to HATE taking my children swimming with a PASSION, hatred of a degree that makes me a madwoman?

[Oliveoil]

get up early
breakfast
out
in the changing room
cold
OTHER PEOPLE
in pool
cold
OTHER PEOPLE
drag the time out until I can stand NO MORE
out
cold
OTHER PEOPLE
home
baths x 2
wasted morning

repeat every week

that will be £10 please (parking, admission, choc from machine after)

YANBU. This is why I try and drag my mum along for moral support.

I feel exactly the same

cold
people hogging the shower
cold
people blocking access to the lockers
cold
getting dressed when still slightly wet
cold
people hogging the hairdryers

Can't stand it but gritting teeth until some sort of standard of swimming is reached so that I don't have to panic about them drowning on holiday.

If you have a dp/dh send him instead. That is what I do.

If it makes you feel better, I haven't taken my kids swimming since a hideous experience involving overcrowding, my car registration being called over the tannoy, leaving DS1 with a complete stranger, and dropping my knickers on the floor as I tried to find my car keys to give to the attendant - who turned out to be my next door neighbours 18yo son....
I fully intend to pay someone else to teach them and take them swimming in the future.

YANBU
I once got a refund on a course of totally non refundable swimming lessons for ds when he was a baby
by standing in reception, crying, dripping, and saying "I just can't stand it any more"
a receptionist came to help me get ds changed and they gave me my money back
I hate the smell, the noise, the OTHER PEOPLE and the awful moistness everywhere, it is like walking around inside a petri dish for an hour

I gave up. My Ds spent more of his swimming lesson sitting on the side then actually in the pool as he was so naughty and stubborn!

What pi**es me off is when SINGLE people, ON THEIR own, use the FAMILY CHANGING ROOMS, leaving myself and DD to squeeze into tiny cupboard.

Anyone else find this? Or AIBU?

I used to love it!

My Dh does all of this stuff

God I love swimming.
It's the one thing i really love doing with kids.

we both take them

dh loves it, I hate it

one of us takes the children to get dressed, one point for guessing who

I skim read this and thought Franny had put that the receptionist helped to get her changed, not her ds. Flip I thought, she must have been in a very bad way.

AND dd2 announced loudly today that she could see my hairy bum (again) to the changing room

it is a regular occurance

I am waiting for dd1 to agree to going for lessons and then I can loll about in the cafe watching through the window

"awful moistness"

Actually this thread is making me feel a bit queasy...I could also link it to the recent verruca thread, would be v relevant imo!

love it here too! where we used to live the pool was like a petri dish, always wished i had wellies for the changing rooms. where we are now the pool is fab. dd loves it and asks to go every day. once a week is enough

lessons or swimming club. parent not required

Absolutely pmsl at this as I was talking to a friend today about this exact topic.

Fortunately, dd1 goes in on her own for lessons, but I still hate the mad rush from school, the fight to get the sodding swimming hat on, the heat of the changing room etc etc.

Dh takes the girls swimming outside of lessons thankfully. I cannot bear placing my feet on the pube-ridden floors - eugghhhhhhh!

swimming lessons at school here worth every penny plus you now need one adult per child under 8 at pubic pool so can't take them anyway .

Cold, wet and stink of chlorine and it involves hair washing - absolutely my idea of hell.

dd1 has point blank refused to do lessons yet, water is one of many things on the list of stuff she is scared of so I will have to go with her for a while yet unfortunately

but every Sunday morning I think ohhhhhh ffs, do I have to, like I am 14

love love love swimming, I go at least twice a week, and always take the kids at the weekend. How else do you get your kids confident in the water and swimming well?

If you heard the way a swimming teacher at my local pool spoke to a little boy who was crying and terrified yesterday when I was there you would make yourself go and teach your kids to swim and not give that bitch a penny of your hard earned cash. I wanted to punch her.

Find a decent pool, go on a weekend afternoon rather than the morning (less packed) and make it fun for your kids.

I urge you, all you petri-fied of the petri-dish!!!!

Good job Maureen is on holiday or she'd be on this thread like a flash. She HATES swimming with a passion too!!

YANBU, they are like plague pits. We've more or less stopped going after ds1 came back and promptly came down with a stinking cold/chest infection/other ghastliness about four times in a row. They're still small (1 and 2) but poor old ds2 has never yet been in a pool. Ugh.

And when I see old sticky plasters in the showers. Ugh ugh ugh.

fab new swimming pool opened by us, been for the last 4 weeks (started day after it opened). Me, dp, dd's went this morning and they love it now. But agree it is wonderfully new and clean which is a plus point- the old one was yucky!
My dd1 will now jump into the pool by herself and swim- [kicks legs furiously whilst wearing arm bands] and dd2 no longer has to stay by the steps- fab fab fab

yanbu BUT there is a solution y'know

send them to swimming lessons

this means they get to do the changing rooms, cold, unpleasant, other people routine while you read the paper

at the end you get to smile sweetly and say "Did you have a lovely time?"

I dont mind the swimming its the after bit I cant stand. Took ds and dd1 this afternoon and they feck about soo much while I try ot change that I may as well just dunk dd1 in the pool dressed as her clothes are always wet when we come home..