ROCKY RIVER CIVIC CENTER — Local services in Rocky River

If I could give this place 0 stars, I would be. Please avoid if your child has special needs as the staff are clearly not trained in basic decency. We previously had struggles with getting our membership to work even though there was $0 balance. The woman at the front desk was beyond rude. When I mentioned to her that she didn’t need to be rude towards us, she became argumentative and told me I should “contact her manager.” (I specifically said that she was coming off as crass and that was her response.) When I scanned my pass again, all my information magically appeared but the kids were still messed up. Another worker ended up taking over and handled it.

Forward to today. Passes were all remedied. My children were actively playing in the 0 depth area, on the slide. I was in the water with them, roughly 5 feet from the slide. One of my children has special needs and struggles with impulse control, so I am always within eyeshot. Initially, one of my children tried to sit on the other child’s lap to go down. I immediately corrected them, as did the young lifeguard on deck. No problem. The lifeguard and I were both attentive and corrected the issue.

At this point, the boys kept going in a circle to continue to utilize the small slide. An old woman, clearly not an employee was telling them to stop running. Both the lifeguard and I were watching them. They weren’t running. I shook it off as the woman wasn’t even an employee and just reminded the kids to be mindful of others (even though they didn’t do anything wrong.)

At this point, they were still using the slide. One would wait on the ladder, the other would go down. Then they’d switch. At no point did they attempt to slide down together again. A woman came out of the office and VERY HARSHLY was telling them that only one person could use the slide at a time. At that point, I just told them to get off of the slide completely. I was done listening to my children being talked to like dogs. This led to a completely meltdown for my son who, frankly, wasn’t doing anything wrong. We were following the posted rules and none of the lifeguards had corrected them for having one on the slide and one on the ladder.

I’m sure lifeguards get worn out and overwhelmed, but along with having kids with special needs, this is my career. My kids are always watched. I am always in the water with them. If they were being unsafe or doing things the guards told them not to, I would have immediately stopped them. But they were taking turns and going down one at a time. It costs $0 to be kind and not talk to kids like they’re animals. Meanwhile, the young teenagers were free to roughhouse and hang out in the hot tub while their parent worked on her computer for the duration...

Nice clean facilities. Swimming pool is awesome...

You’ve done a lousy job with...