I'm not a parent yet, so maybe this will make sense to me when I am... I'm lucky that the gym we found is nice, a lot of people there refer to it as "the club", since it has a cafe and a nice outdoor swimming/picnic area... but it's still pretty "homey" to me, especially after seeing the actual luxury-type gyms in the NYC area. I like it a lot. It's very family-oriented.

Anyhow, the indoor swimming area has a big observation balcony with bleachers, on the second floor between the cardio room and the yoga room. Whenever I go swimming, the pools are packed with kids (fortunately there's a grownup pool too), and the balcony upstairs is packed with parents sitting around chatting, sometimes with their other kids sitting there playing video games. But... why?? Why aren't those other kids playing basketball, or the climbing wall (kids love the climbing wall!), or swimming, or playing tennis, or chasing each other through the halls? Why aren't the parents (many of them as overweight as I am), not swimming with their kids, or taking yoga or a spinning class, or watching from the cardio room instead?

I guess I do "get" it... either they've already done their exercise for the day and they're relaxing, or they don't feel like working out. And I shouldn't try to project my own desire to work out and move around onto them, that's not fair. But man, it really surprises me to see all these families treating the gym like an extension of their couch, when there are SO MANY fun, healthy things they could be doing there!

It could be a couple of things. At my gym, chlldren can train for the kids triathlon, take swimming lessons or participate in swim team, however their parents and siblings are not permitted to make use of the facilities unless they are members. Many of these parents are non-members, therefore just waiting out the 45 minutes or so until their child finishes their extra curricular activity.

HTH!

Also, maybe kids have to be supervised? IDK, but if that's the case, the parents would have to be up there watching, and their other kids would have to be with them.

I have often noticed the same thing in our outdoor pool. There will be parents sitting there -- very overweight -- and they are in the lounge chairs reading books and eating big bags of chips, etc. I never understand why they don't get out of those chairs and into the pool.

My kids used to have swimming lessons at one gym, and I was a member at a different one. This meant I couldn't use the gym/pool/whatever at "their" gym without taking out another membership.

Maybe this is what's going on here.

I never thought of that, and it makes perfect sense. They're probably just not members at this gym. Thanks everyone, I'll try to be a little less judgemental next time.

I know at my gym, depending on the age of the child, parents have to stick around during some lessons. So since they can't be in more than one place, they can't have kids in activities at the same time.

Not quite the same thing, but I am reminded of the days when my stepdaughter played soccer, and some of the mothers would be on the sidelines actually being insulting to their daughters out there playing their hearts out. I wanted to grab them by the shoulders and ask them why they weren't out there playing soccer if they knew so darn much.