UNFUN at the YMCA!
We were very excited to join the Y and have a great place for the family to go exercise together. Walked in and signed a year's contract. Bad move. My advice, try the five-day free pass first!
After we signed up we were directed to the family changing room (my 7-year old son and I) and we went to put on our swimming suits. The floor in the changing room was so muddy he didn't want to take off his shoes and honestly, I've been in truck stop rest rooms that smelled better. Isn't cleanliness a Christian value? If so, they have a long way to go.
We showered and eagerly went out to the pool. Pretty underwhelming. Three piddly toadstools for activity in the kid area, a small leisure pool and a few lap lanes. An improvement over the old pool, but barely. We waded in and immediately got whistled out. The lifeguard told us to go shower again. Fine.
We got back in and made it to the shallow end of the leisure pool before being whistled out again. We needed a wrist band. Fine. No-one told us about that (while they were accepting my payment for a year membership and escorting us to the changing room!) My son took the swim test and got his wrist band. The junior lifeguard was very nice about it and then brought us a basketball to play with. He apologized.
We were disappointed that the slide wasn't open even though the web site clearly stated that it would be. Oh, but nevermind, the web doesn't say that it is only for kids over 4' 10". Fine.
A grandma and granddaughter got in the pool, did the swim test and got a wrist band then started playing with kick boards. After about 10 minutes my son wanted a kick board too so I got him one. Almost immediately we were whistled out by the Commander lifeguard. No kick boards in the leisure pool. When the junior lifeguard took our kickboard away the grandma voluntarily surrendered theirs.
I had a bad feeling at that point. The junior lifeguard came back and apologized profusely. Apparently they only "remembered" the kickboard rule when my son had one.
My son wanted to try jumping into the "deep" end of the pool (above his armpits, which is what his wristband allowed him to do alone) so I took him over. Again (anybody ready for it?) Whistled out by the Commander Lifeguard. This despite the fact that I was right there and a young woman and her 3ish-year old were practicing jumping in the deep end of the pool! Again, profuse apology and embarrassment from junior lifeguard, commander lifeguard looking smug.
About this time three unaccompanied children got in the pool. Boy maybe 12, girls 7 and 9?
Fully dressed (not modestly covered for religious reasons, fully dressed.) Did they get whistled out? Nope.
No shower? Not whistled out.
Swim test? Nope.
Wrist band? Nope.
And did I mention? No parent anywhere near.
The grandma came over to me and asked whether it was allowed for kids to swim alone without a guardian and I said yes, if they had the wrist band. Of course, these kids didn't.
All the time the (commander) life guard is basically stalking my son to make sure he doesn't go past his armpits in the water!
We left.
It's fun at the YMCA? NOT AT ALL!
I have no problem with rules as long as they are clearly communicated and equally applied. That was NOT my experience at this Y. I feel we were harassed.
I am so disappointed. I had such high hopes for the Y and the opportunities there. But if my family is going to be treated like this then we will continue to go to Shoreview or Maplewood where the staff is respectful of multi-racial families and patrons aren't subjected to sub-standard levels of hygiene just because of their ZIP code. read more