Woman Kicks Out Dad With A Daughter From Women’s Changing Room, Asks If She Was Right

As parents, people often have to navigate all sorts of tricky situations. What to do when the babysitter cancels at the last minute? How to handle work when your child is sick? What changing rooms to use when your little one is of the opposite sex?

The last situation was the pickle the dad in this story found himself in. A woman on Mumsnet recently told the community about how she noticed the father with his daughter at the pool and then saw them going towards the woman’s changing room, and the OP told them not to enter. Even though she was backed up by people at the pool, some believed that the woman was in the wrong to do so, which made her wonder if she was being unreasonable.

Image source: Anotsolittlemermaid

For better or worse, life with children is never dull; nor is it easy. Even something as seemingly mundane as a walk in the park might be no walk in the park, especially if the little one is in a mood.

That goes for going elsewhere, too, including the pool or other establishments that might require changing garments. While seeing a mom with a toddler boy in a woman’s changing room, for example, might not be surprising to people around them, the same situation would arguably be viewed very differently if she brought with her a teenager. So what should parents do if their child is not old enough to go on their own, but old enough to make some people uncomfortable?

Ideally, they should choose the family changing room option. However, that is not something that every pool has to offer. In many places, though, there are rules and regulations regarding the age of children allowed in certain changing rooms; in the OP’s case, for example, the pool seemingly didn’t allow kids over the age of eight to enter the changing rooms of the opposite sex.

In some establishments, the age limit can be as high as 12 years, as it was (as of 2017, at least) in the City of London. According to CBC, there was an attempt to change the said age limit to four, meaning that little ones over the age of three would have to go change on their own if they were there with a parent of the opposite sex. However, it didn’t take long for moms and dads to express their discontent, so the City of London Parks and Recreation Department reportedly stuck to the bylaw that noted that children 12 and younger can go into an opposite-sex changing room if accompanied by a parent, guardian, caregiver, or caretaker.

Clearly, there is no ‘one age fits all’ solution when it comes to such situations. Unsurprisingly, there is no one unanimous opinion regarding them, either, which is why some netizens sided with the OP, while others suggested she was indeed being unreasonable.