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

My brother has zero tolerance for stuff like this. He took his two children swimming, found a "reserved" family changing room, put the stuff in a locker and invested £1 in locking it. I can't remember where he dumped the key, might have been a bin. Denied all knowledge when the owner of the stuff arrived and was leaving the changing room by the time she went to reception for help finding her stuff. So he didn't see what happened next.
I think that was a tiny bit unfair, in that it inconvenienced staff, but I understand why he did it.

They haven’t “reserved” the cubicle they’ve just chosen to leave their stuff there - I push it to one side and use it anyway.

@dognamedspot Your brother is my hero.

We have this at DS1s swimming lessons. It stopped for a while when signs went up, but seems to have started again now. Extremely irritating. I tell him to just go in, but it stresses him out that there's other belongings in there. He's 8, so he doesn't want to get changed in the communal bit, but I'm not comfortable with him going into the men's unsupervised. My preference is when DH finishes work in time to come to his lesson, as he takes him into the men's. No such issue in there apparently.
Thankfully DS2 has his lesson after the last group lesson at a different leisure centre and I've never once seen a reserved cubicle there when getting him ready.

The pool my child's swimming lessons are at are shit hot at controlling this. Everything that is left is locked up in a cupboard and you've have to go to reception to get them to open it.

I only realised when I accidentally left the bag with the shower stuff in it and have since cottoned on to their very regular locker room patrols.

All these people who leave stuff in changing rooms, don’t they worry about stuff getting nicked?
I once left my boots on the shoe bench at my local pool and they disappeared. Had to walk home in just socks.
I’m very careful since then.

He took his two children swimming, found a "reserved" family changing room, put the stuff in a locker and invested £1 in locking it. I can't remember where he dumped the key, might have been a bin

I'd do this but I wouldn't be brave enough to dump the key! I'd put it all in a locker and take the key. If the owners then bang on the door of the changing room, I'd hand them the key. If they don't show, I'd hand the key to reception on my way out.

I always take these larger changing rooms, whether there are personal belongings or not. I have to wrangle a very wriggly and wet 10yo autistic child out of his swim gear, get him dry, and into some vaguely acceptable clothing, without letting him throw himself or our clothes onto the floor. I then have to keep him occupied while I sort myself out. I need the space!

I think my brother binned the key because then he'd have "plausible deniability". He could say that the changing room was empty when he got there. If he'd given someone the key he'd have been bang to rights.

How about a MN national initiative to empty the "reserved" changing areas and lock the contents away??

YANBU, it's entitled and selfish, it isn't just leaving their stuff there imo, they know a lot of people will be too polite and nervous to do anything about it.

I can't believe that some people on here think it's OK to reserve a cubicle even whilst "just" having a shower!
No. Just no.

I've been known to put stuff left in a locker, lock it and hand the key in to reception. Only costs 20p but the panic on the faces of the blokes who can't find their stuff is priceless. It forces the pool management to deal with the problem too.

I’m not about to go searching for a manager In my wet swimsuit. I’d probably just go in and use the room. If they happen to arrive while you are inside, they just have to wait for their belongings.

They are CF! Move their stuff and don't think twice about it.

I have been accused of this buy I pointed out "my belongings" consisted of two children getting dry while I transferred the rest of the stuff into the cubicle

I have also shared a changing room with strangers (we had our costumes underneath) and my children have changed with other same sex similar aged children for speed sake before swimming lessons