To have tried to dry and dress my ds in a changing room "claimed" by a pink bag?

[MamaMaiasaura]

After ds's 2nd swimming lesson all the changing rooms had other people's bags in, but no people. There are signs up asking people not do this. I had a shivering 4 year old (only his 2nd lesson and if I'd known we're female changing room was I'd have taken him there). I ended up going in a a room with a pink rucksack and no owner. Rather than dumping bag outside door I left door open as was going to be quick. Woman comes striding over and chucks me out saying she'd claimed it 5 minutes ago. Her 13/14 yr old dd comes out of pool and they use the room. So I ended up sharing another with a mum of 3 who I didn't know. The pink rucksack mum was so rude and the other mum was really nice, and said shed heard it all.

I wish I'd stood my ground and dumped the rucksack outside door now. Spoke to customer services as I had to set up direct debit for lessons and they were wanting to go find this woman.

AIBU to think this was queue jumping and this woman's attitude was awful?

Next time dump the bag and lock the door. After giving them 30secs to make sure they haven't nipped back to the locker for something they forgot.

YANBU! How rude of her.

you should have stood your ground and not left the original one - just passed her the bag out. Dumping it on the floor is a bit provocative because of the wet clothes etc if it seeps through. Do they not just have communal bench areas you could use for a 4 year old though?

YANBU Next time do what Viva said.

YANBU.

Hand the bag in as 'lost property' and then deny all knowledge?

Trixie - I'm sure they do but I couldn't find it

I didn't mean dump bag as in from great height, I meant put on floor (it was dry) outside. I just hate confrontation. Next time I will (or find communal changing). I'm generally one of those people who freeze and later on work out how I should have dealt with it.

Really hope she's a mnetter and sees this

YANBU,gives me the rage. Do what Viva said next time and take as much time as you need in the changing room

Intensely annoying, and that mum sounds a real peach. You shouldn't have to put up with this.
Think I would be tempted to call a member of staff to remove the offending bag. It is them who should be enforcing the rules and taking the flack, not you.

Do what viva said.

YANBU

I've encountered this in the past. Put the bag outside, used the changing room and locked the door.

Never had any repercussions!

You shouldn't have left the changing room IMO. At our swimming pool there are loads of signs telling people not to do this, so if they do, I see nothing wrong with removing it.

I like Nagoo's idea. If it were anywhere other than a swimming pool, a left bag would be a security risk. ^^

There is an excellent pool near us which has similar problems. The changing rooms are small and all the benches are taken up with people's bags and even jeffing car seats.

Meanwhile, all the lockers are empty.

We had to stop going because I kept getting The Rage.

You were completely reasonable and within your rights. Selfish arses drive me nuts.

YANBU, she is. This is what I would do (and what I've seen my Dsis do in the past):

Go into the changing room anyway and lock the door
When you leave, take the other person's bag with you.
Hand it in to the reception desk on the way out and say you found it in a changing room and think someone has forgotten where they left it/left it behind :o
Then if they tell you at recpetion that this is a problem at the moment, people leaving bags in changing rooms to 'claim' them, calmly suggest that they collect up bags left in the changing rooms and put them in a big lost property bin, and anyone still reserving changing rooms with bags will have to come up to reception in their cozzies and sort through the bin.

They did this at the pool my DNs swim at, where there was a similar problem. Within a couple of weeks, suddenly no one was doing it anymore :o

silentsinger "clothes flying through the air".

Right next week I will follow the Excellent advice on here. I'll report back and explosions.

YANBU!!!!

Who the actual feck do people think they are?

I'd have dumped the bag outside and called her a rude cunt bitch.

People are so rude and rules just do not apply. Feck her/them!

Next time I'll come with you, lets see it do that to me.

Might her DD have had SN? I only ask because I have to change DD in a changing room because she is very inappropriate (she's 13) about her own body, and others. I get quite worked up if the disabled changing room is busy and I can't get her in a cubicle. I think I would attempt to 'bag' a changing room in that situation.

BTW... it wasn't me, DD's bag is blue .

Spot on Sannebana!

yanbu
This happens a lot at our pool. Often the cubicles look like their bags have exploded everywhere: inside-out clothes, nappies etc strewn all over, so it's not even easy to put it out.

Shockers, I can quite understand your need for your dd to have a cubicle to herself, I have a kid similar, but in would wait my turn (apologies if there USA reason why your dd can't wait for a few minutes until there is a space free

It's the same as bagging a table in Costa while you go and order your coffee

natasha oodles of lockers.

No idea if SN but ds2 has needs of his own

Are you on an iphone Eaglewings? Mine changes my words too!

I'm terrified of her shouting out something rude in front of smaller children. We've been treated to comments like "That boy hasn't got a hairy willy like Daddy, we've got hair on our winkies haven't we Mum?" or "Look how funny her boobies are, they're purple!", when an elderly lady was changing near us. Because she's 13 and looks like any other teenager, people get really offended by her comments. She also stares.

I once witnessed two mums actually blocking the doors of one of the changing rooms so as to 'reserve' it for when they got out of the pool! At my local swimming pool, there are only three large cubicles so they get very busy during the baby swim session - I was utterly enraged by their selfishness and rudeness but not brave enough to confront them, so I snitched to the pool attendant who made them move their stuff to lockers.

I have, on occasion, moved bags left in the big changing rooms (after a quick squizz up and down the changing area to see if someone has nipped out for a second) and it hasn't ever resulted in a Jeremy Kyle-style scrap, so my guess is the people who do this do know it's wrong and just do it to see if they can get away with it.