To be raging - school holiday camp

[peoniesandpumpkins]

Booked my DC into the holiday camp at our local tennis club. They’ve just turned the age that you can go from but it’s just 3.5 hrs (they do pre school 2 days 9-3 and 3 days 9-1:30 so used to longer days etc.) It’s not all tennis, lots of games.

They have absolutely loved it. Been twice now. My mum picked up last week (she knows a lot of the coaching team) and they mentioned he’d been great, my mum asked about the toilet and they mentioned ‘oh yes they know where the toilet is’ ‘jokingly’ apparently. We took that to mean they’d been going quite a lot, but at least not peed themselves!! Husband picked up on Mon, great time again. Due to go tomorrow, really excited!

Logged onto work email (not personal) tonight to see an email from organiser sent at 8:43PM saying ‘sorry but don’t think peonies child is really ready for 3.5 hrs of tennis (it’s not 3.5 hrs of tennis) they are more interested in going to the toilet and this impacts on the coaching team’

Honestly, I do know that they can be a little bugger for wanting to go off to loo if they think they can go have a nosey/explore and get away with it. I apologised said as much but, said they love it and that messaging at 8:40 odd at night (to my work email (wouldn’t have seen it ordinarily) the night before was really not great, would they please let me have a chat, let them come tomorrow (really left me in the f’ing lurch) and if more of same then I understand.

They emailed back to say it’s a no as a member of staff has to take them to the toilet each time. I am confused about this as they normally have to be told to go toilet (unless opportunity for boggling - which they wouldn’t get if they have to go with an adult), so I’m like well yes I understand that and that is annoying but I am telling you that I am 98% certain that will stop once I’ve had a word and if it doesn’t then yes I’m in agreement. I just think it’s so shitty not to give them a last chance.

Also I don’t think it’s that they don’t want to have take them to the toilet full stop, as there are 2 children doing it who aren’t quite 5 (one not until the new year) who have been allowed as they have older siblings so surely if it’s an age thing they are having to take them to the loo when they need to go?!? DC quite capable of going on own physically iykwim. Can understand they need to be supervised.

If it was that they weren’t coping/joining in or didn’t have the motor ability then I understand but why not mention that then.

All just seems rather mean not to let us have a chat and give them another chance. Not to mention bloody unprofessional, she could have told me on Monday night or Tuesday night!

Well said,

My DD started tennis club at 4, they were hardly learning to rally shots, focus was on fun.

Can't believe this club would dump the kids by email the night before, awful and unprofessional ...

Have they not attempted to explain it to you? Why did they just suddenly say no, with no discussion?

Have they given you a full refund, minus two days or whatever it was?

What do people think summer/holiday camps are?

I think that day camps are a form of childcare.

I don't think a half-day of tennis is childcare. It's 3.5 hours of an activity. Yes they'll have sole charge of your DC for the duration, but so so lots of other activities for children.

I don't think school is childcare either

Sometimes a DC just isn't a good fit for a particular type of class. OP's DC doesn't sound ready for this one

I agree.

It’s really not much different to after school football sessions or martial arts classes or swimming lessons.

You can’t describe them as childcare. It’s a few hours of supervised activity.

Surely he’ll have just turned 6 next year🤷‍♀️

Any business that behaved like that around here would be seen as unreliable and unreasonable for the (very) late notice and lack of proper communication.
If parents get wind that their kids can be kicked out with just a few hours notice seemingly out of nowhere, then fewer will want to send their kids there.

They'll be kids who are 5 going into P2, but there's a difference between a February child with a year of school and a older January child who's deferred who's still in nursery.

It sounds like he's been a pita and maybe gave them a bit of a fright by wandering off.

No notice is shitty of them though and they should have at least let you talk to him to tell him to behave or he's out.

Obviously I don't know when the wee boy's birthday falls, but I'm supposing that he'll be 5 when he starts P1 next month, and 6 when he starts P2.
The Op said there were several clubs that she had to discount on the basis that they were for age 6+ (ie P2).

I can't scroll back, so apologies if I've got the wrong end of the stick, but I read it as you suggesting that the club should make it for kids who are going into Y1 and have had a year of school.

I obviously meant my own children as opposed to the ones I worked with, rather than my own as opposed to any potential children.

If I ever adopt, I will still have my own (biological and adopted) children as opposed to the ones I worked with😉

Very unprofessional of them giving you next to no notice. Of course summer camps are childcare. What if you were a surgeon booked in for an op the next morning?

They are probably greedy and thought lowering the age limit would be a great way of increasing numbers and £££.

Hardly. No parent thinks it will happen to their child. Our own children are cute and spirited. Only other people's children are unmanageable.

What if you were a surgeon booked in for an op the next morning

Then you’d have to use whatever emergency contingency plans you have in place. Parents whose job is so difficult to leave at short notice must surely have some sort of back up in place? What happens if their child is ill and they can’t attend the club?

I'm glad today went ok but I'm really sorry no better outcome from the club.

Shocking.

I hope DS is ok. I feel so sorry for him, a little 5 yo excited to go to camp.

Hope you are ok too.

You don’t have to have an opinion on the child to think their processes and comms are really poor. That would definitely get shared around here.

Thank you! I also agree. I kept thinking they were talking about multiple DCs. Not sure why it was needed.

Perhaps not all 5-yr-olds are too young for a tennis camp but your child is if they cannot cooperate.

kept thinking they were talking about multiple DCs.

Did you really? OP used 'he' in her 3rd post, written soon after her first two.

No matter what "age" they open a holiday club for, there will be a child or two that is too disruptive to be able to continue in the club. Since they do seem to have 5-year-olds in that club that behave and are not disruptive, it's not the age that is the issue.

That or the child wanders around and "noses about" until someone has to come and find him.

@Nanaof1

It's a long-running thread. You shud possibly try at least to read OP's posts which clarify matters.

Also, pretty unkind way to speak about a 5 yo

• should! Obviously 🤦🏻‍♀️

Which bit was “unkind”?

Haha. No. Surgeons are just people. Some are single mothers.

Surgeons don't have access to magic childcare. A single mum surgeon, working part time, with debt from training, isn't going to afford a nanny as back up. In fact, due to the way medical careers work, they might have been forced to move away from all their support network and start again every few months.

It could result in a cancelled operation.

Yes, these clubs are within their rights to not take some kids, as long as not discrimination on a protected characteristic. But that will have effects on others.

if there’s no other alternative in place (and I appreciate that can be incredibly hard to arrange) then yes, it would result in a cancelled operation. Not good, I know, but what’s the alternative?

if you are sending your child to an activity, and that activity stops for whatever reason ( get cancelled with short notice, bad weather, child gets sick or has an accident) then it’s the parent’s responsibility to put in place an emergency contact - that might be themselves of course, even if it’s massively inconvenient. But that’s not really the activity providers problem.

I’m a cub leader, and I took the cubs on an overnight camp. One child slipped and broke his collar bone. We took him to A&E and also called his parents (his emergency contact). Their jobs were so VERY important that they didn’t arrive to collect their child until 22 hours later, despite numerous phone calls. They let their child sleep on a tent floor overnight because they had no contingency plan. Do you think that’s ok? Because I certainly don’t.

Oh, I have. But hey, you do you! FFS