Tell Butlin’s what you would change about swimming pool changing rooms - £300 voucher prize draw! NOW CLOSED

[AngelieMumsnet]

Butlin's is redesigning one of its swimming pools and needs your help to make it as family-friendly as possible. In particular Butlin’s wants your help to understand what it’s like as a parent using a swimming pool changing room – and your input will genuinely help inform the new design and build on resort.

Why the changing room? Butlin’s have done research which shows that most parents love going swimming with their children – until they get to the changing room. From the wet floor, the often-freezing temperature, the small cubicles not suitable for a family to the fact you can never get your child dry – there’s a lot to be desired! Which is why Butlin’s wants the opinion of Mumsnetters to identify the biggest issues you face – and your ideas on how to solve them.

So two important questions:

What do you find particularly frustrating when using changing rooms at the swimming pool?

In an ideal world, can you think of anything which would make your life easier and solve these problems?

Everyone who posts on this thread will be entered into a prize draw to win a £300 John Lewis voucher!

Thanks and good luck,
MNHQ

Frustrating- not wanting to touch anything because everything's wet, grubby or both.

What would fix it- cleaners!

Nice to have- those double loo seats Peppa Pig World have where there is a child's seat which lifts up like a lid on top of the adult seat. Every cubicle instantly more child friendly. (And you would get a reduction in the number of people whose kids wee in the showers/ corners of cubicles because the loos would be nicer, thereby helping with the cleanliness...)

More hooks or shelves for hanging up dry clothes ready to be changed into. I hate having my clothes on the changing seat, all too often something falls onto the wet floor before I'm dressed.

The floors are the worst for me - is it possible to have some kind of mats that allow water to drain through but which don't then become breeding grounds for mold and bacteria?
Maybe a simple bath mat type affair? Although I imagine the costs of washing them after each use would be astronomical. Personally, once I'm dry, I stick my towel on the floor and we all stand on that, which makes the towel grotty but obviously it then gets a wash.
Playpens for babies are a godsend (as are hooded towels, although that's not really the swimming pool's responsibility!)
Enough hooks to hang stuff and a table or large shelf to put stuff on would be great: things that are put on the bench invariably get knocked onto the wet floor by fidgety children.

Large family cubicles with benches to sit the kids while changing them and sorting yourself out. Both normal and high locks that small fingers can't reach.

The swimming pool we go to doesn't let opposite sex children in the changing rooms if they are over 6 years old. The gents changing rooms is in s different part of the building and upstairs from the ladies'. Apart from not trusting that ds (just 7)) could get changed, gather up all his clothes, lock them up safely and get himself downstairs to the swimming pool, there is also no way I am letting my hair brained just-7 year old into a room full of men we don't know when I am not even in shouting distance. I am not at all PFB, but I put my foot down ar this. At the moment I still bring him into the ladies' but he changes in a cubicle.

so, I would like more family changing rooms. I really like the little costume spinners you sometimes get.

Bigger cubicles
Wider benches
Play pen &/ or wedge changing mat
More hooks to keep your dry stuff off the wet floor
A dry floor
Bigger lockers

one of the difficulties afternoon swimming is getting soap for the shower without wetting all your stuff in the locker, showering and getting towels altogether with somewhere to put baby safely. And then! Needing to carry stuff and children to a room (preferably unisex so the whole family can stay together) without getting everything wet! You need large poolside lockers, showers near toilets and lockable change rooms with playpen for babies leading out to dry rooms so you don't have to head back towards the pool area once dry. It's so tough with small kids!!

Somewhere that looks spotlessly clean with privacy to shower and hang a towel up in the shower where it will stay dry. A shelf for shampoo. Privacy when changing. No dark, wet, slippery, cold changing village with sharp edges of cubicles everywhere ready to cut the children when they inevitably slip up, via trying to find available lockers and insert money, get key and tie it on to you whilst also carrying 4 pairs of shoes, 4 towels and bags.
Lockers big enough for a family sized changing bag.
Lockers that lock and unlock with a wristband given to you when you first enter the pool building.
Changing area with no direct entry to pool so kamikaze toddlers can't end up running toward the main pool with nothing to prevent them running straight in.
large family changing rooms like at center parcs where the family changing cubicles all have a large shelf type structure that babies can be changed on and clothes can be put on to keep them off the floor and dry when you are dressing multiple children as well as a deep bench for the children to sit on.

Cubicles with proper doors, not those horrible flappy plastic curtains that stick to your backside just as you bend down...
Fold down child seats so you can safely stow little ones.
Heated floors so that they dry, or failing that, good drainage and someone squeegeeing regularly (I've put on wet clothes that have been pushed on the floor by a child too often...)
Sensible storage for clothes (hooks or baskets) high enough to be out of a child's reach. Locks high for the same reason.
Someone who is employed to clear clothes from cubicles that have been left to reserve them.
Good heating!

A magical instantly drying floor so it isn't wet (even though you enter dripping wet) and a massive dehumidifier, I can never get myself or DC dry properly due to all the moisture in the air, on the floor, on the walls etc.
Also clean with big free (not coin operated) lockers and enough family changing cubicles for the number of families visiting the pool.

family sized changing rooms would be great and in an ideal world, heated floors would be a godsend!

Large, comfortable, sharable changing rooms with plenty of hanging space and benches.

Private cubicles with another room for more than one child and parent. Somewhere to sit and hand bags/towels, properly heated and a safe lock so children can't get locked in. Non slip floor and heated dryer (if safe!)

the fact there is nothing to do while your getting changed its a boring place, you get them ready then they have to stand waiting while you do,
a small play area,

I agree with the comment about family cubicles and play pens, to keep the youngest one safe whilst dressing myself and the older children.

Bigger lockers and cubicles is a must ! also every time ive been to butlins he floor is either filthy or wet or both, so somewhere to hang your towels etc would also be a bonus !

A bit more space for a whole family of 5 to change in one cubicle with locks that small children can't access so you can change without the little ones suddenly exposing you to the whole pool area!!

Bigger lockers and more family sized cubicles

Make them warmer :)

More spacious changing areas with SEATS! It is so hard to change small children standing up. Shower gel dispensers and showers with removable heads for rinsing shampoo off of small heads without it getting in their eyes.

Those plastic mesh type things on the floor but middle of something comfy like foam matting so water goes through but gently
On feet.
Lots of hooks and shelves in a nice big family
Cubicle.
Spinner to dry swimming costumes and a walk in dryer for
People .

Making them warmer, larger family cubicles, baby change tables in all family cubicles. Separate are for mens / women only changing. Showers close to change rooms and larger lockers!

hair dryers on the wall by seats and cubicles with facilities to hang garments.

we find that the communal areas have a severe lack of space in the cubicles, also the lockers are great if alone but again the larger lockers are few and far between and then several arent working...

Clean big family changing rooms with plenty of seats and dispoable changing mats. Desinfectant spray tap for your feet or a even better a small pool with desinfectant everyone has to walk through to keep veruccas and athletes foot away!