That's pretty shocking.
Kids being spanked at the YMCA
Just a warning if you use the babysitting drop off at the Y, your kids may witness spanking, yelling, shaming, etc. Employees there are apparantly allowed to spank their own children while they are at work. I am going to cut and paste what I said in the other thread so I don't have to retype it all.
4/3/06
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4/4/06
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4/5/06
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4/3/06
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| Ds and I had a bad experience at work today. I work at the YMCA, in the part where parents drop their kids off and go work out. All three kids go to work with me. This afternoon, we were in the downstairs playroom and the lady working with me had to get her son out of the maze (like the big things they have at McDonald's) to take him to school. He wasn't listening to her so she screamed "If you don't come right now, I am going to pull your pants down and spank you in front of all of these kids!" My oldest was very upset and tried to tell her not to talk about spanking around him. I didn't know what to say. I've asked her before not to spank when she had said she was going to and she didn't (I think it had thrown her off). |
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| I did end up having to report her to the current supervisor today. She was sitting at the desk in full view of all the kids. Her two year old (not the kid she threatened yesterday) pinched her and she turned the girl over without any warning and spanked her in front of everybody. I told her that I was going to call the supervisor and she got upset about me "telling her what she can do with her kids." Um no, I'm telling her what is appropriate to do with them at work. Dammit. I didn't want to deal with this again today. I'm guessing my supervisor will say something to me about it tomorrow. She was going to talk to her higher-up and get back to me. |
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| Dang it. They made her and I stay after work for a meeting today to discuss it and basically the message was that I "wasn't in trouble though it could have been handled better." Handled what better? I told my immediate supervisor exactly what happened and what I saw. I managed to not make any judgements on her parenting or what she does outside of work. I said that it shouldn't happen in front of the other kids at the Y. Nothing is going to happen to her. Not a thing. She didn't even get a strong warning not to spank in the babysitting room. The supervisor said that "it wasn't the best place to do it." As far as I know, there will be no ramifications, not even her having to agree to not spank in the babysitting drop off area. If you use a YMCA, you may want to check their policy on employees disciplining their own children while they're at work before you leave them to be babysat while you work out. |
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Yeah, I'm still in shock. I am absolutely amazed that nothing seems to be happening here.
I'll never get why we can be arrested for hitting a grown up, but somehow if someone is littler than you, it's not assault.
Cross post this to activism and let's start a letter campaign both to the YMCA national headquarters and our own YMCA branches. One employee raising objections about another employee should have been enough to stop this cold, but apparently they need more motivation.
For as much as I would love to get involved in a YMCA discipline campaign, it could cost me my promotion to head of the department that I'm due this summer (which I see as my chance to change things at this Y).
Eeek I'm amazed that's allowed. At my dd's co-op preschool, they have a strict policy about how parents are to act towards children (even their own) in front of the other children. Threatening violence would result in automatic expulsion.
From an institution's perspective, it's not about them 'parenting' their own kids, it's about their employee behavior. Am very surprised the Y doesn't have a policy on it.
From an institution's perspective, it's not about them 'parenting' their own kids, it's about their employee behavior. Am very surprised the Y doesn't have a policy on it.
as much as I DON'T like this... and as much as I agree that spanking your kids at work it a horrible idea for so many reasons, I still understand one thing: people spank b/c they often don't know better. so they don't understand when you show anger about it. I have atleast a dozen friends who spank regularly. and I'm an xspanker. it NEVER occured to me until my second child that this practice was odd! I was a good mama then and I am now... I just didn't know better. if another mama had approached me on it sternly I would have just been pissed and hurt... I wouldnt have understood at all really.
I can see both sides of this so well. I sympathize with both parties... the thing i dont get though, is why it's ok to shame a parent into not shaming their kids? isn't it kinda backwards? (not to accuse anyone here directly of doing so - it just seems to be common practice in nonspankers yk?) it seems to me that if you wanna impress upon a mama the consequences of shaming there child (esp in public! yikes!) that there must be a better way than putting her down ykwim?
for what it's worth... I'd am also appalled at the YMCA staff for not having a rules against this in general. it's just in bad taste if nothing else b/c if i saw this I'd walk right back out in fear my kid would also be spanked!
I can see both sides of this so well. I sympathize with both parties... the thing i dont get though, is why it's ok to shame a parent into not shaming their kids? isn't it kinda backwards? (not to accuse anyone here directly of doing so - it just seems to be common practice in nonspankers yk?) it seems to me that if you wanna impress upon a mama the consequences of shaming there child (esp in public! yikes!) that there must be a better way than putting her down ykwim?
for what it's worth... I'd am also appalled at the YMCA staff for not having a rules against this in general. it's just in bad taste if nothing else b/c if i saw this I'd walk right back out in fear my kid would also be spanked!
The problem as I saw it was that she (as an employee there) spanked her kids in front of the clients' (and my) children.
Wow, that surprises me, also! They may not want to take a stance on spanking, but at the very least, it's unprofessional to do that in front of everyone!
i totally agree that if nothing else, it's at least VERY unprofessional!
I was told today that my supervisor is leaving May 5th, which bumps my promotion from the end of the summer to in two weeks.
"Things are gonna change, I can feel it..."
"Things are gonna change, I can feel it..."
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