so I don't think they knew that this rule was coming in.

From a practical point of view you should try to get out of the contract, pushing the fact that they have made (unnecessary) changes that now makes the membership worthless to you.

On the more general point that the rules are unreasonable - I totally agree with you, but I don't see an easy way to get them to change. Their business, their rules in most cases. I think these types of requirements on parents are unfamily friendly and impact on mothers particularly badly. But our society is unfamily friendly, so a campaign to get them to change would be hard work and might not succeed (not to mention your eldest would be 8 by the time you got anywhere). I also suspect you'll get gits obnoxious gits self important jerks childless 20-something men young managers implying they love your children more than you do telling you it's all in your children's best interests and they wouldn't be prepared to risk such a precious cargo in that way.

Virgin member.

2 kids. Both swim decently - competitively (tri). Both ain't alllowed to swim on their own, even though the eldest (13) knocks out 2km faster than most adults could all freestyle with tumbles. The youngest (10) does 23 minute miles, but hey ho breaststroking drowners aged 65 can swim on their own our two according to the rules must be accompanied. Total nonsense, but we signed up to the club and we knew the rules.

Similar here although friends son (5) has just passed the shark test.

He is not unususally good at swimming.

Initially can you not do alternate creche bookings - the creche girls at the gym I use will bring kids down to the pool to meet you (so you don't have to go and get changed).

Alternately can you not enlist a swim buddy? I know the rules as I often swim with my friends kids. When your son is at school you will be able to swim with the baby (unless you work f/t Mon - Fri).

I'm a Virgin member. I have the membership where I can go to any club I like. I have therefore been to alot of them. At every club I have been to, the pool is not life guarded. Hence why the rules may be in force? At a local authority pool there would be a lifeguard hence the rules are less stringent?

Out of curiosity, even though your son is never less than 3m away from the edge, that is a long way for a 4 year old in difficulty. If he got in difficulty, could he swim the 3 metres? Also, what exactly would you do, if you son was in difficulty? You couldn't drop your baby to go and rescue him, there is no lifeguard, you wouldn't have time to get out the pool put baby down and go back in and there probably isn't a lifeguard.

I'm all for the new rules. Young children and deepish water, can't be too careful. Can't you just take the children separately. Take the baby when 4yo is at school and leave the baby with your paretns to take your 4 yo?

Not sure which virgin pools you use A1980 but all four of the ones I've been in recently (Barbican, Honorable Artillery Company, Islington and Edinburgh) have all been life guarded.

It is perfectly possible to look after a water confident four year old and more dependent infant. I personally am not convinced of the value of the new rules apart from to prevent single parents taking their kids swimming or boost the creche revenue.

Rules like this and tight age gaps are why several of my friends have non swimming kids which is of much more concern to me than the fact that their mother may have had to balance two in arm bands in the pool at once when they were younger.

I have just had notice about this at our newly branded Virgin gym too. I have a 1 yr old and 3 yr old (independently mobile in water in floaty vest) and though I rarely take them swimming together, depended on it in the summer to keep them entertained.

I think there has been a massive safety push in the old Esporta gyms, after a tragedy where a child drowned in the ?Salford one. Ours now have recruited loads of lifeguards-at times during the day outnumbering swimmers-and trained the entire staff.

Surely they should let you out of the contract as their rules under which you are using it have changed. But I wouldn't count on it....

They would have the baby but I'm going to have to wait until the baby is four and my son is eight to be able to take them swimming together under their rules,

not necessarily. If he is that a good a swimmer it shouldnt really be too difficult for him to get to the required standard.

i have twins... i couldn't take them both swimming on my own....

i have to wait untill my twins are 6 before i can take them together with their slightley older sister

The rules have recently (in the last few weeks) changes at our lcoal authority pool, and at the pools in the two neighbouring local authorities, so that you can not take 2 children under 5 (i think) swimmimg together, This changes seems to be happening in so many places, that it makes which makes me think that guidelines/insurance conditions/legislation may may changed and you might find that these rules have been introduced everywhere. It's a bummer for me, as DH can;t swim either, so I can;t ever take both DC swimminmg.

Wow that is restrictive. At our local Virgin I see a Mum with 3 children, one of which is a baby, it seems to cause no problems as the other two stay in the toddler pool so it is very easy to keep an eye on all 3. Do the restrictions also apply if both children are in the toddler pool?

Mind you they do need some restrictions as when DS goes to his class I always seem to end up looking after another little boy from the class as well and this is in the big pool. I don't mind as it's easy enough to see both of them, but for a long time I did wonder if he had parents, until I realised that she was swimming lengths with her daughter at the other side of the pool.

DS is 5.5 and will be moving to stage 4 next term which I think is sharks, he is a good swimmer but I think he would be at least 6 before he can swim 500ms in 2 mins.

I feel for you OP, I suppose the only good thing is that the creche is free for under 3s and at our Virgin is open a lot, so at least you will be able to swim with your DS. I guess you could maybe have DS sitting at the side dressed if you swooshed baby round for a bit to get baby used to the water.

our local authority pool has always required 1:1 for children under 4 and 1:2 for children between 4 and 7 so I was only able to take both my children swimming by myself last year (when ds turned 4 and dd turned 7). We tend to go at the weekend when both me and dh are available

Edinburgh leisure have similar rules that it's 1:1 for under 4's and 1:2 to for under 8's. We used to belong to David Lloyd where it was the same rules.