Swimming lesson parents

[LilySLE]

What is it about swimming lessons that mean all common courtesy goes out the window?

• if the sign says no outdoor shoes in the changing room, it means no outdoor shoes in the changing room. Keep a clean pair of adult flip flops or sliders in your child’s swim bag that only ever get used in the changing rooms. Job done.
• same goes for younger siblings attending the swimming pool - the sign applies to them too
• wheeling your buggy with all the dirt and fallen leaves from outside through the changing room where children have to walk in bare feet is against the spirit of the no outdoor shoes rule and you know it
• There are 4 communal, open, showers for about 30 kids all finishing at the same time. Wait until you get home to wash your child’s hair properly and apply conditioning treatments. These showers are just for a quick rinse to get the worst of the chlorine off. The communal showers are not your own private bathroom
• supervise your child in the shower so they are not turning the shower back on every time it turns off automatically, on repeat half a dozen times, while standing there showing no sign of washing anything while in the meantime shivering children are queuing up right in front of you
• don’t leave your bag in the cubicle so no one else can use it during the 30 mins that your child has no use for it

The weekly swimming lesson is tortuous enough as it is - a bit of common courtesy would improve the experience for everyone immensely.

AIBU? Or just perimenopausal and grumpy?!

Totally understand. There are a handful of individual cubicle showers (with opaque doors) at our pool and I always imagine that people who need to do this would use those so they can strip their child off completely and give them a proper wash without their costume on. I’m talking about the open communal showers.

Can I add cluttering up the changing rooms for 15 minutes before the lesson so that adult swimmers getting out of the pool have to squeeze past the queuers to get their washing kit then squeeze back to use the shower then squeeze through again. Also please flush the toilet after using it.

Ugh unflushed toilets, yes that’s another one 🤢

At my child’s swimming lessons a woman wore stilettos in the shower whilst shampooing her child. She didn’t see anything wrong with it even when challenged by staff.

!!! Let’s hope the floor wasn’t too wet and slippy 🫣

At least the staff challenged her; no one ever does at our local leisure centre.

Oh I'm done with waiting for other children to go through 10 x cycles of the showers, I just firmly tell the other children 'Right, you've had your shower, it's someone else's turn now'. Could not care less if the other parents think I'm rude.

My children have lessons at a leisure centre in our very middling town and it's nothing like this. Is there nowhere else you can go? Somewhere with more showers for a start.

Gosh your swimming lessons sound very stressful. I taught swimming for twenty years and now I have kids in lessons (listen better to literally anyone who isn’t me haha). I always shower my kids there, so do half the other people - if people are waiting for showers people just get the kids to swap in and out (like when you put the shampoo on) so no one is standing shivering and the people who want to nip home and shower there can, and those of us who want the hair wash over and done with also can.
My youngest has additional needs which cause sensory processing difficulties. I generally don’t take her to watch but if I had to I wouldn’t dream of taking her shoes off, it would be far too uncomfortable for her and would cause a meltdown. No I wouldn’t swap her shoes either, same problem. I’ve been the person cleaning the changing rooms and it’s a non issue.
Everyone that I have ever seen over my years of teaching and then parenting leaves their bag in the changing room, it’s much more convenient hanging on a peg than sitting on the bench next to the parent in the viewing room where someone else may want to sit. You’re talking about cubicles though so maybe you go to the leisure centre? Have you tried a learner pool? Generally they are much warmer and you can wait for your child in reception if they can dress themselves. I find prices near me to be very comparable. I only like the leisure centre if I’m doing laps myself.

Technically there are five showers, but at least one of them always seems to be broken at any one time.

For not the first time in this thread I am seriously considering my life choices in where we live. Maybe Rightmove should add local swimming lesson etiquette as a search criteria.