I write this review not to hurt a business, but to let parents who might use child watch at burn boot camp know what kind of child care my son received there.
A big part of what burn boot camp offers members is their child watch resource. I brought my son to my first workout with burn last month. My son just turned two and I am a stay at home mom and he has never once been in a daycare setting, only having been watched by his grandmas. As my son and I went into the first class/first childcare, my goal was to ease my son into it, daycare being a brand new setting for him. I got there early and had a conversation with the child watch staff and said that if he cries to please come get me so he can have a positive first time and get used to being there. I was specifically asked "how many minutes are you okay with him crying before we come get you?" I responded "zero. If he cries tears please come get me." Now I realize some parents subscribe to "crying it out" or the tough love perspective like "he needs to get used to it", and every parent has the right to make the choice of how they deem best to raise their kids, but that is not how my husband and I are raising our son. We are strong attachment parents, who offer support and love to our kid when he's afraid or sad. After the class the staff wanted to talk to me about signing up and I told them I wanted to check on my son first. I went back there to hear a child crying and the sounds were unfamiliar to me so I thought it wasn't my son. Once I came around the corner I saw my son red faced, writhing on a woman's lap. He was hyperventilating so hard he gagging and coughing. I asked how long he had been crying and she said "probably 5 minutes". I doubt he could get that worked up in 5 minutes, but if he did, I had requested to be fetched immediately if he got upset. What I saw in my son in that moment is a level of distress that I believe that if any child reached that point, regardless of the parents preference or "cry limit" they should have been fetched from the work out floor.
As I left burn that morning I felt violated. I had trusted them with my child and they had directly went against my wishes and put my son through a scary and unnecessary experience. Now, regardless of whether or not the management at burn boot camp believe that kids need to "suck it up" so mom can work out, going against a mothers wishes in that setting is not good for their business. If a parent like me who subscribes to responsive parenting has a child who is deathly afraid of being left in the child watch room, that parent is not going to leave them there while they work out. The big draw about burn for me was their child watch, so if I'm not going to use that resource there are plenty of other gyms to pick from. Maybe my son never would have liked being left there even if I had had the chance to ease him into it, but burn boot camp didn't give me the opportunity to try. My son has a great memory and remembers how scared being at burn made him feel. Weeks after the event we were walking into petco which is located right next door and he got scared we were going to go into burn.
I have never seen my son that upset and after the workout I got in the passenger side of my car, holding him as he sobbed and I cried a little too. It's so hard being a mom to a young toddler and when you put yourself out there to try new things like joining a gym and putting your child in child watch, you are making yourself vulnerable. I will never go back to burn after this experience. I told management briefly what had happened as I carried my son out of there that day, and then burn management and I played phone tag for a few days. Ultimately, whatever they have to say during a phone call doesn't change that my son and I had the experience we did. Management knows what happened so hopefully they can re train child watch staff according. I am now going to OrangeTheory and love it. read more