Naked toddler in swimming pool showers

[Noodella18]

I take my 2 year old swimming on Fridays. After the session we take a shower in the communal showers, next to the lockers and by the entrance to the pool. I didn't think twice about stripping off her swimming costume to wash her but the lifeguard told me today that she wasn't allowed to be nude 'because it's a public area' and she had to keep it on. Am I being naive in thinking that a naked two year old is really no big deal?

Yanbu - no harm in a naked 2 year old
Yabu - keep the cossie on

You've no idea how many perverts hang out at leisure centres. It's fairly common at our low crime, backwater town.

When a good friend did jury service the case concerned a man watching young girls under the showers and masturbating. Sadly it is a very real threat.

I wouldn't want my child naked in front of strangers no way

Thanks again everyone for the comments. Just to clarify, the showers are not poolside, they are inside the changing rooms, but next to the opening where you enter the pool, so you can see them from a few angles in the pool, but not from most of it. There aren't any private shower cubicles available, only a disabled one which obviously I wouldn't use, not being disabled. Interestingly there have always been other naked kiddos showering when I have been there (including just before we got into the shower today), which is why I didn't think too much about doing the same. But some scary tales on this thread, so costume stays on from now.

Ladies how do you propose a father takes his young daughter swimming if being naked in a mens changing room is not "allowed." Would you change a young son in the ladies changing room and feel as uncomfortable?

Our local pool was upgraded with lovely glass windows however it's started being frequented by local men who turned out to be know to the police as paedophiles and they definitely were getting a kick out of seeing the kids in their costumes. (showers couldn't be seen). Windows were suddenly frosted over.

Agreeing with other posters. My partner was a lifeguard til last year. They have under water cameras and it's horrific the things he witnessed. It was also extremely common. Please don't let your daughter be naked anywhere at a public pool. Those places are teaming with pedophiles and perverts. The lifeguard would have been doing his job, safeguarding training means they have to take certain measures to protect children, it wasn't personal against you.

Well this thread is depressing. There have always been perverts about and children have always run around naked. I don't think the parents and children are the ones that should have to change their behaviour personally. And I also don't want to live my life constantly on guard because their might be a pervert watching.

I agree. I know there are some dodgy types out there, but there always have been. Who wants to live their life in constant fear of what might, but probably won't, happen. I'm not in the UK but I've seen plenty of naked kids here and parents don't seem worried.

Nudity is definitely allowed in a changing room, of course. That's a private and not public area. I was under the impression that this communal shower area was still visible to people in the pool area since the OP said it's near the pool entrance. So no one(except perhaps maybe a very small child as described in this case) would be nude.

Well, the father definitely has to take his daughter in the men's change room and the mother her son in the women's. They being the adults can not go into the opposite room. As long the child is young enough people generally aren't uncomfortable or care about opposite sex children in the room.

@saleorbouy

Ladies how do you propose a father takes his young daughter swimming if being naked in a mens changing room is not "allowed." Would you change a young son in the ladies changing room and feel as uncomfortable?

Men's and women's separate changing rooms as the only option at pools are quite unusual now, I think? Every public pool we've been to has had cubicles. Most have had a unisex 'changing village'.

Well this thread is depressing. There have always been perverts about and children have always run around naked.

Perverts are not new. Smartphones, however, are.

Meh
Where I live nudity in kids is the norm. I love seeing them all swimming nude in the water. Enjoying themselves. Free like they should be.

My kids were always nudie rudie at the beach.

it should be possible to dry and dress children under cover of large towels if there are no cubicles available.
i don't agree that nudity is necessarily a good thing.
it's not how i was brought up.

I don’t strip DS off at the pool- yes it is sad but it’s the world we live in unfortunately.

I was merrily taking a shower with my toddler, both fully clothed, some years back.
I noticed the man opposite had pulled his penis up and it was poking out of the top of his shorts.
I am glad of the fact my dd was dressed, so as not to pander to his perversion.

I think it's hard for places like swimming pools/leisure centres. It's not like when we were kids. Nowadays even the teenager who works in the cafe bit has to go on a safeguarding children course.

I think they just have a blanket policy of zero nudity in the communal areas because otherwise they'd have to start enforcing age limits and more rules etc. If they say it's ok for a 2 year old but not ok by the time they get to 3 then you've got staff in the awkward position of having to approach parents of naked children, ascertaining their age then telling them that's it's ok/not ok to allow their child to be nude. It's not fair on the staff to have to do that so I think that's where these blanket policies come from.

Our local swimming pool has these showers right by the public seating! Given that almost everyone has a smartphone with a camera, I would never allow my child to be naked there.

I wouldn't allow my child to be naked, it's easy for them to be recorded nowadays. As a parent it's my job to protect him from perverts not give them ease to take a video or pictures.

Sadly it's a sign of the times I think! Best to be safe .horrid people lurk and they are just trying to keep little ones safe. Lifeguard is in order here

@thinkfast

I've seen the following at public swimming pool communal showers:

• man with obvious erection under his trunks staring intently at a toddler swimming lesson
• man masturbating next to a child showering. Child was oblivious to what was going on.

I've also seen men burst into the female changing room and a man taking photos holding his phone under communal changing room cubicles.

I reported each occasion to staff, but I expect these people are drawn to swimming pools.

Your toddler shouldn't have to cover up, but I can absolutely understand why the staff asked you to keep his clothes on.

The problem there seems to be the men, and communal facilities.

What's the point of having bloody showers then! They should be sex segregated anyway.

@Hattie765

What's the point of having bloody showers then! They should be sex segregated anyway.

It's to wash off the chlorine, which should be washed off your swimming costume anyway. They're not meant to be used for a full-on soap and sponge job- you don't need to be naked.

I'm not in favour of sex-segregating the poolside showers because it's unnecessary if you're using them as intended, and because sex segregation makes it very difficult for some families (mum, dad and a few young DDs/lone parent with opposite-sex DC etc).

@Hattie765

What's the point of having bloody showers then! They should be sex segregated anyway.

Do you think there aren't female perverts? And it's rinse the chlorine off. That's all.