Frustrated with how our swim team takes over the pool

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:EVERY summer!

Join the team, it’s fun. Kids love it. It creates lifelong memories.

Tons of pools in MoCo do it and there is an NVSL league also.

You sound so stupid

[Anonymous]

We pay a lot to use the pool so no, this isn’t normal at our pool. I would find another pool.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wait -- you think that everyone should be quiet so your toddlers can nap AT THE POOL??? I'm not a swim team member, but that is absolutely nuts. We always took my daughter to the pool either before or after her nap -- there would be no way she could have napped at the pool, nor would I have expected kids playing in the pool to be quiet enough. Your entitlement on that issue rivals the swim team members.

Did OP say this? I didn't see it.

OP commented later on the first page: "I am not going to do that, but I was frankly embarrassed trying to meet up with friends who have toddlers to admit that basically we could swim for an hour or so before their kids needed to go home to nap or we could deal with the bullhorns. And we would not be able to get a table under shade until the swim team families decided to leave. "

That sounds like they planned to have the kids at the nap at the pool. Did I read that wrong?

I believe OP is saying there is only one quiet hour before her friends have to leave to go home for the toddler’s nap. If they get to the pool earlier than that quiet hour, they’ll have to listen to the bullhorn.

[Anonymous]

Our pool only has morning practice. Pool opens at noon. Some kids stay, some go home. It does close early 2-3 times per season for a B or dive meet. We have reciprocity with 3 other pools in our area. iIf ours is closed for whatever reason, we can swim there and vise versa.

[Anonymous]

Our swim team practice ends an hour before the pool opens mid week so we don’t have the issue with the swim team families holding onto tables. We did swim team for 3 years but are not this year.
Get on the board OP and make some changes.

[Anonymous]

OP we switched from a more local, coop pool for your exact reasons. The swim team and their families dominated it. I had grown up going to the pool, and it was never this bad. Moved back to the area and rejoined and the swim team families dominance was out of control! We couldn’t even use the toddler pool during swim team practice. The swim families would lay claim to all of the umbrellas and shaded areas w/ towels and stuff, even though a lot of them left between am and pm. practices. Their stuff remained. Theyd also take over the grilling are and all of the snack bar tables. Final straw was they started having pasta nights on Fridays before meets and closed the snack bar, eating area and pool deck unless you were a swim team member. The older swim team kids were also the lifeguards and would basically make up new rules to help their teammates. They started letting swim team members in the baby pool during the 15 minute adult swim every hour, and the kids would play the craziest games (tidal wave to try to get the water out, etc). Only big swim team kids were allowed in bc they said they needed to stay warmed up. It was ridiculous
We joined a country club, and it’s been worth every penny.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Buy some land and open a pool.
DMV has a pool shortage

Not in the area near Woodson HS and LBSS, that's for sure. Pools closing or nearly closing like crazy over here. Only about 15 years ago Royal Pool shut down and a few other area pools are teetering on the brink.

[Anonymous]

OP, I think we belong to the same pool and I agree, it’s ridiculous. At our old neighborhood pool, it was much better so it’s very pool dependent. I have older kids now and I’ve learned to deal with it. We tend to go when we know there are away meets or times after the meets at our pool when it’s empty. IF they put out the schedule. That’s my biggest issue with the pool—they don’t update the online calendar and they only send out notices half of the time. They are terrible communicators and planners. This week alone, they are closing the pool early for swim related stuff. Plan better—at least spread it out. But as others have said, the board is made up of swim parents so they don’t care. Which is why I refuse to give one minute of my time to volunteer for the pool.

In any case, I have a lot of friends who have swim and dive team kids and the drama between the two teams, with the pool, among the kids and parents is nuts. It makes me glad my kids never wanted to be involved. The intensity is just too much. It’s summer swim, not the Olympics.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, I think we belong to the same pool and I agree, it’s ridiculous. At our old neighborhood pool, it was much better so it’s very pool dependent. I have older kids now and I’ve learned to deal with it. We tend to go when we know there are away meets or times after the meets at our pool when it’s empty. IF they put out the schedule. That’s my biggest issue with the pool—they don’t update the online calendar and they only send out notices half of the time. They are terrible communicators and planners. This week alone, they are closing the pool early for swim related stuff. Plan better—at least spread it out. But as others have said, the board is made up of swim parents so they don’t care. Which is why I refuse to give one minute of my time to volunteer for the pool.

In any case, I have a lot of friends who have swim and dive team kids and the drama between the two teams, with the pool, among the kids and parents is nuts. It makes me glad my kids never wanted to be involved. The intensity is just too much. It’s summer swim, not the Olympics.

Ohhhh I bet we do belong to the same pool! It’s funny because we know some swim team families who are very nice people and seem a little exasperated by all of it too so I wonder how much is being driven by a handful of very intense people/families. It seems to me that even more than thinking their kids will make it to the Olympics it’s about making the teams this very big and hierarchical social thing. I love our neighborhood but there are definitely some parents who still seem to have a high school mentality about popularity (hence some of the drama you referenced…)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Normal until mid-July.

+1

[Anonymous]

Blame the working parents who were pissy their kids couldn’t do morning swim team. The evening swim practices are a direct result of this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, I think we belong to the same pool and I agree, it’s ridiculous. At our old neighborhood pool, it was much better so it’s very pool dependent. I have older kids now and I’ve learned to deal with it. We tend to go when we know there are away meets or times after the meets at our pool when it’s empty. IF they put out the schedule. That’s my biggest issue with the pool—they don’t update the online calendar and they only send out notices half of the time. They are terrible communicators and planners. This week alone, they are closing the pool early for swim related stuff. Plan better—at least spread it out. But as others have said, the board is made up of swim parents so they don’t care. Which is why I refuse to give one minute of my time to volunteer for the pool.

In any case, I have a lot of friends who have swim and dive team kids and the drama between the two teams, with the pool, among the kids and parents is nuts. It makes me glad my kids never wanted to be involved. The intensity is just too much. It’s summer swim, not the Olympics.

Ohhhh I bet we do belong to the same pool! It’s funny because we know some swim team families who are very nice people and seem a little exasperated by all of it too so I wonder how much is being driven by a handful of very intense people/families. It seems to me that even more than thinking their kids will make it to the Olympics it’s about making the teams this very big and hierarchical social thing. I love our neighborhood but there are definitely some parents who still seem to have a high school mentality about popularity (hence some of the drama you referenced…)

Chesterbrook?

The swim team families are insane there.

[Anonymous]

What a thing to complain about. You have a choice in pool to join, no? Go find a dead pool that’s quiet and watch your kids get bored as they get older and never want to go.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wait -- you think that everyone should be quiet so your toddlers can nap AT THE POOL??? I'm not a swim team member, but that is absolutely nuts. We always took my daughter to the pool either before or after her nap -- there would be no way she could have napped at the pool, nor would I have expected kids playing in the pool to be quiet enough. Your entitlement on that issue rivals the swim team members.

Did OP say this? I didn't see it.

OP commented later on the first page: "I am not going to do that, but I was frankly embarrassed trying to meet up with friends who have toddlers to admit that basically we could swim for an hour or so before their kids needed to go home to nap or we could deal with the bullhorns. And we would not be able to get a table under shade until the swim team families decided to leave. "

That sounds like they planned to have the kids at the nap at the pool. Did I read that wrong?

I believe OP is saying there is only one quiet hour before her friends have to leave to go home for the toddler’s nap. If they get to the pool earlier than that quiet hour, they’ll have to listen to the bullhorn.

I think she means the pool is closed altogether. Most pools in this area that host swim team aren't open to the public during the morning swim hours.

I hear the complaints about swim team taking up lanes in the afternoon, or the pool closing for B meets. But the opening time is something that was almost certainly known before she signed up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Blame the working parents who were pissy their kids couldn’t do morning swim team. The evening swim practices are a direct result of this.

Why not just do PM practice? Families with young kids could go in the morning, then go home to lunch/nap. Older kids would likely start showing up around noon, as the babies/toddlers are leaving, and stay through swim practice. Kids who are in camp would show up for swim practice, and stay until close.