"AITA for thinking I'm entitled to a child-free gym?"
I'm looking for advice because I can be a little oblivious when it comes to kids as I don't have them. I, F32 belong to a small CrossFit gym. I pay $150 a month for it. This is the only one within a 20 mi radius of my house.
There's about 10-15 of us in a class at a time, 3 people usually bring their kids and that's including the coach. Each of them have about two kids. So sometimes there may be up to 5 to 6 kids there. All between the ages of 5 and 10. Depending on what day it is and who's there.
I really do like the idea of being able to come work out and bring your kids, I get it daycare is expensive. But this wasn't one of the perks of the class. It wasn't discussed in the initial orientation.
For the first couple of classes the kids stayed in the coach's office. You really wouldn't even know they were there. But for the past 3 weeks they have been running around wild. There's two sections of the gym, one where you put your shoes on and one were the main gym is.
There's a big opening in between them, so you can see the cubbies from the workout room. It begins the second you get there, as you're putting on your shoes there's kids running screaming between the cubbies. Their shoes are all strewn about the floor, so you're really tripping on them.
Once the class starts, you have some kids that hang out on the jumping blocks that we sometime need for for classes, they're always loudly blasting their tablets, which isn't a problem during the workouts when the music is on, but when the coach is trying to explain the workout it's very distracting.
Or they're running screaming in the room where you put your shoes on. You can hear them and you can see them. In between sets the kids think it's okay to run to their parents and they run in between the weights. I've even seen them run in the middle of the gym while we're doing deadlifts. People have had to stop and order not to hit the kids in the head.
I just want to know if I'm the ahole for assuming that I am entitled to a child-free gym, or at the very least, a child-free workout, where the kids are in a room for an hour and not bothering the rest of the adults wanting to work out.
Like I said this wasn't one of the perks, it wasn't like come here and bring your kids. The majority of us that work out there do not have kids. If this wasn't the only gym around I would have quit already.
Here's what people had to say to OP:
Ordinary-Audience363 said:
NTA. Someone hasn't bothered to enforce the initial rules. Time to bring it up.
Careless-Giraffe-623 said:
NTA - does the gym's liability insurance even cover kids? what happens when one inevitably has an accident or trips someone up who is holding weights, and they land on the kid? All kinds of legal problems there!
clkinsyd said:
NTA- single parent here and I will say that would drive me crazy! I would speak to the coach and say that the kids running around on the floor are distracting you with the noise and movement as you try to focus on your workout.
Several times this has caused you to startle/lose focus and you are worried about getting injured. Then ask can they be restricted to the office again? That way you are not demanding they don't come and you are offering a possible solution.
SufficientProject273 said:
NTA. They are putting themselves and others in danger there. Someone trips on a shoe or they decide to run in front of someone and get rocked its gonna be a huge liability. Maybe make an anonymous complaint online or in an email to the gym owner.
OddRevolution7888 said:
Call corporate and complain. This sounds dangerous. NTA. I'm all for child free gyms.
SnooSprouts6437 said:
NTA, and you may not be the only one who feels the way you do. I would maybe approach some of the childless participants and see if they feel the same, and then approach the person who runs it and let them know how you feel.