So our local swimming pool have just refurbed the changing rooms. There are no communal areas to get changed at all, it’s very small in there. There’s cubicles for individual people and then 2 really large family sized changing rooms. (Disabled changing rooms are also available separate from the 2 family ones) then there’s a couple of rows of lockers so there isn’t really any room for you to get changed out in the open and no benches for you to put stuff on so even if you were to squeeze in a corner you’d have to put your clothes etc on the floor.
We are a family of 5, we have 3 young children. When getting out of the pool it’s always amazing if we manage to get a family changing room as we fit all of us in and husband and I can quickly get all of the children changed before sorting ourselves out and they have a baby changing table in there too! We normally do try and get out of the pool 10 mins before the session ends so we can get a family changing room and be done before everyone else gets out so someone else can use it. On the occasions family changing rooms haven’t been available, I’ve gone in a small individual cubicle, had to leave the door open as no room, get 2 children dressed and my husband gets the other one dressed and then I watch all 3 children(while I’m still in my swimming costume) while my husband gets dressed and then he takes them out to the cafe while I get dressed.(or vice versa) It’s fine just a bit more hassle! Sorry for such a long back story I was just trying to set the scene 😂 but I was just wondering on peoples opinions on the correct swimming pool ‘etiquette’ I guess is the right word for it?
Last weekend when we went, we got out of the pool ten minutes early as usual and both family changing rooms had people’s belongings left in them, I would assume to ‘reserve’ the changing room? Another lady who got out at the same time as us went and informed reception about the changing room she was trying to use and the manager came and put all the belongings from the changing room into a basket and left it outside the door so the lady could use it, manager says she doesn’t condone this and there are signs asking people to please not do it. By this point we already had 2/3 kids dressed in one of the smaller changing rooms so we just carried on without mentioning that the other changing room was also ‘reserved’
I guess I’m just wondering what people’s opinions on reserving changing rooms are? I don’t think we are entitled to a big changing room just because we have children, it’s first come first served, but i don’t like causing a fuss and would feel a bit wary of using a changing room with other people’s belongings in!
Sorry this is so long winded, I’ve tried to word it as best as I can and explain myself so I don’t get any hate lol. This is my first
Time posting xx