AIBU - Kids in gym changing area / showers...

So you'd happily take yourself and your children into the men's changing rooms and shower and change there?

Either rules apply to you or they don't.

Go to our local David Lloyd on a saturday morning and you will. It's jam packed full of families. Not just using it for swimming, but for all sorts of sports.

i certainly don't if there's even the merest suggestion children will be there

so they can all pee in the showers to their heart's content for all i care, it's not going to splash my toes. ?

WM what have old people got to do with it? ? you're clutching at straws a bit there.

kids have seperate changing rooms because they are disruptive. thats not to say naughty, but a perfectly behaved child will need help changing, and the mother/ father also benefit from more space to spread out. anyway, kids have a tendancy to stare which is not nice for naked adults ?

Sorry but i do think your being unreasonable. on some points anyway.

if the children are 9 then, yes, in my opinion they are old enough to be able to get dried and dressed in the correct gender changing room. if they are up to the age of say 8 then possibly not. my two sons are 3 & 4, my 4 year old always wants to use the male changing room / toilets, and i do sometimes hover outside mens toilets anxiously waiting for him to finish - but there is no way i'd let him get changed/dried in a male changing room by himself. he's currently too clueless, despite what he thinks!

with rude comments, then i would hope the children were pulled up on this, but i did have a situation the other day when i was walking with my 3 year old who (very loudly) commented as we were walking 'look mummy, that mans got a fat tummy' followed by shhh by me then as we got closer 'mummy mummy look at his fat tummy' followed by me telling him that was rude and not to say things that are rude followed by a louder 'i didn't say a rude word mummy, i just said that man has a fat tummy' sometimes small childen, just say what they see.

as far as the shower situation goes, realistically then if there are family showers free it would be easier for all parties (particuarly mother and child/children) to use them, (and for other swimming pool users) so therefore i'd assume that there wernt any free. so if there were none free then personally i think you are being unreasonable. if you have opted to have a shower with your toddler wearing a swim nappy and you're in there, they've had a pooh - what are you sposed to do. the nappy comes down, most poo will be contained and the bum will be showered off! what else would you do, if in the same position?

with the mum in the shower with 2 kids, again, what would you have her do when her little child says, 'mummy i need a wee wee' they will obvioulsy all be naked - is she supposed to leave shower with 2 naked children and find a toilet (hopefully in time) or leave one naked child alone in shower (i wouldn't) or let them have a wee in the shower (i would)

and personnally, if i then had you banging on the shower door and a 'how inappropriate' type comment, i would wish that some people would be a little more tolerant as to what it is actually like when managing children.

There are no rules in place to say i can't use a single sex changing room or a family changing room when i have a small child with me. Where exactly am i suggesting i don't apply the rules personally?

well tbh, if i was paying the thick end of £70 per month or whatever DL costs nowadays, and the changing facilities were so inadequate there was a half hour queue for showers on a regular basis, i think i'd be taking my business elsewhere...

Family changing rooms are very handy, I'd always use them if they were available. But I've never been in a gym where it was compulsory to use them, so if there wasn't one available I'd just use the communal area. Surely that's better than us hanging around the communal area like a bunch of spare pr1cks waiting for a family cubicle to become free, after all we could maybe be changed and out by the time it is free.

I have been talking about young children uner 5. I'm in a certain amount of agreement with children old enough to share and make comments.

I mentioned old people because i feel there's a certain amount stereotyping and discrimination against individuals or groups because of their age. In my case the age being under 5. Using a comparison. You follow?

sorry, that's rubbish. the child pooed in his nappy...so you whisk him off to clean his turd away elsewhere, and then when he's clean you return to the shower and continue your wash.

it's like saying if the child pooed while you were going round tesco it would be acceptable to drop the dirty nappy in the middle of the cake aisle or similar

and i have ?

WSS, if mine pooed in his swim nappy I'd just keep the nappy on and then just do a normal nappy change on him when I got out, it's not going to kill him being in a pooey nappy for 5 mins while we all finish our showers.

as a parent of a 3 year old who's only recently potty trained I wouldn't contemplate taking off a nappy containing poo in a public shower. It takes minutes to shower, i'd finish whatever I was doing and take her off and change her with wipes and dispose of the nappy accordingly (ie. put it in a nappy bag and into the bin provided for such items). If she told me she wanted a wee whilst in the shower, again I would take her and put her on the toilet. If she was halfway through doing it when she told me then obv. I couldn't do much about it.

What a ridiculous comparison!

your naked, toddler has his nappy pulled down and he/she has had a pooh. i would 'contain' majority of pooh in nappy and stick him/her under shower.

if i were in tesco, in the cake (or other) aisle, i am highly unlikely to be naked, or standing under a shower! dear me, get a grip. i am not talking about emptying the nappy under the runnign water, just sticking a toddlers bottom under the shower. the damage has been done. would you rather i had whipped off the nappy and dragged a wet/cold toddler almost certainly about to start crying (due to being wet and cold) across the changing room with some pooh hanging off their legs? over to my wet wipes, in my locked locker, wipe their backside and back to shower??

yes, you are most certainly being unreasonable.

I presume you don't nip around Tesco's naked. A bit hard to get dressed or cover up and nip to the loo whilst carrying a sh11tty assed snake of a toddler and a load of clothes and towels.

As i said before i would... take wipes in with me just encase, or if i hasn't any i'd use a wet towel to wipe their bum. I always have a towel for each person so it's not like the dirty towel would be needed.

Flipping heck!!!

FWIW, I can, hand on heart say that I can see how the weeing incident occurred and can see that with the best will in the world it could happen to me and the boys. What is unforgiveable IMO is that the mother in question didn't immediately say "OMG I'm sooo sorry".

If there wasn't a family changing room available I'd use the main changing rooms with the children, showers and all.

And what's more I have, when emergency has presented, used the male loos - though only in places where it was a loo with a door, not a set of loos and urinals.

The poo is also unforgivable, it goes without saying.

did you read the OP? she said the female said 'oh its a good job you've pooed in your nappy' or similar. and then proceeds to shower the turd off so it floats into neighbouring cubicles.

so not a 'ridiculous' comparison at all.

and no, i don't suggest you take the nappy off at all in the shower area...wait until you get to the appropriate place to do so. exactly as you would in tesco...

I think this thread just goes to prove how parents' ideas on what's acceptable vary.

Anyone that attends the virgin active gym I go to can rest assured that their feet are safe from stray poo from my little girl ?

the nappy was still on in this case. the mother chose to remove it and wash her child's faeces off in the shower, rather than taking him to a changing room as other mothers on this thread have said they would do

I would remove a dirty nappy in a shower cubicle also. I certianly wouldn't wash the poo away or allow it to come into contact with the floor or anyone else. I go into showers prepared to deal with dirty nappies. I always take a clean nappy and a nappy sack to put the dirty nappy in as well as wipes. So my two have nappies on when they get out and then they get changed in the main area.

We're all in agreement that what the woman in question did was yucky. I commented on your post because it sounded like you were presuming it were as easy as changing a nappy in a shop.

You are a bit desperate to be always right arn't you!

i am assuming (just like you) but i am giving the mother in question the benefit of the doubt (unlike you) in that, i assume, that she only realised that her child had, had a pooh at the point that the swim nappy had been either 1/2 taken down or completley. any right minded parent would not knowingly remove a dirty nappy with no wet wipes present! however, like i was trying to point out to you (all though you're not fond of trying to empathise are you) if you are in the situation where you are both naked, the nappy has been either 1/2 removed or totally - then it is not hard to 'contain' the majority of the mess and just shower off the child.

still, i have tried to get you to understand my point of view but it's not really happening is it? so on that note, i'm off.

all the best, it must be so wonderful to be you!

well, modesty forbids and all...

Which would be fine, at home, and possibly acceptable in a closed shower with it's own drainage, but NOT in a communal shower where the fecal matter will run past other people's feet.

Out of pool, dressing gowns on, crocs on & shoved into the car , back to the house.

Much easier.

Out of pool, dressing gowns on, crocs on & shoved into the car , back to the house.

Much easier.

Pajama i understand you saying if it was already taken off thn not alot can be done but the op said that it wasnt as mum had said good job it was in your nappy, then took it off. that is disgusting and i am a mum of two.

i understand the wee thing, that happens but only in a very young child an older one could wait for the loo, unless of course they had a medical problem.

the changing, although the arguement is a bit blurry here. our swimming pool has no seperate family changing so i take my two in the ladies. my son is 7 now and when he is 8 we will have to start using the disable changing as he isnt capable of getting changed by himself due to his medical conditions. we would now but because he isnt disabled enough iykwim i feel like i might be stopping someone who really needed it going because we are in there.

seriously?

Actually this section reads to me almost as though the mother discovered the poo and then entered the water to shower the child clean,

Yes, I follow, doesn't mean its not a pile of bollocks though?

I can't believe there are people defendng the poo in the shower ?

Hmmm....

In our LA pool I have the opposite problem re: changing rooms. It is all cubicle changing, and not segregated, but I am usually left waiting for one of the larger family changing rooms with my child/ren while adults use them as there is more space in them than the very small single person cubicles (of which there are plenty and always free ones). I know there is very little room in them as I use them myself when I go on my own, but there is no chance of me being able to use one to get myself and my 2 year old and/or 4 year old ready as well! We couldn't even all fit in one!

So it does work both ways.

i'd respectfully suggest they're talking out of their arse [boom boom]

Hooded towelling poncho /robe - by the time you have put it on them & rubbed them quickly they are near enough dry, By the time I would shower them at the gym- I've driven back home & put them either in the bath or shower - Saturdays when they have lessons, MrJMP takes them, they leave the gym at 10am & I run the bath then when they get home, MrJMP can shower & I shove the kids into the bath & wash them.