It would have annoyed me bc I paid for the gym time and it wasn't being used appropriately, not because the kids were helping out.
that is how I felt. the gym time was being used for cleaning time.
It wouldn't bother me if the team was responsible for cleaning the equipment or cleaning up after themselves - I always figured thats part of playing for a team. It would bother me if they were cleaning up after the rec class as well. I couldn't tell from your post which was the case.
yes the rec class uses the pit.
the gym has rec classes all day long up until the team girls come in the eveing. so they are in the pit just as much, if not more than the team.
the younger rec classes jump in frequently.
and play in there
Are youpaying for this 2 hour session? If so, I would not be happy
yes I paid for this 2 hour session, I pay a LOOOOTTTTT of $$ to the gym each month
I understand that the time was part of the paid-for session but don't think I would have said something to the coach. I would have probably been standing there thinking "well, the coach certainly didn't put all that garbage in there. Maybe if the kids clean it out, they'll keep it cleaner and not think of the foam pit as their personal trash pit."
agnes!
its not that the kids use it as a garbage pit, its just the nature of it and how it gets dirty and "things" end up in there.
there is no food allowed in the gym at all ever, so I am assuming the small pile of "macaroni" my dd told me she found was probably actually vomit
I agree, if you're paying for 2 hours of practice time then I would be upset. Now if they did the clean-up after practice is over I'd be ok (when I did color guard we were always responsible for cleaning up after ourselves when practice was over and maintaining equipment).
If they needed the help getting all the foam blocks out of the pit that is fine, to stay a few after practice.
My daughter was a team gymnast (retired after L8) and they did stuff like this all the time. It was actually kind of a fun break - their workouts were 5-9 pm Mon-Fri and 11-2 on Saturday. I don't think it hurt them to help out, they had fun and got to spend time together doing something other than training.
Yep what she said. When I was on a team, we LOVED to pull all the foam out of the pit. And we were always in trouble for digging holes. AND our pit debris was a lot scarier. There were scorpions at the bottom... seriously.
Besides, if you've ever done that, it takes a LOT of muscle and stamina to climb in and out and move stuff on that squishy "surface". Think of it as fun conditioning time.
My DD is on team and they clean out the pit at the annual team sleepover. It's not the most fun thing in the world, but it's part of being on the team. It has been so humid here, though, that it was REALLY gross in August when they cleaned it. I'll spare you the details, but let's just say that I'm really glad it was getting cleaned. Basically, the girls throw out the foam and "fluff" it. The actually cleaning is left up to the coaches/owners.
When I first read this, I thought you were one of my girls. We had to completely empty the pit last Wed. All of the team kids spent the last hour of their practice throwing blocks out of the pit.
Then the Friday after Thanksgiving, 12 coaches (not me
) spent 10 hours cleaning out the pit. There is a tramp bed under the pit, you have to make sure all of the springs are in good condition. You have to make sure that the sides of the pit are padded well, in case a gymnast hits the side of the pit. We also threw out about 2000 foam blocks, you would not believe how nasty they get.
On Monday, all of the team kids spent another 45 minutes putting all of the foam back in. We added 1000 more blocks and we have ordered more. This was a major cleaning job that we do every two years. The smaller job that you are describing is done about every six months.
Team gymnasts use the pit the most, it is for their safety. The kids had fun and the parents know that their kids have a safe place to land.
this is my dd's 4th year on the team, and they have never done this in the past. ever.
so that is why I was so surprised by it.
my feeling was that having the girls take the blocks out is fine, but there were 3 coaches there, and 2 did nothing but watch, one got in the pit with the girls and as the girls moved the blocks, she picked up the debri.
when the girls came out they were all ooohing saying how "gross" it was, and how many bandaids they found and stepped on, and how dusty it was, and how much dust they got in their eyes and mouth!
so I was a little peeved.
I felt like it is not the responsibility of the team to do the cleaning job, they ( the owners) should have done the cleaning on their own ( the owners, or hire a cleaning person)
a bunch of the parents were talking about it in the lobby. so I wasn't the only one that wasn't very happy about it.
I probably shouldn't have said anything , but I couldn't help myself.
now my dh thinks they won't advance my dd, that I "sealed her fate"
I wasn't nasty , I just wanted to know what they had the girls doing, and I felt like as a parent I had the right to ask and know.
but now that I see it is common practice, I guess I dont' feel as bad about it.
still a little bugged, but I won't say anything else about it.
