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
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.
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.
