Loud swimming mums

[TheEveningSun]

I can’t believe im writing my first ever post here about this as it’s a low key issue but it’s been really irritating. I take my 3yo DC swimming in small group of 6 children in total. There are two mums that use the class for a weekly catch up and don’t stop talking! I mean it’s not “did you have a good week” and move on, it’s non stop! the duration of the class! Every bloody week! School, older children, last nights potatoes, all that relevant shit! The instructor has to talk very loud to shout over them to be heard but she hasn’t asked them to be quiet (she’s too nice for that). So it’s all sooo loud in an echoey pool hall. The children are so well behaved, just follow the instructions. My DC doesn’t like loud noise and asked for her ear defenders then gets irritable, I’m the same. I mean when you go toddler activities you expect some level of noise but not from the adults! I find it annoying and quite disrespectful to the teacher, other parents and children.
I don’t want to change the swim school or group as the location, timing is convenient and I love the instructor.
Now if I say anything to them I’m worried the atmosphere will be bad - adults don’t like being told off. Do I say something to the instructor? Then I’ll feel bad I’m putting her in that position.

Or YABU - just suck it up you can’t expect women not to talk during the swimming class

I would ask the teacher if they ran any quieter classes as this one is too loud for child and not very relaxing. Might give her the push to address the issue.

While my dc swam I’d catch up with a friend. With 3 dc it was nice to get the chance. We were behind glass so didn’t affect the teacher, that’s a bit weird but for the teacher to manage. Maybe take headphones?

I'm assuming parents are in the pool with the children at that age but if not ear phones will solve the issue for OP but not the rest of the class.

Swimming classes are often like this and many dont have glass we had about 30 parents watching different groups, it was awful.

Talk to the teacher …

I’d say loudly ‘Sorry can you say that bit again? I can’t hear over all the potato chat! Ha ha!’ And I’d smile and laugh.

We’re in the pool with the kids so can’t take the headphones. When my older DS was swimming with them a different instructor actually asked the mums watching on the sofa to keep it down. Or an email went out in a different swim school asking the parents to limit the conversations. People can be so inconsiderate!

Edited as you answered the question of where you are.

Given you are all in the pool, they are being really unreasonable and the instructor should ask them to be quiet. Tell the instructor you are struggling to hear them over the chatting and would they mind addressing the issue with the two parents as it is affecting your ability to ensure you and your dd can follow their instructions. I wouldn't say anything to the parents yourself.

Are they part of the class? If so, you need to speak up and say "Can you repeat that please? I couldn't hear it's very loud in here"

If not, maybe this is the responsibility of you as a customer or the pool manager/staff

The instructor has to talk very loud to shout over them to be heard but she hasn’t asked them to be quiet (she’s too nice for that).

She might be nice, but she needs to be professional and ask the noisy people to be quiet so she can lead the class. Talk to her. Or ask the noisy Mothers to pipe down.

The thing is that we can follow the instructions, you just do what everyone else is doing. It’s more of the me issue and that I find it annoying 🫣😀 I thought that maybe I’m more irritable because I didn’t have my breakfast in past but I did today and I still found it so annoying. the instructor is a person who normally speaks very quietly, I’m the same so I just feel sorry for her because I know how exhausting it is when I’m in ie loud pub and have to talk really loud for people to hear me. She’s talking for few hours. I also get that children in pool usually means lots of noise but they’re actually very quiet apart from the water splashing

Ah, I thought you were sitting on the side watching! In the pool they should be engaging with their dc. Can you mention it to the manager or teacher / email in?

I would email the swim school/teacher to tell them. I assumed you were all sat on the side but being in the pool and needing to listen makes this even ruder.

Following what everyone else is doing can end up with everyone doing the wrong thing if everyone is just copying the first person.

It doesn't matter whether you can hear or not. You just tell the instructor it's hard to hear and hard to focus and ask them to deal with the issue. If you're not willing to do that you either need to suck it up or tackle them yourself, which is not something I would advise doing.

Thank you everyone for commenting. I cooled off and now I’m not angry enough about the loud potato mums to message the teacher 😀 until next week haha I should really do it as it happens every week!