To have reprimanded the man who sat on my towel

[grossedoutswimmer]

Name changed for this because embarrassing/I may be being unreasonably petty. Let me know. I'm 38 weeks pregnant and maybe a hormonal blob.

So after dropping DC1 off at nursery, I manage to go swimming (you know, to get the baby moving down in my pelvis) on the first day of my maternity leave, in the nice gym pool that I pay an arm and a leg for but have hardly used lately. Pool lovely and quiet. Doing languid breastroke. Then a bearded, 20-something, visibly sweating man comes out of the sauna and plonks himself down on top of my towel, laid out on one of several loungers (others are empty). I also have a few other things, like my comb and water, so squawk gently "I think you might be sitting on my things". He is frenetically typing away on his phone and just says "oh is this yours?" Doesn't offer to move.

I carry on swimming. He carries on going in and out of sauna, having a quick shower, going back in, coming out, plonking himself down on my towel every time, typing stuff on his phone. Eventually when I get out I have to go over, massively pregnant, and prise towel from under him. At this point I feebly complain "it's all wet." He says "I haven't even been in the water." Doesn't apologise. Towel is wrinkled and damp. I say "in that case you must have been sweating on it." He says I have a filthy mind. WTF?? Everyone is looking now, so I tell him to have some fucking respect and waddle upstairs to have gross shower where I can hardly bear to dry myself. As I go up the stairs he is making unbearably patronising "shoo shoo crazy lady" gestures.

What should I have done? It is gross, right? There were two clean towels (presume one was his) on one of the other loungers but I didn't want to take one of those in case they belonged to the other two swimmers.

Chloe was that a Freudian slip? 😂

If it was a towel provided by the gym, he was just being an lazy, insensitive, immoral git.

So still a knob head then.

YANBU op, how much more pig headed could you get? You say there were plenty of other unused loungers so there's no reason why he couldn't use one of those instead. It's almost like he was doing it deliberately, what a weirdo.

Weirdly there isn't anywhere else to put the towels (only two pegs and they have stuff for children's swimming lessons hanging up), so everyone leaves their towels on the wooden loungers. Would obviously be better if it was easier to get a new one, but to do that one would have to break out of the swimming pool through a fire exit door and into the lobby (and then not sure if you can get back in...)

On the swimming costume: I got to 41 weeks in it last time and was fine (think it's a bit big normally) but bump definitely larger this time because was really pulling on my shoulders today. Fortunately I have almost no boobs, so at least I'm not tumbling out... But sort of wish I had bought a proper maternity one.

At least the stretched- out tummy area turned out last time to be surprisingly kind to the saggy post-partum tum...

Yuck.

You wonder if his behaviour would be the same if you were a 6' 3" tank of a bloke. I guess not

I'd tell the staff about his behaviour. What an awful guy.

Something similar happened a few weeks ago when I was swimming with the dc. There is a large table where many people, including us, put towels on with a chair next to it, close to the shower area, sauna is a door about 3 m away. When we came out of the pool some guy who was using the sauna had carefully draped dd's towel over that chair and sat on it, dripping with sweat. I have no idea why he thought this was ok, there are no towels supplied by the pool, he must have known it is someone's towel. He didn't aplogize either.

Why didn't you just go and get another gym towel and wring his neck with it ?

I'd suggest to the gym they store some towels by the side of the pool or in the changing rooms, that seems pretty logical then that they would be close at hand when required.

Knob head. At a wobbly oedematous severe SPD 38 weeks pregnant I think I'd have yanked his phone off him and thrown it in the pool. 'Oh is this yours' . That'd give him real reason to do the 'crazy pregnant lady' gestures.

If you're up to it, complain to the staff.

YWNBU to say something. You could have told him to get you another towel as you didn't want to dry yourself on one that has had his oozing butt sweat all over it, seeing as you don't know him from Adam and didn't see why you should have to walk all over creation to get another because he was too lazy to get his own.

Really rude and really gross of him. I mean, yuck.

I would have asked (demanded) him to get me a fresh towel from reception.

As for parking your towel on a sun lounger, he could have just moved it, if there wasn't somewhere else to sit . You don't sit on someone else's towel.

Chloe Childish I know, but I can't stop laughing at your typo.

OP, you were definitely not being unreasonable. What a horribly rude idiot he was. After you'd prised the towel from under his sweaty arse, you should have spun it between your hands and whipped him with it.

This was totally uncalled-for behaviour on his part. Some people are just unpleasant.

You wonder if his behaviour would be the same if you were a 6' 3" tank of a bloke. I guess not

^ exactly!

He sounds like a twat.

YANBU

Snap8theChat and HappyLabrador oops, that was unfortunate! Saw the typo as soon as I hit post!

Kung (ahem)

If I had items and it was clearly being used, no.

If it was a clearly clean unused looking towel, I can understand where he thought 'I pay an arm and a leg to use this gym, oh great a sun lounger with one of the gyms clean fluffy towels on it.'

But OP had items on the lounger/towel, so it was clearly being used. OP says: 'I also have a few other things, like my comb and water, so squawk gently "I think you might be sitting on my things"'

(OP, I love that you think you 'squawked'.)

Oh disgusting sweaty man bum gross gross gross

Disgusting horrible man!

That's grim under any circs, but the fact you're pregnant makes him a dick of the highest order.

Y Y to complaining to staff!

Report the sweaty-arsed towel bandit to the gym reception. YWNBU. He was being a dirty, great arsehole!

You should have complained to staff. They need to sort the towel situation out. Unless its one towel per customer or some such rule.

The man was a complete twat.

All this trouble is why you should always know where your towel is.

In my gym it's totally normal to take your (issued by the gym when you came in) towel and leave it on a lounger if you intend to lounge for a bit (I make a little pile with my flipflops/keys/phone/towel on the wall, because I don't) - there are plenty of loungers, and it's just a normal thing to do.

He was terribly rude and entitled - you don't sit on someone else's towel, especially once it's been pointed out that they're not just laid out for his use. I wouldn't have left it under his bum though - if I was feeling brave I'd have asked if one of those towels was his and taken that.

He was a twat.

He was a twat. I'd gave shaken my hair like a demented Old English Sheepdog all over his phone or sat on him and the towel.