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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Disgusting behavior in swimming pool changing rooms!

233 replies

WakeAndBake · 08/04/2020 12:20

Returned to the U.K. a few months ago and took the kids swimming to an indoor water park with a ‘changing village’.

The facilities were not sex separated and everyone goes into cubicles to change. And that is when things got nasty.

Instead of having a decent shower and getting clean before entering the pool people just stood under a shower IN THEIR SWIMWEAR for a few seconds. No attempt made to wash sweaty bum cracks or armpits. Most women did not even bother to wet their hair!

How horrible to swim in a soup of shit, smeg, sweat, hairspray and toe-jam. This also meant the amount of chlorine in the water was insane, burned my eyes and I nearly crashed the car on the way home!

Who thinks this is a good way to do things???

OP posts:
bluebeck · 08/04/2020 12:42

This is one of the many reasons why I never use public swimming pools.

EricaNernie · 08/04/2020 12:42

however i shower in the morning and go swimming at some point during the day.
or rather pre lock down i did

TheMustressMhor · 08/04/2020 12:44

Bloody hell, OP.

I was expecting you to say that you'd seen a man having a wank in the swimming pool at the very least.

I'm disappointed now.

WhatWouldYouDoWhatWouldJesusDo · 08/04/2020 12:46

Why not Al1Langdown ?

Are you so at one with the lockdown it's all you can think and talk about ?

I for one am happy to see a.bit of normal service being resumed on MN, even if it is gripes of yore.

Doobigetta · 08/04/2020 12:46

Yes, I do that. I have a proper shower at home before setting off, and then another one when I get home. I am not comfortable doing any more than a quick rinse in a mixed sex environment. I agree with you that this isn’t ideal. I suggest you start campaigning for changing facilities to be returned to single sex, if you want people to behave differently. Most women do not want to share washing and changing facilities with males. That isn’t going to change, so the facilities need to be appropriate for us to use.

Bluntness100 · 08/04/2020 12:46

I think lock downs got some folks really really bored now.

midsomermurderess · 08/04/2020 12:47

And you want to discuss this now? The behaviour is 'disgusting' but now you need to raise it? Sheesh, just how bored are people in lock down?

Lidon · 08/04/2020 12:47

In things that never happened:

This also meant the amount of chlorine in the water was insane, burned my eyes and I nearly crashed the car on the way home!

Lovemusic33 · 08/04/2020 12:47

YABU, that’s exactly how pools are here, walk through a shower thing and then get in the pool, chlorine kills and cleans most things. Never really thought about it, maybe because I also swim in the sea which is full of rotting fish and poo 😂.

Colouringinbook · 08/04/2020 12:48

In Iceland I was told off by a lady for not soaping up enough in the pre hot pot shower.

I just have a quick rinse in the UK - the water is either scalding or freezing anyway.

CarolineIngalls · 08/04/2020 12:49

Right before lockdown, my water babies instructor told us that chlorine kills coronavirus. I was skeptical, but I looked it up and she was right.

We miss waterbabies. I miss it a lot. My daughter will age out without a proper good-bye. She won't care. It is me who cares.

There is my first world problem contribution to this silly thread.

LoungingInParadise · 08/04/2020 12:49

I don’t shower before or after swimming in public leisure centre because they’re a) grim and b) not private.

I shower in the morning before swimming and then shower when home. Who wants to get their bits out in a manky public shower?! And I don’t want to see hairy bum cracks, thanks.

Original poster
WakeAndBake · 08/04/2020 12:50

I agree about seperate changing for men and women, no problem there. I just like people to wash before they swim and was shocked at the filthy people and the level of chlorine.

OP posts:
MangosteenSoda · 08/04/2020 12:51

I'm inordinately pleased that you have spent the last few weeks agonizing about public bum crack washing Grin

British swimming pools are indeed filthy cesspits. Weirdly, this does not bother me at all.

CecilyP · 08/04/2020 12:51

Nah, can't get worked up about this. It was always thus. I have been using public pools since the days when people only had a weekly bath, that is if they were lucky enough to have a bath! Though swimming caps for females ( regardless of hair length) were compulsory. We all seem to have lived long enough to tell the tale.

AfterSchoolWorry · 08/04/2020 12:54

Imagine someone soaping their arse at that poolside shower in their nude! 😄😄

Natsku · 08/04/2020 12:54

Nice to have a non-corona thread anyway

I do much prefer it when everyone showers before swimming (strict rule where I am), the pools still have chlorine of course but it doesn't smell so strong as the pools in the UK. But you can't expect that in mixed sex changing rooms of course, and wouldn't want it in them.

The no swimming costumes in saunas rule is not about hygiene but because the chlorine doesn't wash off costumes so easily as it does skin and then when you bring that into the sauna it makes the air bad so its a health and safety thing really.

Pinkblueberry · 08/04/2020 12:54
Biscuit
fascinated · 08/04/2020 12:55

I know several ozone pools and an outdoor one with no chemicals at all abroad , so yah boo to whoever said there were always chemicals . Well maybe ozone is a chemical but it certainly seems more pleasant than chlorine!

Wannabangbang · 08/04/2020 12:55

I'm really unsure what the point in this thread is when we won't be allowed to go swimming anytime soon!!!

We are on lockdown fgs and have been for coming up to 3 weeks soom and probably for the forceeble.

Think sweaty, smeggy, jammy bumcracks are really the least of our problems now :-D

Think staying alive and not catchong corona and staying unbored is the theme at the moment.

What planet are you on op? Can i join

Iamtryingtobenicehere · 08/04/2020 12:56
Biscuit
Queenoftheashes · 08/04/2020 12:56

Chlorine doesn’t kill germs as far as I can’t tell. Used to get a monthly cold from the virgin active pool.
Anyway I now won’t ever be able to go swimming again as I’ll be thinking about what’s in everyone’s sweaty arse crack. Great.
People are ridiculous for decreeing only Coronavirus-related content is allowed however on an internet chat forum.

Queenoftheashes · 08/04/2020 12:56

As far as I can tell that should say

blueirises · 08/04/2020 12:58

I go swimming pretty early in the day, so I've usually had a shower only an hour before. I do try not to think about other people (especially hairy men!) in the pool.

Yes, LaurieMarlow, I really like the smell of chlorine. I find it a bit sexy.

Tartyflette · 08/04/2020 12:59

I swim at a private pool in a health club, there are showers poolside and most people will use them (swimsuits definitely ON) before getting into the pool. There are signs requesting members do exactly that.
If people want to have a full shower before swimming (and some do) there are cubicle showers in the changing rooms, which are segregated by sex.
FWIW, the chlorine levels are generally OK except for when children have been in the pool (only allowed at set times) when it can be really sting-y. 😒 I choose the times when I swim very carefully!
Really miss the pool atm. I don't run or walk much, if at all, swimming was my daily exercise for many years. 😢😢
the 'swimming pool nazi' threads on here in more normal times are usually usually good fun too