AIBU to get changed on poolside after toddler swimming lessons?

[TheTigerWhoCameForWine]

Just started swimming lessons with my 18 month old. The swimming pool it is at has a tiny mixed sex changing room that you walk through to get to the pool so no privacy at all. There are 2 cubicles but they are always taken.

Would I be unreasonable to get changed in a corner on poolside? The guidance from the swim school says this is allowed and there is loads more room than the tiny changing room which is so cramped if there are 6 of us plus 6 toddlers trying to get changed, but I did it the first time and feel like I was being weird because all the other mums tramped off into the changing room and took forever because it was mayhem.

There are sometimes dads who come swimming or are watching but they’d have to walk past us in the changing room anyway and I guess it’s no different to getting dressed at the beach? I keep under a towel and am very discrete.

Am I over thinking this or am I being a complete weirdo not using the changing room??

Getting changed under an adult sized poncho as an actual suggestion!! Pmsl!!

No. Adults do not get changed in any form on the side of a public pool. Hth

There was never a lifeguard at any pool I took my babies/toddlers to. They were all small private pools either in someone’s garden or at a school. I assumed the teachers had lifeguarding qualifications.

In your situation OP I’d bring a dry robe for me and get changed at home, and change toddler pool side. I wouldn’t want to change myself poolside OR in the changing rooms you describe!

Due to what I said in my PP. I rescued a child in exactly that same situation. Where I worked, parent and baby and beginner swimming lessons were not allowed to go ahead without a lifeguard and for good reason. Young children learning to swim were by far the biggest group of near drownings who needed rescuing. Granted it is more likely to happen with a 3yo who is in the pool without a parent but I rescued a baby whose mum was in the pool and that was not an isolated event.

In general council leisure centres are far safer than private gyms. I was in a spin class in a private gym once, a guy went over the handlebars of the bike (because they fell off) and he landed on his head. The instructor didn’t have a clue what her to do and there was no backup because he was the only member of staff in the building. Luckily for him, I knew what to do. In a leisure centre, there will many well/ trained first aiders at all times. A team of my colleagues has a customer who stopped breathing. They did CPR and used the defib. He survived!

Swimming teachers have basic rescue qualifications unless they are also lifeguards.

I took my babies to a similar set up, small private pool rented for swimming lessons, no lifeguard. It did have two changing rooms but they were tiny. Also hardly any dads so all the mums were crammed into one changing room and the dad had one all to himself. During Covid it was arrive in swimmers and just take clothes off poolside and then leave in a towel. I carried this on after Covid, arrive in swimming stuff with clothes on over and just strip off in the changing room. Change toddler (had to be in the car in Covid) and then just put on a towel robe to go out to the car and then home. I often see people leaving the gym swimming pool wearing them as well.

Yes it’s weird. I just bought a cheap oversized dressing gown to stay warm and dry me in the car and worried only about the babies (who I wanted to make sure were rinsed off). I then changed them in the boot of the car. I hate those busy change rooms.

Perhaps not in the UK.

We do, discreetly, in many highly civilised countries. Nor does it attract attention.

Sorry why?

I do this at the beach often. What’s the difference? Or would you say that’s not ok either?

As long as nobody can see your bits when you change I really don’t see the problem.

It's quite normal at private pools used for baby classes not to have a lifeguard...none of the ones I've been to had one.

Yes….. it may well be normal but based on my professional experience, I do not think it is safe. I think there are a lot of unsafe practices in private gyms (see my lengthy PP on this matter). Believe me, leisure centres have higher safety standards thank many/most private gyms. I don’t understand why private gyms aren’t more heavily regulated.

If they say it's okay and you want to do it I suppose no one will stop you, but of course it is weird. I can understand changing your toddler poolside, but as an adult - no.

I've swum at a lot of different pools (private and council) and have never had the experience of only two cubicles and no other private space to change, but if I did encounter that I'd do as suggested by others, put on a tracksuit/other cover up over my costume and change at home.

Tbh, I've never done swimming lessons at a gym. These have all been either at baby specialist swim schools or people's houses. I take your point but every baby is held by a parent and I KNOW that doesnt prevent drowning but it must reduce the risk quite a bit.

I don’t really understand this.

If a mum has a swimming pool in her own garden and takes her baby to swim there, there won’t be a lifeguard. Is that unsafe? If not then why is 8 mums with their 8 babies unsafe?

Well yes it is obviously not particularly safe to go in your own pool alone with a child, but what you do in the privacy of your own home is up to you.

I have rescued a baby in a class of 8 babies and 8 parents. Baby’s mum fell over. A colleague also rescued a baby in a parent and baby class. It is not that unusual.

I'm sure your presence made the whole thing much calmer and more orderly and was appreciated and welcome, but do you really think the group of the other 7 mums and the instructor would have just stood and watched the baby drown, assuming the mum herself was so badly injured or shocked that she couldn't rescue the baby?

It’s not a public pool. HTH

Swim teachers have the basics but aren’t necessarily lifeguards, my eldest is a pool lifeguard and their training is extensive. He’s been qualified a little over a year, the only times he’s had to physically intervene has been when mums have been distracted for various reasons. I wouldn’t find it a safe environment for lessons.

just pull clothes on over your swim stuff, if you wrap in a towel while you sort your dc you’ll mostly be dry when you’re done.

No of course not. You are assuming that one of them would notice in time. Drowning is silent. That is why leisure centres have lifeguards because you cannot just hope that someone is going to notice. I certainly remember more than one rescue, where not even the swimming teacher had noticed because they were dealing with another child. Sometimes of course, the swimming teacher realised before me. It is teamwork.