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Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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:
WotchaTalkinBoutWillis · 08/04/2020 13:35

Then we have the thread from a few weeks ago where the OP was livid that a man got briefly naked while changing in the men's changing room at the pool. OP (a women) was just hanging out in the men's as it was warmer apparently

I remember that thread! Was a corker. Grin
Just shows there's no pleasing everyone all at the same time.
People are either complaining that they're not covering up enough or they're not naked enough Grin

Nottherealslimshady · 08/04/2020 13:38

I would never thoroughly wash my flaps and arse crack in communal showers and would not take my swimwear off! How filthy is everyone going swimming? I always thought the showers were just about washing any product like suncream off your skin before getting in.

HarrySnotter · 08/04/2020 13:38

@WakeandBake I'm really sorry you're bored at home. Poor you.

YinuCeatleAyru · 08/04/2020 13:38

I had the culture shock in the other direction when I went to Iceland, and because they know that tourists from other parts of the world may not know local conventions, the swimming pool had a staff member on duty in the communal (though thankfully sex-segregated) shower area drawing ones attention to - and watching to see that you comply with - large multilingual infographics saything that each person needs to be seen to be thoroughly scrubbing themselves all over with soap in all the cracks and crevices before they would be allowed through to the pool. I would rather put up with the chlorine and the knowledge that the water is 0.5% sweat, wee etc.

slipperywhensparticus · 08/04/2020 13:41

Pools are closed try again

TreestumpsAndTrampolines · 08/04/2020 13:42

If you think pools are bad, just sit in a hotel pool and watch hottub usage - it's disgusting - straight from the changing rooms, or the sauna into body temperature water...

WakeAndBake · 08/04/2020 13:43

@Srslydontgiveacrap You can go out once per day, dear. Not as much as you like hmm and sitting in a park is a definite no-no

Actually, sweetheart, we can go out as much as we like. And sitting in the park is totally fine.

I suspect we may not live very close to one another...

OP posts:
EyeSoLated · 08/04/2020 13:44

I've never had a shower before getting in a swimming pool. Is this what people do? Confused

EngagedAgain · 08/04/2020 13:44

I think some people are being a bit harsh on the OP. So she sat on this for a few weeks! It's no different to posting about anything that could have happened at any time in the past. Also, it makes a change in the current climate. Various subject threads are making a comeback. Helps to take mind off things.

MamaBearOnLockdown · 08/04/2020 13:44

we can go out as much as we like. And sitting in the park is totally fine.

good for you. Again, why are you so bored? Is that amazing country of yours not providing you with enough entertainment?

Lily193 · 08/04/2020 13:48

WakeAndBake

Given you're so bored, I'd suggest you spend the rest of the lock down designing your own pool so all your problems can be solved within a matter of months.

WakeAndBake · 08/04/2020 13:49

@MamaBearOnLockdown

Again, I am bored because we are doing the social distancing properly and have not seen friends or been to work for three weeks. Is this very hard to comprehend? Could you provide a list of suitable topics for us all to (not) enjoy discussing?

OP posts:
Srslydontgiveacrap · 08/04/2020 13:50

@WakeAndBake

Riiiiight. Be careful not to catch covid or get bitten by a red ant on your bum on your many park visits.

WakeAndBake · 08/04/2020 13:52

@Lily193. Designing a pool would be fun but sadly we do not have a garden so I might not bother with that, if it’s all the same to you.

Why are you guys all so uptight about people having untimely conversations about public pool shower policies? Seems bizarre. Open your windows and get some fresh air or something!

OP posts:
MintyMabel · 08/04/2020 13:53

Lol at all the posters getting irate that I dare to post about something random and unrelated to lockdowns or supermarket delivery slots!

Which was, after all, the point you were looking to make.

HoffiCoffi13 · 08/04/2020 13:54

I go swimming a lot and I’m not dead yet so it can’t be too much of a problem.

EngagedAgain · 08/04/2020 13:55

On the subject, I used to take my kids to pools rather than seaside (because then the sea was deemed a sewage ridden place) and I was never perturbed by any of it. I read somewhere once that the greater the chlorine smell the more wee in the water. Once we went to a pool that the chlorine was so strong and the pool was small and crowded. Unless they just put more in. Wouldn't go into a pool like that now. The main thing generally though one would pick up is verruca's or pretty harmless things (until now!) I would think most people go to the pool clean. I don't agree with unisex changing. As for the foreign nudity thing, that's just the way it is!

Alez · 08/04/2020 13:57

It's standard in the UK not to shower, or just have a little splash under one for 5 seconds. I do think it's gross - hate when you get a big smell of someone's lotion in the pool! But that's just how it is here.

midnightstar66 · 08/04/2020 13:58

Do people really stand soaping their butt cracks in public - that's even more grim tbh Confused. Our local pool has been closed for about 4 weeks now so this must really be plying on your mind lol

Lucked · 08/04/2020 13:59

Meh. I think most people in the U.K. shower daily, particularly the type who have enough get up and go to go swimming so how dirty are they?. And the odd person who is a bit yuck well there is so much water in the pool it is diluted and disinfected.

Pools seem to vary in how much chlorine they put in, there are some pools I can’t use because j can’t rid myself of the smell afterwards but my local council one is fine.

shinynewapple2020 · 08/04/2020 13:59

I would rather that what is hiding in someone's bum crack remains well within the crack and covered by shorts/swim pants / trunks than watch it gurgling around my feet in a communal shower

Eeeww

MaidenMotherCrone · 08/04/2020 13:59

@WakeAndBake this is exactly the reason why I will not swim in a pool or sit in a jacuzzi and I'm British. All those only bathed in a blue moon crusty arsed kids. Adults who are swimming anyway so no point Hmm

It's revolting body detritus soup 🤮

izzywizzygood · 08/04/2020 14:01

@WakeAndBake @Lily193. Designing a pool would be fun but sadly we do not have a garden so I might not bother with that, if it’s all the same to you.

Just dig a basement under your house, that's where pools go in my road.

ElsieDear · 08/04/2020 14:01

That's just what people do here. We shower at home first then just do a polite rinse at the pool. Pools are gross. That's just the way of it.

BatShite · 08/04/2020 14:03

Swimming pools will always be gross tbh. Even the ones who have big signs up saying wash properly before entering, most seem to ignore them.

Also gross, is how they deal with..issues. At my kids' swimming lesson, some other kid puked in the pool. I figured this would be everyone out, change water time or something. But no..just fished out the bits and told kids to get back in..made me feel ill and I did take mine out then, with glares all round like I was being massively unreasonable by not wanting my kids swimming in puke Hmm I mean, they prob still didn't change the water by the next week so its maybe pointless, but it just felt hrrid to send them back in at the time..

When I complained about this, I was told health advice says thats fine. Even poos can just be fished out. Even blood, assuming its not so much its changing the water red, is not an issue?! The only time a closure is needed is if there is diarrhoea..