Bloody hair washing time at the pool

[paisleyII]

every week although been getting progressively worse each week after dd's swimming lesson the ten showers are dominated by the same mothers all clutching their fucking bottles of shampoo instructing their one or more young offspring the art of hair washing whilst the rest of us stand there with kids getting cold waiting to rinse the chlorine off. i have given up and to save getting seriously pissed off will now just come straight home and run a bath and wash dd's hair which is a pain as her lesson finishes late so wouldn't normally do this after swimming. it used to only be a few mothers clutching the old bottle of shampoo but now there is a gang of them who oddly enough EVERY week get to the ten showers first and hog them for ages - i bet they are the same mums who get the best parking spaces when doing the school run every day and hog the sun loungers by the pool getting there super early.

It's reasonably civilised where I take DD, we are all shampoo mums but the kids tend to rinse off under the shower, dd then comes to me for blob of shampoo, lathers then searches out another free shower under which to rinse. I've found in that time someone else has rinsed/shampoo'd/rinsed whilst DD has been lathering up - so no shower hogging there.

The problem we have is parents hogging the frigging changing rooms i.e taking their darling in to get their cossie on and then leaving swim bag/clothes/shoes etc all in the changing room ready for when they get out after their lesson. No fecker else can use those rooms and you spend ages trying to find an empty one at the end of the class because you've had the decency to use a frigging locker.

I like that you considered no other option other than rescue the toy.

Agree with whoever said Its hardly a good lesson in consideration for others (ESP as I can still now remember the unique post swimming cold you get as a kid 30 Years on)

Christina-don't get me started on the post-swimming crisps trap. NEVER let your children get crisps after swimming. THEY DO NOT FORGET AND WILL ASK FOR THEM EVERY TIME.

I might have issues surrounding swimming lessons. I dread them.

Speak to one of the assistants at the leisure centre. If you leave clothes in the changing rooms, they go in after the lesson has started and remove them.

My personal bugbear is that there are only 3 changing cubicles with baby changing stations (they are no bigger then any others) and they always seem to be used by people who don't need them even when there are plenty of others free.

But I don't mind asking if they would mind using another cubicle as DD is getting cold. It helps that she doesn't like coming out of the pool so is usually making quite a bit of noise.

Oh those fecking cubicle-hoggers! Every door I open is crammed full of others childrens stuff (always those nearest the showers) and I have to negotiate my children around the maze of doors until we find an empty one.

One day, I'll just walk into the nearest cubicle and stand my wet children on their clothes, lock the door and tell any irate mother that they will just have to wait.

I would be very tempted with changing rooms full of clothes to pick up and move just one shoe to a remote location. Or knickers if you can bear it - now that would do it! You then might find these inconsiderate people using lockers sharpish

Now, can someone come up with a shower plan?

I must be a horrible mum because I've moved a cubicle hogger's clothes into the cubicle with no door

' couldn't control them both and flip the top of a bottle and piss about in the showers. '

Just piss in the showers in front of the shampooing Mums, perhaps?

greenrock.

Thankfully the swimming teacher clearly announces protocol that the shower is for rinsing only, shampooing allowed after all kids have rinsed if needs me.

Cubicle blocking is sometimes a issue but we have a pretty good class and it's the people before/after us that cause a problem. The changing area has plenty of tables there which helps. To be fair it is a baby/toddle swim class.

My DCs wash their hair after swimming- they might as well wash their hair anyway if they are going to hang around waiting to use the shower, rather than just rinse and then have another shower later. TBH, it's pretty tricky to properly rinse the chlorine off without shampooing hair and using shower gel on skin- may as well either shower properly at the pool or leave it completely and shower at home.

thing is, you've got really young kids who don't know how to lather and rinse their hair - you've got their mum standing nearby shouting at them how to do it, it takes forever, not a quick in and out the way an adult with short hair would do (alot are young girls with long hair) - i get embarassed after a while as i picture myself and poor half frozen dd just standing there like a couple of tit'eds watching them controlling the fucking shower - if i don't change and do in future what i did tonight which was come home and run bath for dd and wash her hair i think i may seriously punch one of them, i work out at the gym upstairs and have been itching to use my new found muscle :D (i wouldn't really but part of me would bloody love to), not very femanine i know

I let my children wash their hair after swimming. They are boys with very short hair, so it really doesn't take long. I don't think I'm teaching them to be inconsiderate of others, they know they have to be quick because they have been told (and they can see) that there are other people waiting. Sometimes they have to wait. It's no big deal.

I would agree if everyone washing their hair had long flowing locks that took ages to rinse and then they stared on conditioner, but I think it's a bit off to label someone as inconsiderate just because they would rather shampoo their childrens hair at the pool instead of waiting to get home. Especially when swimming lessons can go on until fairly late and you want to get them fed or in bed fairly soon after getting home.

Long haired girls/women hogging the hairdryers, and cubicle hogging are far worse swimming lesson crimes in my opinion.

Another here who understands.

Great thing is I have DS, he's 6 and so can go into showers with other boys now (most in his group are 7-9 yrs old) and I know he's looked after. Actually somehow they all go in and come out at the same time and it sounds like a riot occuring for the 3 minutes they're in there. Least he's quick.

I completely understand the urge to cry in the changing room.
I take DS2 (1) swimming while DS1 (5) has his lesson. Our lesson is early, so when we come out, there are often people arriving for a family swim. THere are never free changing rooms when we come out , and on several occasions I have been standing, dripping wet with two cold wet children, waiting for a changing room, when a completely dressed dry family arriving have literally run past me to claim a cubicle. I swear to fucking god one week I am just going to take my cossie off in the middle of the family room, everyone there must have seen my boobs by now as DS2 likes to shame me by pulling down my swimmers while I'm holding him.
I refuse to acknowledge people's left behind clothes and just use the cubicle anyway. If people don't have change for a locker, I'd rather they just put their stuff in one and left it unlocked.

We only have 4 showers and there are 4 lesson at a time. Younger boys obviously using girls changing room. Every week the little ones all queued up nicely for showers and every week this girl of about 12 would by pass queue and stand in the showers grabbing the next free one. She had hair down to her bottom so it took ages for her to wash it properly.
After weeks of this I finally told her off and to get to the back of the queue.
Her mother who was never around had a go at me because I made her cry.

Can you ask the manager to put up a sign saying when could people limit their usage at busy times? and then stand next to it giving them a dirty look!

Oops, I am a shampoo mum. It is never very busy at the pool (enough showes for all) and getting a cubicle is so competitive my DDs might as well shampoo (and condition) while we are waiting. Wouldn't describe myself as an alpha mum and nor am I a shouty brickshithouse type. Just multitasking.
:)

There's a sign up in the changing rooms where DD has her lessons - it requests that all clothes are placed in a basket on the shelf, not on the bench. Someone left all their stuff in the only cubicle there is one day. They picked the wrong day. I shoved it all in a basket and put it on the shelf. Unsurprisingly, it belonged to some shower hogs!

I never let DD get showered. It's home as quick as possible, the changing rooms are a complete scrum.

Agree with the shower and cubicle hogs! Me and DS don't bother with shower now, i spectate and meet him poolside after his lesson. Get changed and go home.

BUT There is a new dad at lessons. He walks to poolside with ten mins to go, leaves two towels for each of his girls hanging on the handles of the steps, one for hair, one to wrap, and withdraws to showers. Is incredibly funny. How those towels haven't ended up in the water is amazing. The girls have to wrap completely before walking the 10 steps to the shower area. Amuses me no end.

OK, just one point - dd gets skin problems, so HAS to have a shower after. As she has long hair, it makes sense to wash it while she's there. However, it is done as quickly as possible, and if it's the kind of showers where they can squish up together (a row of them, not individual cubicles) then she has to share.

In winter it can be -25C outside, so I then try to get her properly dressed, and really rub her hair dry.

Is that allowed?

My daughter has to shampoo and condition or her hair would be so knotted I'd have to cut it off, I think. BUT we ensure we get out 15 minutes after everyone else (so halfway between classes) and the three of us share a shower if need be - i.e. any inclination of a cold, wet person waiting.

Their lesson is quite late so they go in PJs afterwards and then home to bed.

I don't think it is the shampoiing and conditioning, per se, it is the manners around it. I don't think I am unreasonable, anyway.

ooops, i a shower mum 2 :( i shower my 3 after swimming,1 at a time and dh dresses them instead of their bath on a sunday (we go swimming on sunday, not that they only bath once a week lol) but swimming tires the little ones out so i usually shovel their tea into them before they fall asleep then put them to bed

I am a shower/shampoo mum too. My DD is considerate enough to let others go into the jet while she lathers up.
It is not a Brit phenomenon, we've seen it in Switzerland (shaven fanjos ahoy) and Belgium.
I have dumped a cubicle of clothing on the wet floor much to my shame. Me and DD got out early so she could shower and wash her hair. There are insufficient changing rooms to lockers and some nobber had left all their clothes in the cubicle. The lockers are 2 euros which is refunded.
I was clearly having a bad day and pushed all the clothes onto the floor and used them as a nice dry rug.