So Jeffrey’s school is going on field trip to day to a local swim center- and each Tuesday for the next six weeks- to spend time learning to swim.
Aside from the fact he does NOT know how to swim and sending him with strangers makes me nervous, after talking to the school staff I did sign his permission slip and packed him off with a towel and some swim trunks today.
Then about an hour ago, I got a call from another first-grade mom, whose son is in another classroom- they went yesterday. Evidently, her son came home with some interesting stories about naked grown up men in the locker room, and even about someone (adult) shaving themselves in the shower. WHAT?!
So now I’m panicking, and thinking I had better get down there and supervise him myself, and wondering if this is even a good idea. In this day and age of predators and creepy freaks who like little boys, is sending a group of 6 and 7 year-olds into a locker room such a hot idea??
I can’t go in the men’s locker room, obviously, but I don’t really want my little boy alone in a locker room with grown men, either. Am I over-reacting? I have a tendency to do that…
What do you think? And more importantly, what would you DO?
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November 6, 2007 at 1:50 pm
Angela
I think they definitely need to be supervised. A lifeguard or something should be in the locker room. You can’t have that many little boys unattended around water, locker doors, and toilets anyway–let alone naked men!!
November 6, 2007 at 1:59 pm
glittersmama
There needs to be someone from his class/school that is in the locker room supervising the children from his class. Either parents need to take turns or the school needs to provide a chaperone.
November 6, 2007 at 2:06 pm
mhuff
Yikes! I’d talk to the teacher in charge, express detailed concerns, see what kind of locker room supervision they have in place, and then immediately offer myself as more.
I sure don’t relish the day when I actually have to do those things, though. The tantrums of a two-year-old certainly aren’t fun, but those bigger-kid concerns are SCARY (and this is only first grade!).
November 6, 2007 at 2:08 pm
Jessica @ A Bushel and a Peck
Yeah, I think I would need to either be there, or be 100% sure the kids are not unsupervised at all in the locker rooms. It stinks that things can’t just be easy, but I would not be comfortable with the situation either.
November 6, 2007 at 2:14 pm
Ann
SCARY! I don’t think you’re over reacting at all. I would definently volunteer to help out to keep any bad guys away from the kiddos.
November 6, 2007 at 2:32 pm
Monique
Maybe you should bring it to the attention of the swim centre as well. In England one swim centre had two large rooms, separate from the locker room, side by side in which classes could change, one for boys and one for girls. As the teacher (granted I went with 12 year olds) I could stand outside and just wait for them to finish changing but parents could help out with smaller ones.
November 6, 2007 at 4:04 pm
bek
Yikes…. I would do what the above people say. YOu can’t be the only one with this concern.
My7year old came home from school today asking if she could see the naked pictures of that HS Musical girl and told me all about it. Yikes.
November 6, 2007 at 4:19 pm
tracy m
I did go and meet the bus. Turns out there were four other parents with the same concern, one of whom was the dad of a boy in the class- he offered to be a chaparaone, and thus the boys being alone in a locker room was not quite as scary.
Good greif. How are we supposed to survive this stuff?
November 6, 2007 at 4:49 pm
Melissa
I’m glad there was a dad that could chaparone… that’s a little scary that they didn’t moniter the other class as well… Hopefully someone will be able to be there every time they go…
November 6, 2007 at 5:23 pm
mo mommy
Yeah, you’d think that in the overly cautious world of rampant litigation we live in there would have been something in place to prevent something like that.
I mean, yes, they’re all male, and it is a locker room, but still. Just because I’ve seen my husbands penis doesn’t mean I want to see everybody’s!! I don’t think one of my kids needs to either. Let’s wait till high school to worry about the locker room issue!!
November 6, 2007 at 7:08 pm
hairyshoefairy
I’d do what everyone else wrote. It seems strange to me that they’d take 6 and 7 year olds to a place where they didn’t have total control over the environment - like reserving the pool and locker room so no one else would be there to possibly pose a threat. Maybe that’s wasn’t a possibility. I don’t know. I’d be really anxious about it, too, though.
November 6, 2007 at 8:43 pm
2xaday
When I did after-school care for the Y, we would go to pools all the time in the summer program. We had to each have four kids that were our responsibility to keep an eye on in the pool and it was stressed to us to go with them to the restrooms and to the locker room changing area. There was not to be a child in there without an adult supervisor. There were always a lot of women who were comfortable with being undressed and showering etc…, so I would take the girls into the handicapped bathroom stall to get dressed. It seemed like a good idea to me at the time and I did have a parent request me once just because of that. No offense to those who want to change in locker rooms, it just usually makes curious little eyes wander and question. If they aren’t providing that kind of supervision in the locker rooms, it makes me question where the supervision begins/ends!
November 6, 2007 at 9:25 pm
MommyJ
Totally not an overreaction… I would be just as concerned. I’m glad you found out there is supervision. There should be… at all times! I always get so worked up over things like this… you just want your kids to be safe all the time!!
November 6, 2007 at 9:43 pm
anordinarymom
This is very odd. Hello, what are they thinking?!?
November 7, 2007 at 5:27 pm
Heather O.
Lots of swim places have a policy that a boy can’t be in a women’s locker room if he is above the age of 7. You could go for a little while, and have him change with you in the women’s locker room, but even that is out after he’s 7. I’m surprised they don’t have a “family” changing room–one big room that locks, but doesn’t have lockers, etc, so you have to take your stuff with you.
But we are facing the same thing as J starts to get older, and is still swimming. We have had to be creative–changing in bathroom stalls so everybody feels more comfortable, and I wouldn’t even be above having him change behind a towel at poolside. Still, I don’t know how to handle the whole “go the bathroom” by yourself thing. At places like the airport, I still drag him into the ladies room with me, which he hates. Eventually I’ll have to let him pee on his own–when will that be, exactly? When he’s 8? 12? 34?
In the world where Larry Craig has “a wide stance”, the bathroom is a scary place for our boys indeed.