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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

People who try to swim lengths during family swim time - why?

34 replies

Goldbar · 17/07/2025 19:46

I took my older DC to the pool a few weeks ago during family swim time (called "swim for all" at our leisure centre. Part of the pool was cordoned off for the fitness swimming - it was completely empty. The "swim for all" section was not busy, but had 5 people who had essentially taken it over and turned it into lane swimming. They got very annoyed when I got in with DC1, who just wanted to dive for rings. We didn't take over a huge section of the pool, but I told DC1 not to worry about getting in the way of the "lane" swimmers as we were just as entitled to use the pool as they were.

After a few huffy exchanges and being told to "control my child" (😂), who was being exemplary, I called the lifeguard over who told us we were perfectly entitled to swim there and the others would just have to swim around us. But after my child was kicked in the head (apparently "accidentally") by one of them, I asked the lifeguard if we could move to the empty "swim for fitness" section, which we had to ourselves for the rest of the session.

Why, just why? Why not just book the correct session to begin with rather than getting huffy when kids turn up and want to do kid things in the family session? Can anyone shed any light?

OP posts:
PinkDD · 17/07/2025 19:47

why not ask the lifeguard to move the lane swimmers into the "swim for fitness" lanes?

EatingSleeping · 17/07/2025 19:48

We get this at my gym. There's only four hours family swim all week. If you hate children splashing avoid those four hours?! People are in pains to loudly exclaim how they pay for the gym. Well guess what so do I and I pay for my children.

I think overall England isn't very child friendly

SatsumaDog · 17/07/2025 19:48

The lane swimmers should be swimming in the lanes, not the family swimming area. The lifeguard should have told them to move.

Mehmeh22 · 17/07/2025 19:50

They probably go there every week and feel it is their time. I once remember Lord Voldemort (or that's what he looked like in his green speedos, swimming cap and nose thingy) swimming underneath me when I was trying to learn to swim as an adult. No consideration that I was there and could have bloody drowned!

Meadowfinch · 17/07/2025 19:50

Not everyone can chose when to go. Maybe they work weekends and have to fit their swim around a shift.

They certainly shouldn't have told you to control your child though. Seems like the lifeguard provided a resolution though. What is "fitness swim"?

CopperWhite · 17/07/2025 19:50

I assume people go at a time that is most convenient for the rest of their lives. Your problem wasn’t that they wanted to swim at family time, which is there for people without children as well as with, it’s that they refused to use the lanes for the lane swimming that they wanted to do.

I could understand that if the lanes were busy, but if they were empty then it was just stupid not to use them.

Overthebow · 17/07/2025 19:51

They should be using the swim lanes set up for it. Very rude to swim up and down in the family area and then complain about children playing in there.

Original poster
Goldbar · 17/07/2025 19:52

PinkDD · 17/07/2025 19:47

why not ask the lifeguard to move the lane swimmers into the "swim for fitness" lanes?

The swim for fitness section was smaller than the family swim section. So at the time it seemed to make more sense for us to use it, rather than demand everyone else moved. And it was fine for my DC - we had space to do a little "course" without disturbing anyone.

OP posts:
Nopenott0day · 17/07/2025 19:54

Yanbu! I take my toddler family swim but we have 2 pools so we are in the nice little warm one.

I also go lane swimming/fitness swimming when there's no children. It's about using the right pool at the right time!

Original poster
Goldbar · 17/07/2025 19:55

Meadowfinch · 17/07/2025 19:50

Not everyone can chose when to go. Maybe they work weekends and have to fit their swim around a shift.

They certainly shouldn't have told you to control your child though. Seems like the lifeguard provided a resolution though. What is "fitness swim"?

Fitness swim = lane swimming.

Normally three lanes - slow, medium, fast. Everyone swims clockwise in the lane. But when swim for all is on as well, they just have one lane - medium.

OP posts:
BIWI · 17/07/2025 19:55

TAAT?

Ponderingwindow · 17/07/2025 19:59

You need to talk to management. They set up lanes for laps. Sometimes just one or two, sometimes the whole pool. The lifeguard should be enforcing where they are swimming laps.

the exception would be someone who is very, very slow and just sort of puttering along. They wouldn’t be running into a child though.

wanted to add. I worked at a gym as a teenager. We really had shockingly little authority. Hence why I suggest you talk to the manager, who can then tell the lifeguard it is acceptable to move the swimmers.

Barney16 · 17/07/2025 20:02

Seems very odd. I swim at the local pool but in the part that's cordoned off into lanes. I thought that was what you were supposed to do.

nam3c4ang3 · 17/07/2025 20:04

because some people are just massive bellends. 😂

CatamaranViper · 17/07/2025 20:04

But it's not family swim, it's swim for all. They are fully entitled to do lane swimming, just as you are to play with your DC. They did't have to go into the lanes, just like you didn't.
I do lane swimming during swim for all as it aligns with when I can go to the pool, but I do also accept that I might have to swim around other people if they're using it differently to me.

Original poster
Goldbar · 17/07/2025 20:06

Barney16 · 17/07/2025 20:02

Seems very odd. I swim at the local pool but in the part that's cordoned off into lanes. I thought that was what you were supposed to do.

I assumed that was what most people wanting a proper swim did. I was a bit taken back when we got in and there was nowhere in the pool we could go to escape the "lane" swimmers. We spent a couple of minutes sitting on the ramp bemused until I told my DC to plough on and do what they wanted.

OP posts:
Sunflowersurprise · 17/07/2025 20:07

CatamaranViper · 17/07/2025 20:04

But it's not family swim, it's swim for all. They are fully entitled to do lane swimming, just as you are to play with your DC. They did't have to go into the lanes, just like you didn't.
I do lane swimming during swim for all as it aligns with when I can go to the pool, but I do also accept that I might have to swim around other people if they're using it differently to me.

But you’d use the lanes if they were there, no?

Original poster
Goldbar · 17/07/2025 20:08

CatamaranViper · 17/07/2025 20:04

But it's not family swim, it's swim for all. They are fully entitled to do lane swimming, just as you are to play with your DC. They did't have to go into the lanes, just like you didn't.
I do lane swimming during swim for all as it aligns with when I can go to the pool, but I do also accept that I might have to swim around other people if they're using it differently to me.

We couldn't go into the lanes. Young children aren't allowed in there (rightly).

OP posts:
LemondrizzleShark · 17/07/2025 20:17

We had a woman removed from the pool for swimming OVER multiple children, in her bloodyminded quest to swim lengths in the family swim session (again, two lanes cordoned off for lengths which were completely empty).

Only flattening small kids, so clearly had some kind of problem with young children. She pissed off the wrong parents (she pissed me off too, but I just shouted at her whereas two of the other mums threatened to drown her)

Ours is literally called “Family Splash Time”, so it was perfectly obvious that she shouldn’t have been swimming lengths there. Some people are just obnoxious.

Jamesblonde2 · 17/07/2025 20:19

The clue is in the name of course, swim. Was anyone in the “family” category swimming, or just splashing about in the water?

Original poster
Goldbar · 17/07/2025 20:21

Jamesblonde2 · 17/07/2025 20:19

The clue is in the name of course, swim. Was anyone in the “family” category swimming, or just splashing about in the water?

How do you think young kids "swim"? You're not going to find 3yos swimming up and down in straight lines, I'm afraid.

OP posts:
Workingonthehighway · 17/07/2025 20:28

From the many different gyms I have joined over the years I have realised that for some reason the pool brings out the very worse in some people. They seem to think they own it and have more rights than others. At my local Nuffield the swim aerobics class was legendary for its foul bullying and excluding new people.

Shayisgreat · 17/07/2025 20:34

Yes - this drives me mad! I sometimes wonder if people actively seek opportunities for confrontation because I can't see any other reason for doing this.

theunbreakablecleopatrajones · 17/07/2025 20:36

I don’t understand why they weren’t in the lane swimming section / why the lifeguard didn’t move them there?

theunbreakablecleopatrajones · 17/07/2025 20:38

CatamaranViper · 17/07/2025 20:04

But it's not family swim, it's swim for all. They are fully entitled to do lane swimming, just as you are to play with your DC. They did't have to go into the lanes, just like you didn't.
I do lane swimming during swim for all as it aligns with when I can go to the pool, but I do also accept that I might have to swim around other people if they're using it differently to me.

Yeah, and if you want to do lengths, there is a cordoned off bit.

It’s potty they weren’t using it, and even pottier the lifeguard didn’t move them.

I guess you could go see the manager and ask them why that isn’t automatic OP