NVSL: Any teams noticing drops in registrations?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Swimteam and summer pool are cheapest activities around if you are tightening your belt (esp. if you've already paid the membership and are just looking at summer fees). 2 income families have been dealing with summer swim team way before COVID when we were all in the office. I doubt RTO is having that big of an impact. Neighborhood demographics may be impacting swim team size just as much as the economy and RTO.

It doesn’t seem like the cheapest option to me when both parents are working. Sure, it’s cheaper than spending the summer in provence, but pool membership fee + summer swim fee + babysitter fees + time off work to volunteer all adds up. Especially the babysitter. Alternatively, parents could work and drop their kids off at full day camp for less money.

[Anonymous]

Does your team offer pre-camp or evening practices?

I am guessing that “return to office” mandates are making 9am and 10am practices impractical for many families who used to flex their time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Swimteam and summer pool are cheapest activities around if you are tightening your belt (esp. if you've already paid the membership and are just looking at summer fees). 2 income families have been dealing with summer swim team way before COVID when we were all in the office. I doubt RTO is having that big of an impact. Neighborhood demographics may be impacting swim team size just as much as the economy and RTO.

It doesn’t seem like the cheapest option to me when both parents are working. Sure, it’s cheaper than spending the summer in provence, but pool membership fee + summer swim fee + babysitter fees + time off work to volunteer all adds up. Especially the babysitter. Alternatively, parents could work and drop their kids off at full day camp for less money.

Our team is $130 per kid. We would be pool members without swim team so that cost doesn’t count.
I’m sharing a nanny with a neighbor whose kids are also on swim team and paying $405 per kid, per week. That below the average camp cost with extended hours to 5/5:30pm. Bonus - I don’t have to drive my kids all over Arlington twice a day or pack lunches.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Swimteam and summer pool are cheapest activities around if you are tightening your belt (esp. if you've already paid the membership and are just looking at summer fees). 2 income families have been dealing with summer swim team way before COVID when we were all in the office. I doubt RTO is having that big of an impact. Neighborhood demographics may be impacting swim team size just as much as the economy and RTO.

It doesn’t seem like the cheapest option to me when both parents are working. Sure, it’s cheaper than spending the summer in provence, but pool membership fee + summer swim fee + babysitter fees + time off work to volunteer all adds up. Especially the babysitter. Alternatively, parents could work and drop their kids off at full day camp for less money.

What camps are you sending your kids to that are cheaper than a babysitter? For one kid yes. Once you are paying 500.00-700.00 plus a week for camp for multiple kids a sitter makes a lot more sense. Unless you are doing crappy camps.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t know how our registrations are yet, but I have always thought our pool was not very accommodating for working parents (and I stay home). I try to help other families as much as I can, but feel like this summer is going to be really hard for a lot of families.

Practice schedules are “the way they always have been” rather than trying to allow for 10&u to get to summer camp by 9. Not to mention the crazy expectations for Monday and Wednesday afternoon meets.

I don’t know what the solution is, but maybe this is the year more teams will figure it out?

As someone who has always worked full time in the office with little flexibility and who is a swim team rep there really isn’t an easy solution. We struggled when our kids were little. We had summers where we had a sitter take kid to swim then to camp late. Then when we had 2 kids on swim we hired summer sitters.

So I get that it’s really tough for full time working parents. If we move younger kid practices earlier the SAH parents whine about having to get their kids out the door and to the pool by 7:30am and that still may be too early or even too late for working parents/kids headed to camp Afternoon practices are tricky because general pool members don’t want to lose pool space for swim team. Plus with B meets and dive meets they can’t happen every day. Kids also tend to be tired from long days at camp so they don’t get as much out of practice or even show up much.

All of this. Unless your pool has an additional lap pool, pool space is limited. The general membership already tends to feel like swim team gets priority, with meet closures and after school practice, and they balk at additional lanes being taken up for practice when they want to be able to relax at the pool in the early evening.

We're at pool with a separate lap pool and members still complain that the swim team uses the pool too much. It is a no win.

I wrote the above about the challenges. We also have 2 pools and still get complaints. Lap swimmers get upset if we use the lap lanes and if we add additional lap lanes we need to close diving boards and that also gets complaints.

The lap swimmers I ever see…are barely moving across the lane. They can go “swim” in the baby pool.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Swimteam and summer pool are cheapest activities around if you are tightening your belt (esp. if you've already paid the membership and are just looking at summer fees). 2 income families have been dealing with summer swim team way before COVID when we were all in the office. I doubt RTO is having that big of an impact. Neighborhood demographics may be impacting swim team size just as much as the economy and RTO.

It doesn’t seem like the cheapest option to me when both parents are working. Sure, it’s cheaper than spending the summer in provence, but pool membership fee + summer swim fee + babysitter fees + time off work to volunteer all adds up. Especially the babysitter. Alternatively, parents could work and drop their kids off at full day camp for less money.

What camps are you sending your kids to that are cheaper than a babysitter? For one kid yes. Once you are paying 500.00-700.00 plus a week for camp for multiple kids a sitter makes a lot more sense. Unless you are doing crappy camps.

NP…love how out of touch DCUM parents are. I never paid $500-700 per kid per week for camp. And no they weren’t “crappy”.

That said once we had 2 kids on swim team we hired a sitter. Didn’t make as much financial sense when we only had 1 kid on swim. It was slightly more expensive than camps, but not astronomical. We reduced cost by staggering schedules so kids were with sitters a little less and only doing sitter for the swim team weeks. Then doing camp or going on vacation the other weeks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Swimteam and summer pool are cheapest activities around if you are tightening your belt (esp. if you've already paid the membership and are just looking at summer fees). 2 income families have been dealing with summer swim team way before COVID when we were all in the office. I doubt RTO is having that big of an impact. Neighborhood demographics may be impacting swim team size just as much as the economy and RTO.

It doesn’t seem like the cheapest option to me when both parents are working. Sure, it’s cheaper than spending the summer in provence, but pool membership fee + summer swim fee + babysitter fees + time off work to volunteer all adds up. Especially the babysitter. Alternatively, parents could work and drop their kids off at full day camp for less money.

What camps are you sending your kids to that are cheaper than a babysitter? For one kid yes. Once you are paying 500.00-700.00 plus a week for camp for multiple kids a sitter makes a lot more sense. Unless you are doing crappy camps.

NP…love how out of touch DCUM parents are. I never paid $500-700 per kid per week for camp. And no they weren’t “crappy”.

That said once we had 2 kids on swim team we hired a sitter. Didn’t make as much financial sense when we only had 1 kid on swim. It was slightly more expensive than camps, but not astronomical. We reduced cost by staggering schedules so kids were with sitters a little less and only doing sitter for the swim team weeks. Then doing camp or going on vacation the other weeks.

Fairfax county camps from 9-3 that I’ve seen are between $350-$450. Add in before and/or after care and you’re at $450-$550. Welcome to 2025 prices. Maybe you’re the one that’s out of touch.

[Anonymous]

Love your kids. Don’t send them to camp. Send them to the pool to hang out and have a real childhood summer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Love your kids. Don’t send them to camp. Send them to the pool to hang out and have a real childhood summer.

Camps are pretty fun too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our swim team enrollment is about 50 less swimmers than last year. We’ve seen pool many families not renewing their membership across all age groups. Job uncertainty is coming into play. Many families are tightening up their spending in anticipation of job loss.

I’m on our club’s board and new membership inquiries have evaporated. We’ve had maybe three so far this spring. I’m sure that will affect swim team registrations.

[Anonymous]

I’m on our club’s board and new membership inquiries have evaporated. We’ve had maybe three so far this spring. I’m sure that will affect swim team registrations.

Same. We have had inquiries but almost all of them would like to be considered next year. At least half of our offers this year have deferred to 2026.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Love your kids. Don’t send them to camp. Send them to the pool to hang out and have a real childhood summer.

Send your seven year olds to the pool by themselves. Teach them to flout age restrictions, let them learn to panhandle for lunch. Let them live, dammit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Swimteam and summer pool are cheapest activities around if you are tightening your belt (esp. if you've already paid the membership and are just looking at summer fees). 2 income families have been dealing with summer swim team way before COVID when we were all in the office. I doubt RTO is having that big of an impact. Neighborhood demographics may be impacting swim team size just as much as the economy and RTO.

It doesn’t seem like the cheapest option to me when both parents are working. Sure, it’s cheaper than spending the summer in provence, but pool membership fee + summer swim fee + babysitter fees + time off work to volunteer all adds up. Especially the babysitter. Alternatively, parents could work and drop their kids off at full day camp for less money.

Our team is $130 per kid. We would be pool members without swim team so that cost doesn’t count.
I’m sharing a nanny with a neighbor whose kids are also on swim team and paying $405 per kid, per week. That below the average camp cost with extended hours to 5/5:30pm. Bonus - I don’t have to drive my kids all over Arlington twice a day or pack lunches.

I'm sending my kids to camp for $350 per kid per week. And I can get that money tax free thanks to childcare reimbursements. When I hired teen babysitters so my kids could do swim team I couldn't get the reimbursement.

[Anonymous]

It’s probably RTO and the fact that it’s a pain to hire a nanny or sitter just for the purpose of swim team. You or your kids have to really love summer swim to take all that hassle versus just doing camps.

Maybe also consider whether your pool offers a truly inclusive summer or some environment or whether people are made to feel like they’re invisible if their kids aren’t fast swimmers. The people who run the swim teams tend to be parents of fast kids. They can think they’re being inclusive, but are kind of oblivious to the fact that families with kids who are newer to swimming or just aren’t as fast feel a bit left out of conversations. Combine that feeling with increased logistics due to RTO and you’ve got a recipe for parents to just say forget it.

[Anonymous]

Our pool is free (hoa pool).