As a member of David Lloyd Bushey for over 6 years I have decided it is time to use another club, you may well ask why? Let me share my dissatisfaction and disgust at what has happened at David Lloyd bushey over past few months.
Firstly my then 7 year old son was booked onto a mini tennis course in the club, so my wife took him to the appointed location in the club and left him with the coach and his assistant and then when to the Gym as this was a supervised coaching session, as she does most weeks. 55 minutes later before the end of the lesson she returned to find my son alone on the court with no supervision at all, no staff member, no coaching staff or assistant, absolutely no supervision. When asked, my son told us that the coach and assistant had walked off after 30 minutes of the hour session. My wife confronted the assistant, the coach had left the premises, and he stated "The coach said I could leave after 30 minutes", asked why he though it was OK to leave a 7 year old unsupervised in the club he seems to think it was OK? Some people have limited intelligence I know but leaving them to supervise children is not OK in anyone's book. So my wife confronted the manager and he apologised and said he would look into this as a matter of urgency, did he? NO. When my wife caught up with the coach a week or so later he did not even recall the incident and made light of the fact my son was left alone and also stated the manager had not spoken to him about it at all. The manager never followed up with me or my wife at all. So what can we take from this. The manager of David Lloyd Bushey is happy for children to be left unsupervised in the club when they are supposed to be supervised? Seems so. I wonder if this will change after an incident with a child? It will not be with my child as he will not be using this club again.
Next incident, oh yes there is more. My wife took my son to his weekly swimming lesson and arrived 15 minutes early, so she took my son to the pool and watch by the pool side while he swam for the 15 minutes before his lesson. Nothing wrong with that you may say, especially as the rules (posted in the changing rooms) clearly state that all children under the age of 12 must be supervised while in the swimming pool and both myself and my wife have previously asked and been told that you do not have to be in the pool with your child while they are swimming. This is different when children are with swimming coaches when you must not stay at the poolside, my son had not started his swimming lesson ands was not being supervised. So all well and good then, apparently not, the membership manager storms over to my wife and another lady watching there child by the pool and says 'I order you to leave the pool side immediately'. Rude, yes, contradicting the stated and posted club rules, yes. So next port of call was the club manager, this time he could not bring himself to agree with the posted club rules, he believes he can change them without communicating to the members and seems to approve of his staff being rude to club members.
Make your own conclusion from what I have written above. My advice is, do not leave your child in the care of this club while the manager has such a cavalier approach to child care and the published rules.
I personally think that you have taken this completely out of proportion. You can not expect the lifeguard at poolside during that time or any other member of staff at David Lloyd to act as another parent to your child and babysit them whilst you wonder off and have no concern for you're child. Just because they are there to save lives does not mean that they have to constantly have an eye on one specific child every second that he or she is there for, bare in mind that lifeguards have to continuously monitor every single person in the pool as well as the spa area. If you do not wish for you child to be left unsupervised then do not leave them on their own, simple as! It is not the member of staff's responsability to babysit your child. If you want your child to be supervised then YOU have to be with and on time when the lessons finish instead of you spending the extra 30 minutes in the gym and knowing that the lesson has already finished! By the sound of it, it seems as though you can not manage time and expect everyboy to do things for you. I am completely against what you have reported and find that what you have report is not only a waste of time to read but also very idiotic due to the fact that you can not simply take care of your child! As I have mentioned before, the staff at David Lloyd are not there to babysit your child, they are there to do their job and expect their parents to be there when they are needed. For example, the child being need to be picked up after lessons. You have to take into consideration that they are only human and can not go out of their personal way just for you're benefit!