8 year old boy and swimming changing facilities

TurnaroundSue

Hi - My friend and I take her son and my daughter swimming once a week. We were told last week that as he is now 8 he can no longer go into the female changing area. There are no separate cubicles and only a communial changing area. We do not want him to go into the male changing facilities as we feel that would not be safe for him and have said that he will continue to come in with us.

What do others think? I have said that maybe we can go to another swimming pool, but as they are all council owned then the rules would apply wherever we go. Has anyone had any experience of this and what would you do?

Many thanks - we really don't want to stop them from swimming as they really have lots of fun!

squidge60

i agree i wouldnt have wanted my son at that age to go into male changing rooms surprised they havent got something in place surely you cant be the first mum with valid concerns.maybe the only way around it is to take 1 of his friends?

Spendless

I've come back from swimming tonight and they also have notices saying once child of opposite sex is 8 to change in their own rooms. My son swims at a council run poool which has unisex changing area, and another one has recently changed to this, so worth looking into whether they are any like this in your area.

plane_boy2000

Unless I have miss understood didn't you say that they have communal changing areas? Is there some reason why you couldn't all use them together?

Noname29

By law they need to have disabled facilities. So why dont you use them ?

littlemissmoney

Can't you just say he is 7? (make sure you tell him though because children tend to correct you at the worst moments :rolleyes:)

julesgr

Both my local pools have family changing rooms which are designed for just this purpose I definitely think 8 is too young to let them go on their own.

TurnaroundSue

plane_boy2000 wrote: »

Unless I have miss understood didn't you say that they have communal changing areas? Is there some reason why you couldn't all use them together?

Sorry didn't make myself clear here. The communial area in only in the female changing area, there are no separate cubicles - there is not a mixed communial area - hope this clears this up.

TurnaroundSue

littlemissmoney wrote: »

Can't you just say he is 7? (make sure you tell him though because children tend to correct you at the worst moments :rolleyes:)

No they know his age there, as he has swimming lessons, and also does other things in this centre.

TurnaroundSue

Noname29 wrote: »

By law they need to have disabled facilities. So why dont you use them ?

There are no disabled facilities - this centre is primarily a school by day, and a leisure centre by night - not sure if this is how they get around not having to provide disabled facilities

TurnaroundSue

Spendless wrote: »

I've come back from swimming tonight and they also have notices saying once child of opposite sex is 8 to change in their own rooms. My son swims at a council run poool which has unisex changing area, and another one has recently changed to this, so worth looking into whether they are any like this in your area.

All the pools in our area are either male/female changing facilities, there are no mixed communal areas - so it is a real problem. I said to my friend that we should just carry on taking them and hopefully they wont say anything again. I cannot imagine anybody complaining that there is an 8 year old boy in the female changing area!! - It would be different if he were a teenager, I know and to be honest he only looks about 6!!!!