Kids Area

[Kenny Ward]

We are opening a new box (fixing to start finish out) and needing some guidance from some affiliate owners on three things: 1. Do you have a kids area/room? 2. How or do you have it supervised? 3. If you do or don't do you think it has caused you to not have as many members or has inhanced your opportunities. Your input and help is greatly apprieciated! Sincerely, Kenny

[Tom Reyes]

I liked Crossfit Oahu's kids area when I was there.

[Dan Hollingsworth]

We have a kids area and we have had more than one member choose us specifically for that reason. Our area is unsupervised. We tell every member that this is a "Kids waiting area" and they are responsible for their own kids. We only want kids that are old enough and mature enough to be left alone in there.

We have a TV/DVD with lots of movies, a whiteboard for them to draw on and too many toys and games for them to play with. We are explicit that once class starts the kids go in the play area and do not leave, except to go to the bathroom or when supervised by a parent, until class is over. This works very well for us. Sometimes it is chaotic and a parent has to interrupt a WOD to tend to their kid, but for them that minor inconvenience far outweighs getting a babysitter or even worse, not being able to participate in CF because of child care issues.

Our goal has always been to create a very family friendly community. It's great for the parents and it's great for the kids. I can't tell you the number of kids that have started imitating their parents based on just being in the box and observing what we do. Kids are always grabbing PVC and doing OHS or dropping down and doing burpees. Last night my 5 year-old put her feet up on a 12" box and did some inclined push-ups. We wouldn't have it any other way.

[michael cusi]

There was actually a recent thread that talked about Kids areas, you should check it out. It's 3 pages long. But to answer your Q's:

1. Yes, we have one, built it last July
2. Unsupervised. It's fairly close to everything so parents can look in on the kids
3. It's been great for us for our Jiu Jitsu aspect; as we have a large Kids class and with that comes a lot of younger siblings. I believe it's helped us with the whole "Family-friendly" type deal. CrossFit, not so much (yet) as most of our CrossFitters don't have kids.

[michael cusi]

Here is the other thread by the way:

Child care in your box:
http://www.board.crossfit.com/showthread.php?t=52103

[Tamara Cohen]

Our affiliate is on the lower level of a gymnastics facility. Two of the morning class times offer supervised child care upstairs in the gymnastics area. It is very popular. We have a lot of stay at home moms who work out at those times because of the free child care. My kids are 3 and 5, and I know from experience that it wouldn't work for me to have them in an unsupervised area if I was trying to do a WOD. They are at the gym with me a lot, but it's hard enough to do strength worksets or skill work if there isn't anyone to watch them...they just interrupt me every 5 minutes. In the middle of a WOD, I can imagine it would be quite irritating to other athletes to have children yelling for their mom or dad. I'm not sure how it is set up now, but at one point, I think the child care providers were all members who did a work-trade for some part of their gym membership.