People leaving belongings in changing rooms to reserve them at swimming pools

[Bellad19]

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

I will only leave things in a changing room while I am getting the rest of my stuff from the locker. With armbands and toiletries I cant carry the bags and all of that together ! But I would never leave anything in a changing room for any longer than that.

Our pool changing room is being refurbished and the number of cubicles available has been reduced because of the work.

There are massive signs everywhere saying belongings left in cubicles will be taken to lost property. Still people do it.

I have moved bags in the past and would do so again if necessary.

@bingbangbing that’s what I’m going to do if I’m in that situation now!

This used to happen so often at swimming classes, despite about a squillion messages telling you not to do it, that I started just using the changing rooms anyway. Didnt evict the stuff, just shoved it to the end of the bench and got on with changing my kids.

Another mum was more hardcore than me. She used to just dump stuff out onto the floor.

There is a special place in hell reserved for these CF-marked by a little pile of crinkled clothing and some sad looking trainers.

*CFers.

@CMOTDibbler it must be lost property! surely no polite person would just block a cubicle for an extended period of time, so they must have left in a hurry and forgotten some stuff.

I'm another who used to just use the cubicles anyway. The family who'd chosen to leave the clothes in the cubicle had to wait till we'd finished, then they got their stuff back.

Consequences suck.

Other than a desperate toilet dash with a dc who just can't wait, you shouldn't be leaving stuff in a changing room.
Knowing my luck if I did use one anyway a sad mum with a just-toiletted toddler would appear just as I stripped off.

Tbh I’d probably throw it on the floor outside and if they complain then explain to them REALLY SLOWLY what a locker is and where they are like they’d never seen one before (even if you have no money leaving it in a open locker is better than a cubicle!)

But I think giving it to reception is a better idea and they have to go and get it and can’t moan at you.

I'd just go ahead and use the changing room with their stuff left in it. If they come out and have to wait might teach them to use the lockers in future....

The pool staff should really be managing this issue around times of children's classes where mother hens are trying to assert their pecking order rights.

Please report and take images you can send of each blocked cubicle and empty lockers.

I am not sure what the legal position is of moving someone's stuff but could you go and make the manager move it.

I used to just go in there anyway as the locker rooms are seen from the pool so not leaving the door open on a,small changing room. It's less of a problem now my children can change alone. Only once did a women have a go about me using her changing room. I told her once her name was in gold letters on the door I wouldn't use it anymore.

Nick the stuff 😃

If you do use the family changing room with someone else's stuff left there, give it a good kick around the (wet) floor and check for hidden cameras.

I confess to having dumped the clothes on the floor outside, the entitled CFs can generally do one!! The staff at our pool are generally teenagers with little confidence to challenge them so I'll cheerfully throw their crap on the ground / into a random locker. They won't learn otherwise.

It drives me mad after swimming lessons. There are a number of family change with playpens and baby change. It is always families with older kids that try and reserve them with stuff. There is a poor lady with 2 kids in lessons and a newborn and she never manages to get the family changing because some selfish twunts that should know better reserve it. I’ve found it hard in a normal cubical with a baby in toe but just about manageable. People that reserve the big cubicles that don’t need to should be ashamed of themselves

We did when younger as part of the swimming club - only when it was our morning session which finished 30 minutes after the pool opened (at half 6) or started 10 minutes before general pool closure.
At those points there were still 10+ changing rooms available and one or two people left in the public swim.

I also did it when DS was younger and showered after his swimming lessons, mid-week middag with only 5 other children and one or two public swimmers. Again there were at least 20+ other cubicles.

At all other points it was not acceptable. Even as a competitive swimmer with a bloody holdall of kit, clothes and towels the bag either went in a locker or poolside if the lockers were too small.

I'd definitely take them to Lost Property. Or home, if they looked like they might fit and were good quality.

(That's a joke)

But I would definitely put my wet swimming costume on the adult's clothes before taking them to reception.

They shouldn’t do this. It’s really out of order.

I’d just use the cubicle too.

It's beyond rude and selfish. I'd move the stuff out and use the cubicle.

It isn't EVER acceptable to reserve a cubicle.

I've ignored somebody's clothes and used the cubicle. Very selfish to reserve a cubicle.

@Bellad19 YANBU.

@Bellad19 Yep, it happens in MY swimming baths too, and I have, flat out, moved peoples belonging into a locker, because I wanted the 'family' one. There are 5 family ones in our swimming baths, and no-one has any right to reserve it by leaving their shit in there.

I have had people come back and rattle the door, as we were in THEIR changing room. I do, of course, ignore them, because they have NO RIGHT to reserve it for themselves.