The good, the bad, and the annoying at the Y

My son has food allergies and he's about to go to his first YMCA summer camp experience. It's a day camp, but it's 5 hours long each day - longer than he's ever been out of my food monitoring control. We have to carry EpiPens around with him wherever he goes, so I was a little nervous about camp. Yesterday I met with the camp director and head counselor and WOW was I impressed. They were so considerate and willing to do whatever it takes to keep Spencer safe. I never once felt like the horrible food watchdog I sometimes seem to be in other situations. But...

While I was meeting with the two wonderful camp organizers, my kids were in swim lessons downstairs. They've been to Y swimming lessons before and begged me to sign them up again. Spencer decided that he's too frustrated learning something new and his new teacher wasn't very flexible in figuring out a way to encourage him, so Spencer sat on the deck the whole class. That doesn't bother me so much (it was Spencer's choice not to swim, after all) as the "talking to" I got when I picked him up. Apparently, they tried to page me because he was distracting and they were concerned about safety. This is certainly legitimate. But I had told them I was meeting with the camp director if they needed me. I guess the paging system doesn't cover the staff offices, but according to the woman who disciplined me I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN THAT. Huh? And anyway, parents aren't even allowed to stay for the swim lessons because the kids behave better when the parents aren't there, so I was just doing what they told me was best. So, while I want to cooperate so that swim lessons can be safe for all the students, I am a tad frustrated and angry at the way Spencer and I were treated. Luckily, Evie had a fantastic lesson.

So, part of me says Spencer should at least attend because he wanted to and we spent the money, but another part of me says to heck with these people who clearly don't want to work with anyone but the most agreeable children. At our last round of lessons the teachers were just incredibly awesome, but they all seem to have gone on summer break. I'm disappointed. Since the aquatics director is Spencer's teacher this time, I don't really have anyone to complain to.