sexist swimming pool!! epic story

Caixta

Out of interest, did this swimming pool have babies' nappy changing facilities in the ladies' toilets but not the men's?

My husband used to find this in most places when he was taking our little ones out for some one-to-one time. He would cheerfully assume that he would be able to change babies in the gents' and would be gobsmacked to find that there was no changing station in there!

I know that these are sometimes located in unisex disabled toilets but I have also found places that only have them in "Mother and Baby" rooms.

Carmina_Piranha_3

in our leisure centre the ladies changing rooms are the ONLY place to change a nappy. all the other sets of toilets don't have a changing mat and the only disabled toilet isn't really big enough although i have squeezed in once or twice because if we're going to the ball pit/bouncy castle room i don't want him getting excited and thinking we're going swimming when i take him into the changing room.

my husband would have to squeeze into the disabled loo and do it on the floor i suppose, there's not much room and if the floor was dirty you'd have to clean that up first before you could put your changing mat down (assuming that everyone has a changing mat with them).

Caixta

That's spot on, Carmina Piranha! Isn't it a shame?

Carmina_Piranha_3

it is, because lots of men would take their children swimming. we go as a family and i have the baby in the ladies changing room with me but he wanted to take them swimming last weekend while i had a lie-in and realised he couldn't because of not having a changing mat in the gents. it's okay to use the disabled loo if you're doing another activity elsewhere in the centre but you couldn't take a baby all the way over there, with you both wet and dripping and the husband not dressed. the disabled loo's not in the swimming area.

there's also no cubicles or rooms in the male changing rooms. the ladies has 2 larger rooms for privacy, that's where the nappy changer is, and where prams are left and where mothers change their boys - little boys not old enough to sort themselves out in the male changing room might offend other women so they have to go into these side rooms.

andyrules

When my children were babies, there were very few changing facilities per se, let alone in the men's rooms! But neither did we have this outrageous banning of men in the baby pool, it would have been uheard of! OH could take DD when I was expecting no 2, no-one batted an eyelid.

Progress? I think I preferred the time when you changed your LO wherever you could, but were welcomed as a family, white or black!

kittykat100

If they want to be picky I could take my little doggy who is my 'baby'. I bet they would have a heart attack if they say a little jack russel in the baby pool

maninthestreet

Why are incidents like this allowed to happen in Britain? Every time something like this happens, the BNP get more and more support.

MORPH3US

OP, do they also have a father and baby only swimming session?!

If not then I think you have a case for sexual descrimination....

M

MORPH3US

Justie wrote:

I have to say that the tone of some of the posts on this thread are making me decidedly uncomfortable. The OP has every right to be annoyed as the staff at the swimming pool treated her and her partner terribly. And there is a legitimate debate as to whether sessions should be mum & baby or parent and baby. To use the issue to make general swipes at the Muslim community or anyone not English leaves a nasty taste in my mouth. The MSE community as I have experienced it has been supportive tolerant and above all inclusive. I hope it stays that way and I'll now leave this thread and go and post on ones I feel more comfortable on.

Most people ignored this post so as not to play into your hands, but I had to say that you are looking for a problem in this post that doesn't exist...

No one has had a swipe at any minority group (unless I missed it). I'm not going to even bother trying to explain who we are having a go at because that again plays into the hands of people like you who take offence when there is none to be taken...

Needless to say, the majority of people on here know in what context this thread is to be taken!

M

andyrules

Have to agree with you morpheus. I normally agree with Justie's posts, but I think the point has well and truly been missed here.

It is incidents such as these that are fostering racism as people perceive an unfairness.

Arguably, it is questionable whether institutions such as public swimming pools should be offering such exclusive sessions - and that applies to any group. Most take a - necessary - huge chunk out of the week for school swimming which already eats into the time available for the rest of the public. At our pool, there seems to be a natural grouping of 'types' according to time of day or a focus, eg lane swimming, late night, children's inflatables etc.