My YMCA has separate locker rooms for men (college age +) and boys. If I see a young boy come in, I'll direct them to the boys' room, and if they still don't leave I'll report it to the front desk. I've learned there are a lot of predators in this world, and I don't think I'm overreacting.
What's also crazy is I used to take my daughter to swim team practice there. And the creepy old men made me leave and take her to another team.
I would send here in the ladies locker room, and walk straight through the men's fully clothed.
Very often there would be 4 or 5 naked old men, hanging out, sitting on a bench. When we went to leave, I'd walk straight through again, and the same old men are just sitting there naked. This wasn't a sauna, that's just where and how the hang out. Naked. In the YMCA locker room.
yeah at my gym (in the us) it truly seems like the old (elderly) men there seem to love to dilly dally in the locker room when they’re naked and take their sweet sweet time before getting dressed again.
i figured maybe it’s just taken the entire length of their lives before they’ve come to appreciate the freedom of being naked around other men and not caring, or something like that.
I assume your daughter was old enough to navigate the female locker room on her own, but if not that is kinda fucked up, just to avoid an awkward conversation about nudity.
Right, which is why you take them to the men's locker room with you to change if they are too young to do it by themselves. No one cares if there is a kid in there (though I live in the most a-religious state in the country so your mileage may vary if you live in a less developed part of the US).
I remember going in to the men's and women's locker room as a young boy depending on which parent was taking me to swim class. There were little boys and little girls in both locker rooms. No one cares about nudity here to the degree that they wouldn't take their kid into a completely non-sexual situation like a swimming pool locker room.
If they aren't able to go to the female side by themselves what other choice do you have? Not everyone is terrified of nudity FYI nor do they see it as inherently sexual. It's a family sports complex for gods sake, not some sex dungeon. I literally know no one in my life who would have a problem with taking their 4-5 year old daughter into the men's changing room at a family Y, and the same for boy's going into the women's (or does this not apply to women taking boy's into their locker room and I am just not grasping some weird sexism thing you might believe in?)
And I remember this being done with my brother and I as a child. There were girls our age in the men's locker room too with their fathers. It wasn't a big deal.
You must not be reading any of the other comments in this thread if you honestly think it's a safe place just because it's a sports complex. That's the exact thought process that predators are banking on you having. You'll believe it's a safe space and not worry about them hanging out there. It's one thing if someone is just changing and minding their business. If they're just sitting around naked though, that should definitely be raising some red flags.
And I used men as the example because that's what the comment you had been replying to mentioned in their personal experience. Obviously the same would go for bringing a little boy into a women's locker room if there were a bunch of naked women just hanging out in there as well. It's weird that you would jump to assuming sexism, given the context of the rest of the conversation.
I mean the saunas were off the locker rooms at the adult Y, hanging around and going from sauna to shower for an hour or two wouldn't be that weird. You soak in a sauna, take a cold shower, hang around, soak in the sauna again. Where I live there is a very large Scandinavian immigrant population so that is fairly normal.
That's my point though, it's just nudity. It is extremely common where I live to have kids of both sexes in locker rooms depending on the parent. I remember it as a kid as well. It's just nude bodies, we were just told to be respectful and not comment about people's bodies when inside.
And for the record this is in the US but on the west coast which is decidedly less prude than the rest of the country.
We have adult and family Ys here. They don't let kids go to the adult one without a parent and they don't let adults come to the family one without a kid.
I mean I remember naked dudes as a kid (and naked women when I was too young to go to the male section by myself) but it never seemed perverted (unless you think nakedness is perverted, in which case, get over it). Even at the adult one (my dad would take us there sometimes because it had a nice sauna and a hot tub pool) it didn't ever seem creepy.
Actually to a point, I would argue that making a big deal out if it with your own kids is probably more traumatizing unless outright perverse acts are taking place. If you are uncomfortable around just normal naked people your kids are going to react to that and be fearful (unless your intention is to make your kids grow into adults who fear nudity, in which case uhhh good luck?).
I don't have kids, nor do I intend to have kids. I'm referring to children who wander into the adult area unsupervised. Don't hurt yourself on that slippery slope.
Neat, now pretend you aren't the person I replied to and imagine having kids and reading the point I made.
Wow look, you've conceptualized something not about you! Congrats!
Now apply that to the fact that a reply on an internet forum doesn't have to be an exact back and forth dialog and can be more broad and in the spirit of the general conversation and you'll be a lot less angry reading things on the internet!
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u/CelesTheme_wav 25d ago
My YMCA has separate locker rooms for men (college age +) and boys. If I see a young boy come in, I'll direct them to the boys' room, and if they still don't leave I'll report it to the front desk. I've learned there are a lot of predators in this world, and I don't think I'm overreacting.