Friday, February 09, 2007

One Dozen Old Ladies in My Change Room.

a) this is not just a catchy title to draw attention
b) this is not the title of some wierd dream I had

What this is is the reality my FAMILY adn I found when I took them swimming on Thurs, in prep for a string of long nights at the office for me. We went into the FAMILY change room designed for FAMILIES that have both genders, so tehy can change together, especially when those FAMILIES have very young children. In that change room there are 3 large stalls where a FAMILY can change to gether, helping the toddler. There are limitted stalls cause the use of these is limited to FAMILIES.

Apparantly am aqua size class had just ended, and the old ladies prefer the FA....okay, I will stop the all caps...family change room because they are modest and like the individual stalls. Because of that, it would have been a half hour wait for us a s a family to use one of these stalls designed for our situation. we proceeded to pull ou tAmanda's swimming costume, etc from the one bag we had packed, gave her separate locker money, and went separate ways. end of the world, no, but don't call it a family change room. I approached botha life guard and the front desk person. No one wants to go give instructions or correction to an older lady though, how nice of them.

If I bring 12 high school boys who are all modest into the family change, I give it 30 seconds before the SWAT team is cleaning house, or at least a life guard witha whistle. I left a note for the civic center manager to call me since no one else would be a voice of the rule implied by the sign that says family change only.

I told my wife that next week we return at the same time to see if anyone has taken leadership. I was polite in my note to the manager, but next week if I find the same, jake and I will go in with amanda into family change, and if the stalls are full because of the older ladies, Jake and I will have little (notice I don't say no) choice but to just start suiting up (which invloves suiting down first) right there in the common area of family change.

I am sorry if you or anyone else is particularly modest, but does that not sound like the type of person who should pay for a private health club membership, not a public civic center? Just a thought, and I know I am right in that. A friend of mine used to pin his towle in the corner of the lockers, using the keys of unused lockers, and create a nice modest bellybutton high stall for himself.

Once again, sorry if I have abad attitude, just that kind of week for me I guess.

Would love your feedback so i know I have readers.

Mike

5 comments:

Pastor Pepsi said...

A game for you...
Can you rearrange the ltters in 'OLD LADY' to spell 'FAMILY' in any way. I saw no possibility of family when I saw nothing but old ladies without their partners or children in that room.

Anonymous said...

I think you're totally right! I used those change rooms with my mom as a kid... and I haven't even so much as thought of using them since- the thought hadn't even crossed my mind until you mentioned it now! Sure they're nicer... but the girls change rooms aren't that bad either, I speak as one who has been in them many times. They are old lady friendly... there are bars to hang onto :P

Angie said...

I would think that the old ladies would be less modest. I have seen many old women walking around the women's change room/shower completely naked. I think that if a person is modest there is always the choice of using a toilet stall to change in, or like you said pinning up a towel or getting a girlfriend to hold the towel up for you. Or better yet, just get over it and realize that NO ONE CARES that you are naked!

Greg said...

Hey Mike,
Unfortunately, those old ladies are not going to stop using the Family Change Room. It has been an ongoing problem for at least 2 1/2 years!

2 1/2 years ago I was 7 months pregnant, holding a heavy, shivering, crying toddler, and those mean old ladies would not give me a room! I gave a lot of dirty looks (but I guess I should have said something), no one got the hint, and then I complained to management. Management said they have told them repeatedly not to use the Family Change room but the ladies don't listen, so there's nothing they can do.

I really have a problem with management at this particular pool. There was another time I called about an issue, and they did not take me seriously.

So, it's sad to see from your post that there is still this problem going on 2 1/2 years later. All I can say is learn from my experience and confront the ladies in person. Management sucks.
-Jessica

Jay said...

I don't mean to sound heartless, but if it were a teenager doing that, or a group of teenage girls even, can you imagine the fuss. I'm rather upset about authority/management's lack of action in this case or the case of handicapped parking spaces etc.

My opinion: A simple statement, "Follow the rules or get out! You are negatively affecting other patrons and that is not fair."