If I Could Write The Locker Room Rules...

[AllezGirl]

Wouldn't it be more productive to voice the need to management for family changing rooms, than to chew a new a**hole on the woman who is just trying to protect her child? Keep in mind that the emotional scars held by child that was assualted in a public changing room, restroom, etc. would run a lot deeper that the ones you may sustain because your goodies were checked out by a little kid.

[Pax]

It seems that it would be more productive to voice the need to management regarding the need for family changing rooms than to chew a new a**hole on the woman who is just trying to protect her child. Keep in mind that the emotional scars held by child that was assualted in a public changing room, restroom, etc. would run a lot deeper that the ones you may sustain because your goodies were checked out by a little kid.

By the same token, a mother who brings a boy into the locker room should keep him close-by and use the experience as a teaching tool regarding appropriate behavior.

[Kitsune06]

Keep in mind that the emotional scars held by child that was assualted in a public changing room, restroom, etc. would run a lot deeper that the ones you may sustain because your goodies were checked out by a little kid.

Absolutely. What we consider scolding can be really traumatic- this kid is having a total stranger raise her voice at him for just acting on his (or her!) natural curiosity.

By the same token, the nudist bath house/sauna I go to over the summer is very liberal that way... Kids certainly get an eyeful but after a while it loses a lot of its novelty after parents say "Well, that's what people look like without clothes on... we all look basically the same..."

And what actually really gets me is how open and understanding people can be. Year before last there was a girl there with a foot and a half spiked mohawk (pink, she was cute ) going to the nude sauna, had lots and lots of pierces- more than I do- and had a little boy, maybe 5 or 6 ask her about them. She was very straightforward and honest, not shy or taken aback. His mom was *mortified* that he asked, but very relieved at Mohawk's response.

[HappyAnika]

Do not walk into the gym throw your stuff on a treadmill to reserve it, then disappear for 30 minutes.

Do not hang on equipment and/or weight benches you're not using while talking to someone for 30 minutes.

Do not sit on the bench while completely nekkid. The bench isn't clean, I don't think you are clean, and now I really don't want to even set my gym bag down on the bench on the outline of your bum.

[Kitsune06]

...eww. why sit on the bench completely nekkid anyway? the bench is probably dirtier than their bum (statistically and bacteriologically speaking) but who *knows* what kinda creepies are lurking there?

[AllezGirl]

Queen, I agree, but I remember trying to control a two year old while getting myself out of a wet swimsuit after "mommy and me" swim class and it was next to impossible. Luckily, by the time he was old enough for it to be an issue, the Y built family changing rooms.

The club I belong to now doesn't allow kids under 16 at all...

How about those lovely people who leave big gobs of sweat on the machines for the next user.

[Veronica]

It's not the two year old boys, or even the four year olds. It's when they are 7 or 8. And yes its natural that they are curious... but go look at your mom, not me please!

V.

[annie]

Whoa, after reading this thread, I am glad I did not re-join my gym! I agree with most of the comments, but here's one more that I haven't seen yet. When you are there to workout, you don't necessarily have time to dawdle! What about friends/aquaintances you see who want to do nothing but chat?! That used to drive me crazy. I would try and be polite, but yikes! Are you there to socialize or to get a workout?

Annie

[SouthernBelle]

Yep. My experience was with boys WAY too old to be in there, 8-10.

[Irulan]

Yep. My experience was with boys WAY too old to be in there, 8-10.

I send my sons into the men's dressing room at that age. At some point I asked a dad-like type to go see what the monkeys were doing, and yes, they were having water fights and swinging off the plumbing in there. I can only hope some parental type told them to knock it off