Children only ever allowed to swim for an hour

[LadyJos]

Most swimming pools in the south east only offer hour slots in which children can swim. Many only 45 minutes. The rest of the day is dedicated to adult lane swimming. This kills me. Kids only just starting to enjoy themselves and have to get them out! AIBU?

YABU - my kids don’t want longer than an hour.
YANBU - I want to have a relaxed time splashing with my kids and they have just as much right as adults to use of a pool.

An hour in the pool should be plenty.

Hmmm…then how come on holiday or at the beach kids like to spend all day?

Are children banned the rest of the time? I am nowhere near you but most of our pools have a bit of family swim then other times without lanes or with the pool split between lanes and no lanes. Kids can go at any point.

Meh. Kids have to learn to share with kids who’ve got other slots / adults who want to lane swim. Kids aren’t special.

Because it’s what pays basically. When the schools are open. It’s those with the pool / gym membership that’s money keeps the whole thing open. Those people don’t suddenly stop wanting to swim at 2pm on a Thursday because schools shut. That’s their day off and when they go.

What you want it so find a fun pool one that’s not set up for lane swimming at all. One with a wave machine and maybe a slide. They are more wanting families than those boring rectangular pools.

Or even a private hire pool

Like a PP suggested we swim at a fun pool with a couple of slides, so there is no closure for lane swimming. You do have to book a 90 minute slot but they don't enforce it if its not too busy and tbh 90 minutes is usually enough for us anyway.

Because adults will pay for the pool want adult only. The requirements for lifeguards will be generally less ratio wise.

And they then will have significant less complaints about little Johnny getting in the way of mid life crisis man who could have made the Olympics.

Part of me understands that pools are massively expensive to heat and maintain. So no wonder leisure centres have slots of only an hour...

But when i was a child i spent most of my summer holidays at the local pool. They had 2 massive outdoor pools, an indoor one, a snack bar and it was somewhere you'd go to for a whole afternoon whenever the westher was nice.

Both of my dc can swim, but neither of them go swimming for fun with their mates.

I think an hour is plenty in a swimming pool

Money, basically.

Adults keep the pool open year-round whereas children generally only go during the holidays.

We have a lido with park and green area for picnics etc that’s all day not hour slots.

Really? Most near me offer hour long slots, but there are a few throughout the day, especially in school holidays.

it makes sense to have slots, because they have to have a maximum number in the pool for the lifeguards to maintain safety. So if you have slots, you know you can get in if you book, and more people get a turn.

If you don’t have slots (and some pools don’t) then you can turn up and have to wait until there is a space.

And because pools charge per entry, they make more money from 1 hour slots than allowing people to stay as long as they like.

Costs for pools are rocketing up so they need to make money where they can.

Ours book hourly but we just book two sessions if needed. Dd goes with her friends moat weekends.

Indeed they are banned from anything but ‘swim for all’ slot. Unless your five year old can lane swim…

That’s good. Unfortunately I can’t book back to back sessions at any pools near me as they intersperse kids swimming with lane swimming.

Most fun pool from the 1980s and 1990s have closed - too expensive to run!

LadyJos
Hmmm…then how come on holiday or at the beach kids like to spend all day?
Do you not think it’s a different type of day? On holidays it’s more about swimming about, going underwater then sitting at the side, in your normal public pool you’re practicing swimming/ swimming, it’s not about chilling and relaxing and playing so much

This. It’s so sad that there are so few of those facilities now.

YANBU. It makes me so sad that pools are so restricted for families now. My local pool has three or four family swims a week that sell out immediately. The Olympic pool nearby has closed - they can’t afford the maintenance- as has the wonderful 60s pool in my home town, that also had a diving pool. I believe it’s a common issue in the UK today.

Well that’s my point. Why can’t we offer facilities for children to just play and enjoy themselves?

That’s great. Every Lido near us has one hour slots only.

Then you know the answer to why you can’t stay for ages already. It’s costs. The pools need to make money.

I agree it’s shit but there it is.

My local municipal pool has a combination of "swim for all" and "family swim".

It has an entire leisure pool just for families (no flumes though) and then another deep lane pool which is usually half dedicated to lanes and half for non-lane swimming. Plus a small teaching pool that may or may not be closed for lessons.

During term time they actually shut the lane pool a lot of the time so schools and swimming lessons can use it, so here I think we have the opposite problem. I actually joined a private pool because of it.

I can see that doesn't get rid of your problem, but it clearly varies massively depending where you are!

Because adults want to swim too.