Hi all,
I am the president of my team, and we recently instituted a policy after having an increasing number of parents bringing children along to workout. (Usually in the case of both parents being swimmers, and one swims while the other watches the child, and then they switch off for the next workout.) We found a need to institute a policy after seeing a wide range of what parents considered to be acceptable behavior, and to be an acceptable level of supervision.
I am wondering if any of you would be willing to share any info about this subject at your team. I am wondering:
- Are members at your team allowed to bring children with them to workouts?
- Does your team have a written policy about this subject (for example, child must have an adult supervising them, child cannot be within a certain distance of the pool, etc.)? If so, can you share the wording of that policy?
Thanks for any info!
Parents
Former Member
Well in our case we are renting lanes at a facility that is closed to the public at the times of our workouts. So technically the facility does not allow children on deck at that time, or I suppose it is a gray area. At any rate, it is the pool management who makes the rules, and they suggested enforcing a no-child rule after a few incidents of disagreement between lifeguards and parents regarding what was OK. (I won't bother to give examples.)
In hopes of not leaving our swimming parents hamstrung, we wrote a policy that pool management was agreeable to trying for a while before they move forward with disallowing children at the pool. Well, wouldn't you know it, the board went to bat for these people and now they are steaming mad at us. I guess no good deed goes unpunished.
Anyway, after all the dust-up I am curious about this situation at other teams. Interestingly I see the discussion on this board evolving similarly to the one happening on our team. Like, at what age is it ok for a child to be alone on the deck? What is considered adequate supervision? Is a parent swimming while their infant is in a stroller on the side of the pool adequate? What about parents who take offense to lifeguards' authority? It's all become so complicated, and everybody wants a waiver for THEIR kid, I've become sorely tempted to return to pool management and request that they go ahead with their ban so we can all get back to swimming.
Well in our case we are renting lanes at a facility that is closed to the public at the times of our workouts. So technically the facility does not allow children on deck at that time, or I suppose it is a gray area. At any rate, it is the pool management who makes the rules, and they suggested enforcing a no-child rule after a few incidents of disagreement between lifeguards and parents regarding what was OK. (I won't bother to give examples.)
In hopes of not leaving our swimming parents hamstrung, we wrote a policy that pool management was agreeable to trying for a while before they move forward with disallowing children at the pool. Well, wouldn't you know it, the board went to bat for these people and now they are steaming mad at us. I guess no good deed goes unpunished.
Anyway, after all the dust-up I am curious about this situation at other teams. Interestingly I see the discussion on this board evolving similarly to the one happening on our team. Like, at what age is it ok for a child to be alone on the deck? What is considered adequate supervision? Is a parent swimming while their infant is in a stroller on the side of the pool adequate? What about parents who take offense to lifeguards' authority? It's all become so complicated, and everybody wants a waiver for THEIR kid, I've become sorely tempted to return to pool management and request that they go ahead with their ban so we can all get back to swimming.
