AIBU to use an unoccupied pool changing cubicle left full of belongings?

[Noddyslittleredcar]

Local authority pool, exclusively used for kids swimming lessons between 4 and 7. All lessons are 30 minutes, all starting and ending at the same time. 5 lessons with about 10 kids FS in each, so 50 kids. No idea how many cubicles, I'd estimate 50 but haven't counted.

Family changing rooms, so all cubicles. There are lockers and parents viewing area with chairs.

The pool periodically sends out emails telling people not to "reserve" changing room cubicles by leaving their clothes in for the duration of the lesson. Idea is the child changes and the adult takes their stuff to the viewing area. And yet, every week, almost all changing rooms have clothes, towels, bags and school book bags in them for the duration of the lesson. This means if you have to get your child changed before the lesson (like we do), there are no free spaces.

This week I went in a cubicle with stuff in it, because there were no free ones. Waiting would mean my child missed part of her lesson.

The parent shouted at me - actually shouted. "That's my changing room and you've taken it" and banging on the door. Her child was still in the water. I continued to get my child dressed, and came out - before the lesson got the children out the water. I explained she wasn't supposed to "reserve" cubicles like that. She said "it had my stuff in it".

So was I being unreasonable?

This is a weekly occurrence. They don't man the changing area so no employee to speak with, just reception and then the swim teachers who obviously can't come and police the changing rooms.

I have complained to the pool before now and an email goes out, but nothing changes.

It used to also do my head in when people dragged all their crap to the poolside and then dragged it all back again after - if only there were some sort of lockable cupboards you could securely leave your bags in ..... 🤔

Obviously did not affect me one bit but used to watch them struggling to carry it all and deal with a wet and cold DC and just think, what the hell are you doing?!

I would do one of two things.

A get changed in there. If they come back they’ll have to wait.

B take all the clothes to reception and say you found some stuff for lost property.

I was pretty much finished by the time she got it. It's a very small changing room, she would have known there was only the two of us there and the fact that I was already in the shower should have been a signal that I would have finsihed before her.
No, the only reason for putting the stuff in the changing room was to reserve it and prevent me using it.

Email the LA and ask that they put a notice on each door clearly stating that cubicles can not be reserved and that if ignored, be aware that items may be removed.

Well done, OP.

I’d just lock it and get changed in there. She’d just have to wait

See I'm that person that says "I'd like to sit down, move your cases please".
The world is full of entitled people, they need some lessons.

YANBU and are very brave.

Post COVID swimming was the best. Parents were not allowed pool side and could watch from the outside window, no sweating on plastic chairs. All DC were sent straight through from the car with hat and goggles on, wrapped in a towel.

You didn’t see this woman!

I was already seated anyway so I left others to fight their own battles - or not - while I judged hard.

if I’d needed a seat I would’ve asked.

At our local swimming pool, family and disabled changing were shared - and the only cubicles. There weren’t many. There were also clear signs saying don’t leave clothes in them.

Some people would take a cubicle, change, and lock the cubicle from the outside, with clothes in it.

My dsis (wheelchair user), me and my 2 or 3 preschoolers used to go swimming together. If I realised a family cubicle was locked from the outside, I would unlock it (very obvious when it wasn’t actually being used, btw), take the clothes and dump them none too carefully on a bench, and make full use of the cubicle.

Anybody said anything to me, and I pleaded ignorance. No, it was empty when I came. That’s terrible. Complain to the pool staff (which obviously they couldn’t, as they were entirely in the wrong).

YANBU but people who behave like this in the first place are unlikely to be reasonable when you call them out on it. Good for you though! It’s very entitled behaviour.

Yanbu

I mean, you weren't wrong but you were always going to end up getting shouted at.

I have this every week. I have three methods depending on my mood.
1: I go in whilst kids are still in lesson just before it ends and I dump every single bag and towel from the cubicles into a messy heap in the communal area and happily swan into an empty cubicle with my kids whilst they are all ranting trying to tell apart their stuff.

1. I just pick a cubicle and chuck out the stuff that's in there onto the floor outside.
2. I ask the front desk staff to go and empty all the cubicles which they do.

Got no time for their weird cubicle reserving shit manners.

I've handed stuff to reception before and said 'this was left in a changing room, must be lost property' 🤣

This

thankfully my child is now grown up so I don’t need to worry about this but it’s on a par with those who put their “handbags” on the seat next to them in a completely packed train - yes I remove them (after asking and usually not getting a reply)

This. Chuck it into the corridor. She isn’t allowed to leave it in there.

Extra points for you!

Yanbu, I have done the same. It's a proper pet peeve and I don't understand why so many people do it. I tended to just point at the signs and ask them if they could read, then walk off. Got an earful but felt self righteous doing so 😂

That is just brilliant, maybe teach the selfish people a lesson!

You are my hero OP.

So glad I don't have to do this anymore but it's absolutely engaging when people do this.
I have put someone else's stuff outside the changing cubicle so I could get my son changed in time to catch our bus home. She did moan at me, I told her she wasn't allowed to "reserve " a cubicle. Plymouth Life Centre. Zero fucks given.

Absolutely do it. This drives me nuts. I plonk all my wet swimming stuff all over their nice dry things too because there is literally no where else to put anything or sit.

You know when people say 'wealth would never change me'... this is one change you would make. Never a public pool again.... never shall I walk through the verruca dip... never shall I wait while a woman has an everything shower on a Saturday morning during kids swim time..... never shall I get beeped at by a turnstile... and never shall I have to get dressed in a locker cause every fucker has claimed a changing room....

This!

But also I think the leisure centre need to start staffing the changing rooms to put a stop to this nonsense.

A few weeks of taking everything out of empty (of humans) changing rooms and putting it in a big pile should do it.

I was so tempted to do this yesterday but chickened out, you are my hero!