Family swimming times - AIBU?

[FamilySwimming]

Just looking for a sense check on this one.

The two local leisure centres only have certain very limited times for family swimming, meaning in the kids' pool. So if I want to take my 2 year old swimming, the only times we can book are between 12 and 2pm.

My 2 year old eats lunch at 12 and then has a nap every day. Surely this is pretty standard for any child who has one nap per day?

AIBU or is this an absolutely insane time to schedule family swimming? I feel like I just won't be able to take her swimming until she's stopped napping completely.

I spoke to them on the phone and they basically said that my toddler's meal and nap schedule isn't their problem, but I was under the impression that this is most toddlers' meal and nap schedule, hence the AIBU.

FFS.

Yes, OK everyone. I will inflict my hungry and tired child on everyone at the pool, then let her have a 10 minute car nap on the way home and deal with her in demon mode for the rest of the day because once she's woken up she won't go back to sleep again. That will be totally worth it.

Sorry, you still aren’t seeing that being inclusive of SEN is NOT THE SAME as being ‘inclusive’ of each person’s random nap schedules?!

I’m genuinely shocked that you can’t see how far removed these examples are and that they don’t have to be ‘inclusive’ of your rigid inflexible routine but it is marvellous they are prioritising children who may not be able to even go to nursery full time or access activities in busy day-to-day sessions.

Blimey.

Maybe this is why waiting lists are so long. It must take so much longer for them to learn to swim when their feet touch the ground.

I'm not asking them to be inclusive of my child's nap schedule, I'm questioning why a public pool designed for toddlers is closed to toddlers all day every day except at lunchtime.

I really hope this clears things up because I am running quite low on crayons.

Your " sorry what" is rather rude. OK so you grew up in the 90s . I was a parent of young children in the 90s . Our pool as I've already said was used by schools every day. Toddler swim times were at lunch times only. You presumption that you know about every pool in the UK when growing up is odd.
Pool size( back then) and now is I imagine a major factor.
Actually I found it a less than great time too. If you were wondering!

please read this through another day. Seriously. Because this is really not a normal reaction.

I have had many times of being ‘nap trapped’ where I couldn’t transfer my daughter and stayed in the car doing work emails for an extra half an hour? There are so many solutions you’re just not seeing…. And then making these offensive comments about anyone who thinks differently to you (older people, sahm, the bloody pool staff)

There is a solution. It involves driving ten miles to another pool where small kids are actually welcome.

Not great for the environment, and a shame I can't redirect part of my council tax to that pool instead, but it is what it is.

I can see you're determined to think the worst of me, which is presumably why you're avoiding the question of whether it is reasonable for a toddler pool to be closed to toddlers almost all the time.

Did we miss the part where you are a qualified swimming teacher?

I have no skin in this game and know fuck all about kids swimming. But don’t try to act like I know better than those that do?

I do hope you read through this tomorrow (i am sure exhausted from a long day of work/parenting like everyone) and can see why people are taking such offensive….

if not, maybe get saving for your own private pool which is heated to your perfect temp and available 247. And bank. And shops. Oh and private GP. Because definitely wouldn’t want to be disturbed by anyone else using those services when they need to.

night night 😘

This is actually the pool in my hometown, so the toddler pool is the same one where I splashed around as a toddler and the main pool is the one where I learned to swim.

All of this is new since COVID/the franchise changed hands. I guess that's why I find it so hard to believe that I can't just take my kid for a swim in the morning or after her nap on any day this week. I can't be the only person in town who finds the new setup completely prohibitive for whatever reason.

It's not entitled to expect a reasonable level of access to public services.

HTH.

Ha for clarification, I definitely think it is reasonable for a LA run pool to decide the schedule that suits their wide reaching service users and trust their knowledge and decision making as to why.

and no, it doesn’t mean toddlers can’t use it - it means their parents MAY have to adapt their schedule by 30 mins ?

You do know the average council in the UK is operating around a 33 million £ deficit per annum. Your council tax ain’t paying for the pool ….

You can, but you decided that the other pool is the wrong depth and temperature for you.

So you do think it is reasonable for a toddler pool to be closed to toddlers all day every day except lunchtime?

Or, and hear me out here, they could have toddlers in the toddler pool which is designed for playing, and children learning to swim in the pool which is actually deep enough for swimming, rather than the other way round.

No, that would be silly, you're right.

Yabu - give your toddler a mid morning snack and take a sandwich/fruit to eat after. The world won't end if they eat lunch at 1pm and this isn't a long term problem assuming your toddler won't nap forever

According to google the average height of a 5 year old is 109cm. So an average 5 year old likely wouldn’t be touching the bottom of the pool anyway 🤔

not really sure what point you were going for there

To be fair, swimming lessons for children who can't actually swim yet do have to be held in water they can stand up in, otherwise they would drown. It's only once they can actually swim that they can graduate to the deep pool to hone their technique.

I take my 4 year old to a different pool for swimming lessons (it belongs to a gym and isn't open for public swimming at all) and it's 1.5m deep. In the toddler pool he would be walking on the bottom for sure. (And probably wouldn't have taken his feet off the bottom after a year of lessons, knowing him.)

And surely the whole day can't be taken up with 5 year olds anyway.

My 4 year old has been learning to swim in deep water. Pretty sure I did too!

I’m wondering if this is now national policy. Our local leisure centre also blocks off the entire warm smaller pool for the whole morning so that two older children can have private lessons. The small pool is only available 12-2.

The one time I did take my toddler into the bigger pool she was shivering and her lips were blue by the end! I was told that councils no longer have the money to heat the big pools and another local pool doesn’t even heat the little pool any more.

i do think it’s an odd decision. There’s inevitably a queue of little ones waiting for 2 children to finish lessons to get into the toddler pool at midday.

also not sure why this thread about swimming has escalated and become so contentious!

I know I've been quite tetchy, but yeah, genuinely surprised about the way this thread has gone.

Not just because I've learned that there is more variation in children's nap schedules than I thought, but because on a parenting forum you'd expect to find people more sympathetic about the lack of swimming pool access for young children.

Reserving the kids' pool for private lessons is an awful thing to do.

Is it really called the toddler pool? Or it just you who's decided that's who it's for?

Well it's a 10x5 metre pool which my four year old can stand up in, so...

🤷‍♀️

Read all of the OPs posts and tell me you can’t see why it’s caused such an issue,..

I genuinely don’t feel strongly about swimming times. Not something I would be worked up about from a post.

But she has been offensive, rude, inflexible, and generally shown how NOT to make a rationale argument and illicit support from others… the comments she has made are utterly appalling and have changed the focus from when a pool is open!

if you take a look at council funding deficits I actually do agree that they have to prioritise social care, homelessness and core statutory services that are vital for people to LIVE. Whilst I’d love a bottomless pot, rising costs of providing leisure facilities is causing these timetabling decisions - not good IMO but statutory services will always be my priority personally when there is such a black hole of nothing,,,,and I’d admit my personal schedule (ie nap time) in light of this.

I think that’s crazy, and gobsmacked by the number of parents here who seem to think that’s reasonable. All the pools around us are open to kids and babies all the time, it wouldn’t even occur to me to check if they had restricted hours for babies because they just don’t. If one did I’d never ever go there again.