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| - I'm sad to write that the Christown YMCA is no longer what it used to be. I remember going here as a child and it was a great place for children and families. This is no longer the case. This YMCA is not a safe, healthy environment for children. The facilities are filthy, the childcare is overrun with kids, many of them sick, with very little supervision, and the swim lessons are poorly run.
This was our experience: I put my daughter in swim classes here and signed up our family for the gym membership. The swim classes were highly disorganized. The first day we were there they realized that they had signed up double the number of kids allowed in the class. They had to tell half of the people to wait thirty minutes until they had an instructor available. That might not sound like a lot, but when you are waiting by a pool with a baby, it is very inconvenient. Also, the person who signed us up for the class said that there would be 5 classes that month since there happened to be 5 Saturdays in the month. It turned out there were only 4 classes scheduled (which we didn't know until we arrived at the 5th class which turned out not to be happening). Also, during the 4th class (which was actually the last class), there was an intoxicated man wandering around the pool area. He actually passed out on the pool deck five minutes into my daughter's swim lesson. My husband saw it happen and rushed over to help. The lifeguards didn't seem to know what to do. One lifeguard said, "He's not breathing!" My husband knelt down to check and smelled a heavy scent of alcohol on the man. My husband asked the lifeguard, "Do you know CPR? Do you have a defibrillator? Has anyone called 911?" They did have a defibrillator and appeared to have had some training in CPR, but definitely were not quick to get started. My husband called 911 on his cellphone. They cleared the pool when this happened and told us we would be contacted about a makeup lesson. Not only were we not contacted but I called and e-mailed multiple times to ask about scheduling a makeup lesson and never got a response.
As far as the childcare is concerned, we were told when we registered at the Y that the child adult ratio was 6:1 in the childcare area. That sounded reasonable to me, so we decided to come as a family one afternoon and have our girls stay in the childcare area for a half an hour while we worked out. When we arrived, there were (I am not exaggerating) AT LEAST 30 kids in the childcare area (which is not very large), and three adults. I use the term adult loosely since the two male staff members appeared to be around 18 years old. There was also one female staff member who appeared to be a bit older. I have a small baby who is under a year old and asked one of the male staff members if it would be safe for the baby there. He said yes, and when I pointed out several bins of small items (choking hazards), he said, "Don't worry, big sisters are good at stopping babies from eating things they shouldn't eat." He was referring to my older daughter who was 2.5 at the time. I said that I would not leave my kids there with so many hazards and he said he would open up the "baby area." This was a tiny enclosed area with a few toys and mats. He proceeded to pick up about 7 babies and put them in the baby area along with my two children. Immediately all 7 babies started crying and screaming and the staff member (the 18 year old male) appeared very frazzled and had no idea what to do with 7 screaming babies. I stepped into the baby area (my kids weren't crying, since I was still there) and proceeded to help comfort several babies, including holding one baby boy who was especially upset, while I tried to distract the other babies with toys. The staff member left the baby area to go attend to some older children. Needless to say, I did not leave my kids there and did not end up being able to work out. As soon as I had the babies calmed down, I took my kids and went to the front desk and reported what was going on. The front desk worker told me that it was always like that in the afternoons since it is a very popular workout time.
I think it is terrible that the Y has become a place that is not suitable for kids and families. I would not recommend the Y to anyone, especially if you have children. It is an unsafe, disorganized, unclean facility with incompetent staff and there are so many better options available.
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