Swimming pool with no changing rooms. Is a dry robe the answer?

[Tozin]

Our swim school changing rooms are being refurbished (could be months)

Currently we have to change the children poolside. It’s a very cold pool area and also tight on space. I find it quite stressful.

Would a dry robe be suitable option for the children?

Would it keep them warm enough to throw on, over wet swimming costumes and run to the car? (And then get showered and changed at home away from the chaos?)

Dry robes are very expensive so I don’t want to buy them if the children will moan they are too cold. (Surely their legs would freeze?)

Would a fluffy or towelling dressing gown do the job? I'd be reluctant to buy something expensive for a relatively short term issue if you don't think it would be used ordinarily

We use a microfiber towel to dry then stick a fleece onesie on over it.

What about a towel poncho, coat over the top and then dash to the car. Buying a branded dry robe will
cost you a lot!

Aldi and decathlon have done their own dry robes, v expensive. You could probably pick something up second hand on ebay

We put on a onsie

Literally whip cossie off under a towel

Decathlon do big poncho towels that come down past knees and cheaper than a dry robe, although if you see a need for a dry robe past this short term problem then keep an eye on Aldi and Primark. I got one for DD from Aldi and it's fab, huge, very warm and waterproof outer so she just throws that on over wet swimsuit and heads home.

Dry robe would work for this and is the same reason I bought ours - except it was covid that meant we couldn’t use the changing rooms.

I’m an open water swimmer so often get changed ‘in the wild’. My routine (bearing in mind it’s often freezing and I need to warm up) is:
microfibre poncho on
whip wet cozzie off underneath
dry robe on
dry legs with small towel
jogging bottoms on
warm drink/hat/gloves/thick socks

I’d want to get DCs out of wet swimwear. The microfibre ponchos are cheap on Amazon, then you could pop a onesie on or similar or buy a cheap dry robe from Vinted

We had to do this for a while.

The answer for me was two towelling dressing gowns, two pairs of crocs and a pair of jammie bottoms.

Quick towel down poolside, dressed and off home. 5 minutes tops.

I have a dry robe for swimming. Sometimes I am too warm and have to have it unzipped. It's bloody amazing. I think what really helps is the outside fabric is windproof so no cold air gets in. The inside is Terry towelling so quite absorbent.

I have looked at the just throw on Terry ponchos and the issue I have is they are all Terry towelling which once it is wet is very cold.

Big loose onsie and a pair of flip flops or similar

My grandson has a big oodie type top that comes down to below his knees. So out of the water, towel round, top on, trunks off, shorts on. Crocs on his feet - takes about a minute!

We do do this but we had the dryrobes anyway for the beach. It’s an expensive solution but it does work.

I'd go with pj shorts and a poncho towel, you'd have to take the dryrobe off when you got to the car anyway. Keep a blanket in the car. When it's really cold I put a hot water bottle in their swimming towel so it's warm when they get out of the pool and they can hug it all the way home.

A dry robe and track suit bottoms? Or I use a poncho style towel and change underneath that. (We have communal open style changing and shower areas, I have a mile walk).

I don’t have anything helpful to add but I’m trying to work out if you have one child with two pairs of crocs or are there two children but only one gets pj bottoms? 🤔😂

There are two children. One of whom refuses the pj bottoms 😂

Towel dry then hoodie and tracksuit bottoms and straight into the car.

Im fed up if seeing these bloody dry robes everywhere. I’ve never seen such an awful piece of clothing. I get it if
its being used for the correct purposes but there everywhere now for everything when I’m most cases a coat would be better.

in the case dry them off and either dressing gown or hoodie.

Brilliant!
thank you all for all these tips!

I wouldn’t want to use a dressing gown as they aren’t warm enough for the purpose we need 😊

My son does this and I’ve suggested loose warm jogging bottoms underneath, but he won’t have it (he’s a bit weird about temperature though). It works well for him and he has a nice warm shower after. We whip the rash vest off so there’s not something cold and wet sticking to him and then he has dry robe on, goes to car and comes home.

My daughter had a Moonwrap for when we couldn’t change during Covid. It was really good.

Another vote for a towelling poncho!

It's what I use for open water swimming.

Poncho on, strip wet cossie off underneath then pull on a pair of tracksuit pants and socks.

Leave towel poncho on top leg it to car.

Do you live in the arctic?

They are plenty warm enough for a dash into the car and house then into a warm shower...