dumbass parents put their toddler in harm's way at the gym

The gym was nearly empty during the daytime when here comes this pair of parents who had been annoying me the day before by baby-stalking with their toddler anyone in sight.
My climbing partner for the day works at the gym, so she has to be nice to everyone even when she's not working because she will see them again. She and I are deep in our climbing session, getting ready to climb the next route, when here comes Daddy blasting out of the cardio room. I had seen him in there with the toddler and a woman who was jumping rope. He thought it was cute to give the girl her own rope, but she wasn't jumping. She was just putting it over her head and back over and over.
"Hey, you have to see something really cute!" he told my climbing partner. He dragged her into the room to watch the girl put the rope over her head. My friend has to feign interest because she still represents the gym. She returns to me grumbling about how silly it is to let a 2-year-old run the family. Then as I'm tying in to begin my climb, these breeders bring their toddler RIGHT UNDER where I am obviously beginning to climb. So it's MY BAD if I start climbing because I should see the baby, worship the baby and stop my workout for the baby. I couldn't start climbing because she was in my way, and if I fell on her, she would be badly injured.
"Oooh, you want to climb, baby?" they coo at the girl. I stare stone-faced, fighting back my urge to ask them why, out of all the blank walls in the gym, the girl must climb right under my rope. Eventually they went away.
Just because their world revolves around this little creature doesn't mean mine does. I guess I could have pointed out to them that they were being bad parents by allowing her to "climb" -- just gripping the holds but going nowhere -- right under my rope. But I was too steamed to think of anything that wasn't caustic, and I didn't want them to tattle on my friend. "Your worker climbs with a mean girl who didn't worship our baby. Punish her!"
I'm sure I'll see them again, and I can then point out they are putting her in harm's way if they put her under me.
I'm sure they wouldn't have done that if I were a dude. I'm sure they thought my assumed maternal instinct would cause me to writhe in the joy of being exposed to their child.
Little do they know there are women who don't worship at the altar of diaper.

Ugh, baby-stalking. I don't think I could have refrained from telling them that the rules of safety for climbing require them to not get between you and the wall, and to stay away from an occupied face. This can even be done in a fairly nice way: "If your daughter wants to climb, she needs to learn the first rule of climbing..."

It's so inappropriate for children to be in the gym, anyway--there's a reason that most gyms have a 15+ policy. Children are too small to safely use the equipment, and are likely to damage it (and/or hurt themselves) playing with it. Also, because they are out of the line of vision there's a good chance that someone will clock them with a heavy weight as they run by. You might check the gym's policy, and the next time something similar happens, report it to the front desk and demand that they take action. I can understand that you don't want to get your friend involved, but it's going to be bad for her too if (a) the gym is sued because a brat is injured, or (b) the quality of the gym goes downhill because it's full of baby-stalking assholes.

Damn, I agree with yurble, check out the age requirement, though I feel like your friend would have said something to the parents if the gym didn't allow children. You shouldn't have to find a new gym but you might have to if this happens enough and it continues to be allowed. I work for a family friendly gym and I like to work out there because we get a free membership but at least the actual gym part forbids anyone under the age of 16 from entering.

My school gym is a different story. Professors and other employees parade their children around every so often, also near the climbing wall, which is right at the entrance. Why do people think it's a good idea to show off their children when there are weights and people climbing all around them? There's enough potential for an adult to get injured without bringing a small, hyper child into the mix. Not to mention the gym is my place to de-stress and I can't do that if I can hear a baby wailing over the music on my iPod.

It's almost as if they WANT their kids to get hurt. Not just to sue but so they can play the martyr by living vicariously through their maimed or injured child. These people are sick and should not be in charge of the health and safety of small, helpless human beings.