Mums in the boys' swimming changing rooms?

Our pool has a non-segregated changing area. All cubicles, some being family sized ones. Toilets are separated but that's all.

Yes, lots of 9 and 10 year olds go swimming alone in our pool. Where do they change?

That's an awful case. But I have been asking for years for examples of anything horrible happening in a swimming pool changing room and this is th first time anyone has actually come up with something, the boy in that case was dragged out of the pool- I can't believe that the lifeguards didn't do anything- maybe thy don't have life guards?

But in any case- if you don't do things because something bad happened once then you would never do anything, would you? And if you think how many pools there are in Europe..............

What about 10 year olds that go swimming by themselves are theyvsupposed to be allowed in any changing room the wish?

Our pool used to have male and female, family change and an accessable changing room and parents still took their older boys in the female., but it didnt help that the family area was often taken up with single sex and toddlers so if parents with older mixed sexes couldnt use them.
Thankfully we now have a new mixed changing village with private showers and lots of cubicles etc which is much better.

I agree that it is not appropriate for 10 year olds to be in the wrong changing room, but there needs to be another option for people.

Think it was Austria, Bertrand. In January of this year iirc. Tried to avoid reading the details tbh.

It happened in vienna in december i think.
But i dont think it is an excuse for 9 and10 yr olds boys to be in the ladies changing rooms.

My issue is boys who are well over 8 years old in the female changing rooms. There have been times where I have felt uncomfortable changing whilst a young lad of 11/12 has stared at me. I have perfected changing under a towel now.

"It is not totally unheard of for kids to be assaulted in swimming pools. A 10 year old was raped in a changing room a couple of weeks ago. I would prefer to be over cautious."

Where did that happen?

However, women being in the boys changing room is not equivalent to a man being in the girls changing room. A man is much more likely to be a threat than a women. So, the women are annoying and inappropriate but don't pose a threat.

Grown men do not want women in there when they are changing. Not all men are rapists you know. Most of them like to have privacy and prefer to keep their penises to themselves. It's not about the women being a 'threat' but about the men not wanting to be naked in front of random women just the same as you would not want to be naked in front of random men.

It is not totally unheard of for kids to be assaulted in swimming pools. A 10 year old was raped in a changing room a couple of weeks ago. I would prefer to be over cautious.

Because I dont know if it will be full of otherwise decent men. It's not that unusual to just have one or two other people in a changing room.

"Bertrand, male people that I don't know, who may or may not be a danger to my children."

How exactly is anyone going to be a danger to your child in a busy changing room full of other children and dads and decent men?

Bertrand, male people that I don't know, who may or may not be a danger to my children.

At school pools there are no disabled or family changing areas.

"'if they'd been a 8 and 9 I dont' think I would have liked sending them into the mens. I don't know who is in there.'"

Yes you do. Other male people over the age of 8.

Balletgirl- that's what the facilities for disabled people are for.

This is why they should have bloody family changing rooms!!!

Once my dc got to an age where they were too big for the women's changing room, I swopped their lessons to Saturday and got dh to take them in the men's changing area. I do get that women and girls want privacy and vice versa, but swimming arrangements can be really hard for people who don't have help from a parent of the same sex as their dc.

Agree that at 8 and 9 they are perfectly capable of getting dressed by themselves, but I don't want them in a changing room with strangers. Being outside the door is not adequate protection for my children. They wouldn't necessarily be aware of danger signs, whereas I would.
I'm not someone who thinks all men are dangerous and I know that probably everything would he fine, but the fact is some men are dangerous and I didn't want to leave my dc alone with people that I don't know and trust.

Which is why I think changing rooms should be individual.

My issue with ds was not with fear of random paedophiles but he has ASD, no sense of danger, the changing rooms open directly out to the poolside & he was a non swimmer plus he wasn't tall enough or strong enough to operate lockers or heavy doors.

They were 6 and 7 bertrand. Even if they'd been a 8 and 9 I dont' think I would have liked sending them into the mens. I don't know who is in there.

Women and men are not threats to each other or to children in the changing rooms of swimming pools.

However children of both genders are easily made unhappy and uncomfortable if they are asked to get changed in the presence of the opposite gender. And they have a perfect right to feel unhappy and uncomfortable, and not to have to do it.

I cannot understand why people seem to have a blind spot about this.

LumpySpacedPrincess
However, women being in the boys changing room is not equivalent to a man being in the girls changing room. A man is much more likely to be a threat than a women. So, the women are annoying and inappropriate but don't pose a threat.

It's fuck all to do with threat. It's about giving the children privacy, the privacy they are entitled to.

So women in the boys changing room is every bit as equivalent to a man in the girls changing room.

My DS is just turning 12. He would be very embarrassed to have women watching him change. He's even making sure his dad and I aren't watching now.