Mixed gender Swimming Pool Changing Rooms

[balleticspin]

So why are all swimming pools now built with mixed space changing rooms?

I feel uncomfortable changing in them even though they have separate cubicles. They are not enclosed and a walk from the showers.

Whilst taking my DC to swimming lessons I am pretty certain a man was filming a child in the shower and I made a complaint. They didn't seem too concerned.

WTF is going on?

As a single mother of a son I will only be using pools with family dressing rooms from pretty much now on. I'm not sending a 7 year old off alone into a room full of men to shower, dry and dress himself. Aside from the fact that it would leave him insanely vulnerable to predators, it also leaves him alone with access to a large body of water that he could end up going back into without my supervision. It also most likely makes innocent men feel a bit nervous as being naked around an unsupervised naked child is a situation most men will want to avoid.

I take my DS to the women's dressing rooms with me now if I have to but he's getting a bit too old for that while still being way, way too young to be alone in a men's room. Family rooms are an absolute necessity because they prevent the very most vulnerable in our society, children, from being alone around potential predators and ensure they can be adequately supervised near water.

We used to have a whole bank of f family rooms in our old leisure centre off the women's changing room. The old system was fine.

All my local pools have entirely mixed "changing villages" with open mixed showers.

Here's what happened in one, for those unable to imagine: www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/uk-england-london-45336300

He used to time his swims with school lessons and linger in the open mixed showers.

Lockable cubicles always have gaps, they're never enclosed rooms - probably for cost and drainage reasons. Smart phones are very slim.

I find mixed convenient for family swimming too but I don't want to be put at extra risk. I'm sick of reading about hidden cameras in mixed sex facilities too. I would prefer dedicated family rooms and single sex spaces.

I'd also like to be able to properly wash the chlorine off my skin, which requires soap. But what woman is going to feel comfortable lathering their body in mixed showers?

Men, as ever, can proceed to do as they please.

Mixed sex cubicles are the norm here, mainland Europe, combined with communal single sex changing rooms. Showers always next to the pool and in open view. All swimming pools have this design unless it is a hotel or school.
Make no mistake: a lot happens around these cubicles. I have had to teach my girls to be very vigilant when changing ( two teens) nd be wary of phones. We have no choice in this, it has always been like this. But never let anyone tell you your are overreacting or uncomfortable and oh europeans don't have a problem with voyeurism. We do, we hate it but we are stuck with it. Some swimming pools are even becoming a no go area for girls and women.

Thank you for that sanluca. People like alittleprivacy make me despair because she is well aware of predation by males but doesn’t acknowledge that women need to be (and can be) protected too. You actually sound as if you don’t care what happens to females, alittleprivacy, as long as your male child is okay. Is your male child more worthy of protection that someone else’s 12, 13, 14 year old female child? Or rather than defending an exclusive mixed-sex approach which is riskier for women and girls we can all push for family/mixed facilities as well as single-sex ones.

charleston

I think thats a bit unfair

alittlebit is talking about family changing rooms which i take to mean is like the ones on our local pool with about 10 individual LARGE cubicles just for individual families

At least thats what i THINK she is saying

So our pool has disabled changing rooms, family changing rooms, individual mixed sex cubicles and small male and female changing rooms

Ime newer built/renovated pools tend to have mixed changing rooms. I have always preferred these because you can guarantee a cubicle to change. And it's never bothered me showering or anything as I never strip off completely to shower anyway I would do a more thorough wash when I get home. As I have an anxiety disorder I used to always go swimming with DH and it made my anxiety worse especially if it was a new pool I wasn't familiar with if we had to split up to go and get changed in different areas. And now with toddler DD it's much better than we can all get changed in the same area especially where there are family cubicles. I much prefer it.

I've been to many German swimming pools and there mixed sex changing rooms is the norm, with separate cubicles. The system is, you come in from the street, change in a cubicle, walk out the back door of the cubicle and put your stuff in a locker. Then you go to the showers which are single sex.
All the women strip down naked for the showers, though there are some private cubicles to shower in. The system seems to work. The main issue seems to be keeping the street area separate from the pool area.

I go to a hotel pool in Ireland three times a week and the changing rooms with adjoining showers are single sex. The changing room is communal, the showers have curtains.
There is one woman who is often there, an older woman with a double mastectomy. It's funny because she's the only woman who strips down completely naked and walks about the place like that, back and forth doing stuff. Everyone else kind of changes discretely with towels around them etc. Then I found out that the woman is Austrian and it all made sense!

Ps both the German pools and the Irish one have large family rooms as well, changing and showers included.

Rufus Why would she come on a thread about how many leisure centres don’t offer single-sex changing facilities anymore to talk about how that set is best for her family, without acknowledging the concerns the thread has been posted to discuss? It reads like a defence of the move by leisure centres because it’s what works best for her family.

Btw despite my comment I would absolutely support same sex facilities too btw. Just not in place of an arrangement for families. It definitely doesn't need to be an either/or anyway.

Our local pool just has individual lockable cubicles with some larger cubicles for families. Separate individual lockable show cubicles plus the open pool facing showers, people shower in their swimming costumes in those. They also have two large group changing rooms for schools/groups. Works well I think and for the most part solves any trans issues.

What is it you don't like about private cubicles?

We used to have a whole bank of f family rooms in our old leisure centre off the women's changing room. The old system was fine.

Doesn't sound fine for men taking their children swimming if they have to walk through the women's changing room.

I havnt found a swimming pool with separate changing facilities. 30 years ago, when I was a child, all the pools anywhere near us had mixed changing villages and they still do now. It's not a new thing here.

Our local pool....in Spain ..has a men’s changing room with cubicle and communal area, then an area for men with their children then an area for women and their children then women only with cubicles and communal area. Showers definitely sex Feels pretty safe.

All the private gyms I've been to have single sex changing rooms, some with separate family rooms, all have cubicles and open plan changing within the female changing.

The local authority pools and gyms are 50/50 with the move towards changing villages when facilities are refitted

Why is this?

Why if you pay for a private gym you are given the dignity of single sex changing rooms, but if you use local authority facilities you aren't? What's going on there?

Does anyone use a private gym that has a changing village? I've never heard of one.

I've encountered deliberate indecent exposure in the mixed sex changing village at my local pool.
I suspect that there is a chronic and ongoing issue with pervs and voyeurs as there is ALWAYS a member of staff mopping the floor in the changing areas. On the plus side the floor is kept clean.

Does anyone use a private gym that has a changing village? I've never heard of one.

We do, though there are single sex dry changing rooms for the gym. The wet changing room, for the pool, is completely mixed sex, with individual cubicles and then open plan showers. You can use the gym changing rooms to change and shower in if you want to, they're a short walk away.

Showers definitely sex segregated

Doesn't sound fine for men taking their children swimming if they have to walk through the women's changing room.

Sorry you didn't walk through they were next to them.

Does anyone use a private gym that has a changing village? I've never heard of one.

That's a good point.

Hearhoovesthinkzebras It's good that your gym offers a choice between dry single sex and pool changing village, it seems a good balance

I think private gyms have the benefit too of everyone going in has usually swiped their membership card (name/address/photo/bank details) so less chance for anonymous perving

MrsWednesdayteatime

I think it's a lot to do with the fact that children can't use the gym but they can use the pool, so there's a need for family changing at the pool but only adults are using the gym so no issue of opposite sex parents needing to help a child get changed. I think that's why it's organised that way.

charleston are you seriously saying that the safety of a 7 year old child isn't important?
I prefer single sex changing BUT as a single mum also did not feel ok about sending a (small) 8 year old boy into the men's on his own. Do you think boys are in no danger from predators, really?
I would have been fine with my child going into the mens with a Dad but there wasn't one around! Not every family has 2 parents.

I think there should be a family change option, where you can't go without kids, and then single sex for both sexes. Ideally anyway.