So that deck changing thread got me thinking, what is normal for public sessions? I'm going back to my UK/USA comparisons........
When I took my kids swimming to the public sessions in the UK, I'd pack up a bag of suits, towels, floats, toys etc and schlepp along to the pool to change in the changing rooms.
Now an FYI 'cos things are different here....Changing rooms consist of a number of cubicles for people to change in private as well as a communal change area and are split between male and female change - although some pools have a changing village with huge family-sized cubicles and no communal change. All modern (ie non-victorian) UK pools have pretty good changing facilities, even those with not much more than a 25m 6 lane pool.
So I take my kids to our local-ish pool here in Texas. 8 lane, 25yd competition pool, plus leisure pool with waterslide, lazy river and kids play structure and walk into the women's locker room.
It is full of lockers and has 2 small benches...eh? Where do I change???
Anyway being a communal-change gal, I get myself and the kids suited up and we swim. We finish swimming, we shower, remove suits wrap ourselves in a towel and dress by one of the benches.
Now whilst drying off and dressing there are a few ladies/kids shuffling around changing in the toilets and dressing in the showers. I get a couple of odd looks standing there in my underwear directing 2 small children to dress as well, but don't care - we're all naked under our clothes after all.
While we were swimming a number of families came in, most it seemed already in their suits, they "undressed" on the deck and when they left they wrapped a towel around the kids or pulled on a t-shirt and that was it. And it wasn't summer! All I could think of was the chlorine eating away at their suits.
So what is normal? and am I the only female living in Texas not afraid to strip down in the women's locker room? :afraid:
And do they build pools here with crappy changing because no-one uses it? Or does no-one use the locker rooms because they're so crappy?
Or is this just a Texas thing, not a USA thing? :D
Former Member
It's not just Texas. In Missouri (Texas lite, socially speaking), I'm apparently the only one comfortable with dressing right in front of my locker. I mean, I'll wrap a towel for the thirty-foot walk from the shower to the lockers, but that's as far as my modesty goes.
... kids from birth are having modesty forcibly trained into them.....
My gym has a policy where young children of the opposite sex over the age of 18 months are not allowed in the ladies locker room. I'm assuming there is a similar policy for the men's locker room, but I haven't asked.
Seems a bit extreme to me.
My gym has a policy where young children of the opposite sex over the age of 18 months are not allowed in the ladies locker room. I'm assuming there is a similar policy for the men's locker room, but I haven't asked.
Seems a bit extreme to me.
I agree -- I have 2 boys and a girl -- When my girl was 3 or 4 I wasn't supposed to let her come to the pool without her mom? I'd feel weird if someone brought his 10 year old daughter into the men's locker room but not a 5 year old.
I think a policy like that is not family friendly.
Likewise -- what is a mom or dad traveling alone supposed to do in a public restroom situation with a 5 year old? Obviously they need to stay with the parent.
I've notice my 12 year old boy much shyer about changing in the locker room than I ever remember being -- and his friends all do the towel thing in the men's locker room. I don't get it. Its strange when you see how overtly sexualized images in available media are (or maybe its a reaction to that). I'd like my kids to grow up more comfortable with themselves and their bodies but I see that, as usual, a parent (at least this one) has a lot less influence than he'd like to think he has!.
I practice with an age group team so I'm older than the kids by 20+ years. I have no problem changing in front of them but you should see how hard they work to cover up in front of me. Makes me :D every time. There is one lady who swims in the lap lanes and is easily 60 years old who changes in the sauna where the whole door is a window and all of us females can see her.
It does seem to vary greatly locker room to locker room and place to place. I tend to rise off my suit and then take it off in the shower - the exact same thing I did as an age group swimmer and in college. I dry in the shower area, in an attempt to keep the main locker room dryer. I do take my towel with me to my locker, but rarely keep it on me (I never figured out how to wrap a towel so it doesn't fall down - too tapered, I think....). It seemed about 3 years ago we had more age group kids changing under a towel (in the locker room) but now most of the girls just change, which makes sense to me. This pool allows children 5 and under of the opposite gender in the locker room, which seems fine to me. There is a family changing room on deck, so if your 6 year old needs help changing, you send them through the correct gender locker room and then meet them on deck.
In Scotland at a pool I visited you were not allowed to shower nude (signs posted) and were supposed to change in tiny curtained cubicles. Same in the men's locker room - my hubby and I giggled hard about that.
In my home pool women's locker room a teammate had another woman swimmer (with kids) complain to management about her walking around the locker room nude. Her response - I wasn't nude. I had my shower sandals on....
I expect to see folks changing in the locker room. Not a big deal at all.
Where can I get those signs for my house?
No clue. Any Scots masters swimmers have ideas? I loved the pool, by the way. And my stay in Scotland. Would go back in a heartbeat.
In my home pool women's locker room a teammate had another woman swimmer (with kids) complain to management about her walking around the locker room nude.
I think the only acceptable response to this would be "and your point is?" This is right up there with noodlers complaining that their hair is getting wet.
My gym has a policy where young children of the opposite sex over the age of 18 months are not allowed in the ladies locker room. I'm assuming there is a similar policy for the men's locker room, but I haven't asked.
Seems a bit extreme to me.
Definitely extreme - where I take the kids, the cut off age is 3 - above 3 you need to use family change with opposite sex kids, but there's only 2 or 3 rooms so you can have to wait around at weekends, or I just take the girls in female change while hubby uses the mens and he then waits for us!
8 was the cut-off age at one pool I swam at in the UK, which I thought was a bit high considering they had a good number of family change cubicles.
When I was 14 another boy put on a parka - including the hood - walked into the women's locker room with his head down and had a 5 minute peep session until he was caught. To this day I am 49% amused by this. If my kid does this, the other 51% will be all that he knows of course...
