Child at the gym

[CosyScentedCandles]

I go to a local leisure centre gym 4-5 times a week. Because it is only a leisure centre, I accept that it has to be available to meet a range of needs and part of that is that they allow kids from 15 to use the gym at specific times. This doesn’t bother me, I generally avoid the teen-gym slots and if I don’t it is usually one harmless 16 year old girl using a cross trainer.

What is really winding me up is that there is a woman who seems to regularly sneak her 10-11yo in with her so that she can work out. She plonks him on a machine or a bench and he proceeds too much about with the equipment, preventing somebody else from using it properly. Apart from the fact he his taking up room in what is a small gym, AIBU to think that some places are simply not appropriate for children and to want some time in an adults only space?

I feel like I want to complain but I don’t know 🤷🏼‍♀️

'Hand weights and a YouTube video'

Jesus wept.

What do you do with the 4 month old whilst you’re working out? I’d hate to be at the gym with a baby crying and a random 6 year old staring at everyone, sorry. Your gym sounds very lenient.

Jesus wept at the mum who takes her baby to the gym...

Indeed. Most people go to the gym for a bit of space, it’s not a place for children certainly not that little

I feed her and change her before and she sleeps through the hour or hour/half I'm there, if she was to cry I'd take her out, it's very rare she ever does, the music and sound of weights tends to help her sleep. To be honest it's mostly just me in there on my own in the day anyway with an occasional PT session on at the same time.

This was at my old gym and current in a new town (moved area) I cleared taking my children with the owners before I joined.

Functional fitness and Crossfit gyms are very family friendly and focused on accessibility, one of the coaches himself has a 6 month old who attends classes with him.

Some of us take health and fitness very seriously, I can't recreate a 140kg deadlift or 100kg backsquat in my living room and my children are growing up seeing hard work and dedication and also getting their own love for sport.

Athleticism doesn't end when motherhood begins.

Honestly, you all sound like you don't participate in any sport seriously and want excuses for laziness and poor health, each to their own!

When my DD was small, the one thing I really wanted to do was get to the gym. It really pissed me off that I couldn't do things for my health and well-being. But I couldn't: it wouldn't have been appropriate for her, other gym users or for me in the end (can't believe I'd have got a good workout). There are some things you can't do when your kids are small, and people just have to suck it up.

This entire thread is about a person being unable to use the gym because of a child being there, and you’ve concluded that only mums bringing their babies and children to the gym care about exercise and good health?

Bizarre. Just bizarre.

@IIglesiasPiggl yeah, by extension maybe all parents would have a slightly easier life! Good on you that home workouts worked, for some they don't . Or are you saying only the rich deserve the gym? 🙄

And I am not necessarily defending this behaviour, I am just making a point that I absolutely hate the type of people that do this: the slightest tiniest inconvenience for them and they are ready to potentially really hurt someone else.

And the 'relaxation at the gym' bit. This is a weightlifting gym, not a country club with a bloody sauna and jacuzzi, of course I wouldn't be showing up with her at a nice posh place where people are intending for quiet and relaxation, the gyms I go to are rough and ready...

the slightest tiniest inconvenience for them and they are ready to potentially really hurt someone else.

The person risking really hurting someone else is the mother. The child shouldn’t be in there and could injure themself on a machine. The rules aren’t there for no reason.

And nobody is “really hurt” by having to refrain from the gym if they can’t get a babysitter.

I didn't say that though did I, and I said him hogging the equipment was an issue.

My god, the entitlement.

There's always one, isn't there. So rules are allowed to be broken just for mothers and noone else?

I would complain OP, this child shouldn't be there, and the insurance thing is also an issue.

Other people's childcare issues shouldn't affect childfree areas/activities for others. I am getting more and more frustrated seeing children in places not suitable for them. The gym is one of them. Bars are another.

I used to do a class where one mother regularly brought her child - it was really off-putting as he would be clambering up piles of mats and equipment on the side and you always felt he was going to have a fall.
Everyone in the class was fed up with it but no one complained to the management She stopped doing it after a while - I don't know if the gym said something to her.
I would have no issue with an older child sitting in reception reading or watching something on a tablet but definitely not younger children and those climbing over equipment

How? I wouldn't attend a gym with my child where the rules didn't allow, but where the owner does allow then how is it entitled?

Lifestyle related disease is overwhelming first world countries yet women need another barrier to exercise? (In the form of judgement from other mothers!)

Thanks for the riveting anecdote about your gym. Surprised you can't see how it's different to the ops gym. Children aren't allowed.

You're the reason gym goers get hate. This weird holier than thou attitude.

If you were truly athletic you'd support and encourage people to do whatever exercise they could. And appreciate sometimes it won't be the full on gym session you deem worthy.

Boring. Honestly. Oh so fucking boring.

Anyway op. As kids aren't allowed yes raise it. If nothing else I'm sure it's against their insurance

It certainly sounded like you were saying it, what will suggesting that all those opposed to children at the gym sounded lazy and unhealthy whereas your kids being present at your workouts are witnessing hard work, athleticism and a love for sport.

Really? How do you come to that conclusion just from people not wanting to share the gym with young children?

Regarding your last sentence - maybe not, but the freedom to go with your children anywhere that you please (without breaking the rules) does end. That's the thing about becoming a parent - a lot does change, if only more parents accepted this.

I am just glad that my gym is 16+ with no exceptions. And that they enforce it.

I would really hate this. For the record I like children, I have some, work with some and volunteer with some.

The gym is one of the few places I can go where there aren’t any children. The gym I go to is over 16s only, but the pool allows children at certain times. I’m fed up with parents leaving small children in the pool and wombling off to the hot tubs. They stare. They are loud and splashy. They stare and run around in the changing rooms.

If these small barbarians were also to breach the defences of the weights room, cardio room or studios I don’t know what I’d do.

If the rule is 15+ and the child is younger that than, then raise with gym - probably it will cause a problem with their insurance.

If 11-15 year olds are allowed when supervised (the rule at my old gym) and the mother is not supervising, you should raise with the gym.

If anyone, of any age, is mucking about and hogging equipment you should raise this with the gym.

If none of the above apply, then you may just have to suck it up or find a different gym.

I might raise an eyebrow but I couldn't get nearly as riled up as some PPs seem to be about this.

If he's sitting on a piece of equipment that you want to use then ask him to move, just as you would if an adult were sitting there on their phone.

He moves, you use equipment, everyone gets on with their day.

If he doesn't move, then you complain to the gym operators (I can't imagine they have no idea this is happening? How does she sneak him past reception? Most leisure centres have some sort of CCTV?).

The insurance issue is the gym owner and the parents issue to worry about, nobody else's.

@LizzieVereker Yes, I changed gyms because of this - my current one only allows children at the pool at limited times. At the previous one it was impossible to properly do laps as you’d end up crashing into children who were climbing on the lane barriers, or horsing around with pool noodles, whilst their parents sat in the hot tub or lay by the poolside with their eyes shut.

I do very much think this stuff is the business of all users - you’re entitled to be able to use what you’ve paid for.

Quite right.
I take my small children to my office while I'm working.

I'm surprised more people don't do this. I'm guessing that the people who don't, clearly don't take work seriously and don't have any interest in demonstrating a good work ethic to their children.