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
When I was in Rome this past winter, one of the pools I investigated for swimming in was at the Foro Italico, site of the 1960 (?) Olympics. In the literature I was given, it stated quite explicitly that there was to be no nudity in the showers or changing rooms (!) I later came upon a discussion in a forum very much like this one (in Italian). It seems that Italian mothers are accustomed to bringing their boys into the men's changing room to supervise them while they change, instead of taking them to the women's changing room to change together. The women, often not just the mother, but her sister, teenage daughter, daughter's friend, etc., all stand around in the men's changing room while the child gets dressed and they do not want to be "offended" by any untoward sights. However, the same does not pertain in the opposite direction: under no circumstances do Italian men take their daughters into the women's changing room to change. The daughters go with their dads into the men's changing room!
The discussion I read was very bitter. Many (men) complained that the policy was blatantly unfair. But apparently not all pools enforce the policy equally. Some men said they showered in the buff just as they pleased and anyone who didn't like it could lump it. And apparently, not all cities and towns have the same policy. Some commenters had never heard of it, but enough had to make me think that it was the norm in Rome, at least.
In the end, I never got to find out first hand. The other requirements for swimming in a public pool in Rome—medical certificate from an Italian doctor, including electroencephalogram; various other papers and permissions; joining fee; monthly fee; various other fees; purchase of compulsory slippers and bathrobe for deck wear—made me think better of it, and I got my exercise walking.
Incidentally, I've been told that one of the reasons the younger generation here at home are shy about changing in public is the omnipresence of cell phones and the ease with which clandestine photos end up on the internet.
When I was in Rome this past winter, one of the pools I investigated for swimming in was at the Foro Italico, site of the 1960 (?) Olympics. In the literature I was given, it stated quite explicitly that there was to be no nudity in the showers or changing rooms (!) I later came upon a discussion in a forum very much like this one (in Italian). It seems that Italian mothers are accustomed to bringing their boys into the men's changing room to supervise them while they change, instead of taking them to the women's changing room to change together. The women, often not just the mother, but her sister, teenage daughter, daughter's friend, etc., all stand around in the men's changing room while the child gets dressed and they do not want to be "offended" by any untoward sights. However, the same does not pertain in the opposite direction: under no circumstances do Italian men take their daughters into the women's changing room to change. The daughters go with their dads into the men's changing room!
The discussion I read was very bitter. Many (men) complained that the policy was blatantly unfair. But apparently not all pools enforce the policy equally. Some men said they showered in the buff just as they pleased and anyone who didn't like it could lump it. And apparently, not all cities and towns have the same policy. Some commenters had never heard of it, but enough had to make me think that it was the norm in Rome, at least.
In the end, I never got to find out first hand. The other requirements for swimming in a public pool in Rome—medical certificate from an Italian doctor, including electroencephalogram; various other papers and permissions; joining fee; monthly fee; various other fees; purchase of compulsory slippers and bathrobe for deck wear—made me think better of it, and I got my exercise walking.
Incidentally, I've been told that one of the reasons the younger generation here at home are shy about changing in public is the omnipresence of cell phones and the ease with which clandestine photos end up on the internet.
