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

Put bench savers/cubicle saver stuff on the floor. Every. Single. Time.

They know they are being entitled CF, so don’t put up with it!

I’m a swimmer, have shoved LOADS of peoples stuff off the end of the benches they were saving. The only way they learn!

They are CFs, you can’t reserve a changing room.

This happened to me last week at our local pool. When I noticed someone had left their bags in there I said loudly ‘do these belong to anyone?’ to make sure they weren’t just getting something out of the lockers. No response so I left their stuff where it was and nipped in there to get DD and I dressed. After a few minutes I could hear them stood outside the changing room saying ‘someone is using our room!’. Waited to see if they were brave enough to knock on the door and try to kick us out, they weren’t so I finished up and gave them a nice big smile as I left.

People do this at swimming lessons all the time leaving nowhere for other dc to change. I just send mine in and if the stuff gets wet in the process that's their problem

I can't believe how long a lot of these responses are.

The correct response is:

Twats.

Parents do this at my sons swimming lessons. I take them out and leave them in a pile somewhere .

Of course you can't reserve them how bloody cheeky. I'd have just left the stuff outside without bothering to notify reception.

I’d either move their stuff out or just use the room with their stuff in if I needed it.

That’s annoying. If it’s cos the parent is showering off the kids and about to use the room that’s one thing but if they’re in the pool I’d be peed off

Our local pool has loads of cubicles and three family ones. The disabled changing room is separate from the "changing village" (I know, wanky term ) and being a small village pool it's not difficult to find an available cubicle UNTIL everyone leaves their shit in them for the duration of their swimming lesson etc even though there's about 20 signs up saying to please use the lockers. You don't even have to lock them. No one cares.

Staff have got sick of telling people and are more than happy to see pissed off locals placing people's belongings in the lockers, and if it's my friends and I doing it, the belongings are placed in lockers as far away as the cubicle as possible to really give that surge of panic and horror. Eventually they learn. Staff have also been known to go through and do the same on occasion.

I have this at my local pool. People are just lazy.

My reaction depends on how I'm feeling:

Mildly annoyed = dump their stuff on the floor and stand on it

Super annoyed = dump their stuff on the floor, stand on it and then when I'm dressed, take it to reception as 'lost property'

Royally pissed off = bin their stuff

It's still not ok if the parent is showering the kids @undercoverfunster. You swim, you shower and then you find a cubicle to get changed in.

That way no one's clothes are taking up a cubicle that someone could be using to get changed in at any point. The added efficiency mean that it's much less likely that anyone will need to wait for a cubicle at all (since they're each being used for 5-10 minutes at a time rather than 15-20+).

People should organize their stuff (and ensure they have the right kinds of bags etc) to facilitate this order of events. Unless you've literally never been swimming before, then the situation isn't a surprise you can't plan for properly.

I agree about reserving your cubicle while you shower too - when I put my stuff in the locker I take my shower kit out of my gym bag and put it at the front of the locker so that I can grab just that and shower when I get out of the pool before taking the rest of my stuff to a cubicle!

@JacquesHammer It is acceptable to get one's things out of a locker, put in changing room then nip for a quick shower

No it's not.

Someone else could have got changed in the time it takes for you to have a 'quick shower'.

I'd check that the stuff doesn't belong to someone just getting the rest of their stuff out of the locker, and then dump it outside of the cubicle, if it happens to end up in a puddle of water all the better.

No it's not

Cool. Ill tell everyone at our local pool where the etiquette is to do just that, that they’re all doing it wrong

Cool. Ill tell everyone at our local pool where the etiquette is to do just that, that they’re all doing it wrong

I bet there are plenty people cursing those that do it though when they've showered and can't get a changing room because they've been considerate. Just because you and others do it doesn't mean it's ok 😆

Someone else could have got changed in the time it takes for you to have a 'quick shower'

Not in the time it takes me to have a quick shower. But I do the same as Frangipani and put my stuff at the front of the locker so I can just dump my swim hat and googles in it and pick up my shower gel.

Someone "reserved" a shower once by dumping their shampoo bottles next to the open curtain. I went in, not realising what she'd done. She was surprised when she pulled the curtain back and found me there.

If it’s cos the parent is showering off the kids and about to use the room that’s one thing but if they’re in the pool I’d be peed off

Neither is acceptable. You should not bring your stuff into the cubicle unless you are planning on using it immediately. The only exception is if you need up make 2 trips to the locker.

Happened to us in the past just put all they’re stuff on the wet floor. They kicked off and the manager pointed out that was what the lockers where for. Wouldn’t hesitate to do it again.

Never see it at our local pools tbh. Anything left unattended would be nicked within a short time.

We did have a similar problem with our local gym though. One user would leave her clothes spread right over the benches leaving hardly any room for anyone else to change.
After a few times her clothes were found on the floor in suddenly appearing puddles.
She soon switched to using a locker.

It's NOT acceptable whether it's to reserve for an hour or just 'to nip for a quick shower' just because there's more than one of you who's selfish doesn't make it right or etiquette.

I'd just dump the belongings on the floor and get my own child dressed.

I left our local swimming pool lessons after an awful confrontation with a woman who had done exactly this. Some other brave person had dumped her stuff out the cubical so when I got there, it was empty. She accused me (I wish!!) of it and the whole thing just escalated to the point where her approx 13 year old daughter was chest bumping me like she was spoiling for a fight. Absolutely disgusting, horrid behaviour.

Worst of all, no one came to my aid. There were no staff around. No mobile reception either to phone for help. Ours was the last lesson of the day so no other adults around by the point that I'd calmed the kids and dressed them. I had no choice but to brave the pretty long walk back to reception worrying she was waiting somewhere for me.

Imagine my horror when I arrived at reception to see the woman stood there. I asked the receptionist to get the manager, and she said "are you the one causing all the bother? It's nothing to do with us. Sort it out between you ". Wtf?! An assault and verbal agression in the local council pool most definitely is part of what they should deal with.

Ended up demanding the manager to come over who was at least understanding and sympathetic.

But ultimately I felt the whole thing left a sour taste. They were effectively useless. I pulled the kids out and enrolled them in to a private gym lesson scheme at double the cost. So far no problems as there are plenty of benches for changing plus cubicals so space for everyone - smaller classes too. Oh and plenty of warm showers that stay on longer than 3 seconds (no exaggeration. I counted every week!).

CF can fuck off. Don't dump your shit and then kick off at being called out on your shit!

JacquesHammer you don’t go to my local pool do you? Loads of people there seem to think it’s the etiquette as everyone does it. We managed annoy a group of about 8 parents one week when we went to get a centre manager who confirmed that yes the announcement of “If your child has a swimming lesson please don’t leave belongings in changing rooms but use lockers” also applied to ‘just taking a shower!
The idiots still do it tho!

Those of you using a cubicle while the CF's stuff is still inside - make sure you wring out your wet costumes over their stuff before you leave .

DS's swim lesson is like this. Plenty of cubicles and nearly every one of them 'reserved' with a pile of clothes.
If I've had a decent night's sleep and a proper coffee, I'm nice enough to pile it outside the door, usually on a dry bit of the floor.
Bringing it to lost property is a good idea too. I'll keep that in mind on the days I have the rage.

And a special place in hell is reserved for the Performance Parents who do the full fucking spa day including special creams and split end treatments on their DC in the shower.