[twitter]The showers on the men’s side of change rooms at pools are big open rooms.
This fact shocked my wife. Women’s showers, apparently, are all stalled off. You don’t go into a big room, each person can have a private area to shower. Not so on the men’s side – we let it all hang out.
That means old men showering naked next to kids next to teens. Most of the time, it’s no big deal. It looks a little awkward, but it is what it is.
My son has a shower after his swimming lessons each week, and he usually acts silly and sings and dances while he’s washing his own hair. Sometimes he’ll say “Daddy, that man has a big peeps”, and we’ll have a conversation about what is appropriate to look at and talk about in a room full of naked people. He’s a kid, and these things happen.
Last night, however, I almost lost it.
Zacharie was doing his thing and getting naked in the shower when he started staring at his peeps. (Yes, we call it a peeps) Usually he goes to the bathroom after the pool, this time he went to the shower directly. He was watching the water run off his body, and giving me a knowing look. I knew what was coming – he was going to have a leak in the middle of the public shower.
He started standing askew and pointed his stream at his feet as he faced the middle of the room. His spot in the shower was open to a long hallway to the change room. Two 12ish year old boys sucking back sugary soda started giggling. I stood between them and Z and it didn’t stop.
I turned and glared and marched right down to them. “Stop staring at little boys in the shower,” I growled.
I wasn’t necessarily worried about anything inappropriate, I know these tweens thought a 5 yr old pissing in the shower was funny, but it still rubbed me that these kids were watching my son. When Z makes a shower comment it’s awkward, but he’s a little boy. Tweens know better. They were doing a play-by-play of a naked 5 yr old in the shower for chrissakes!
Zacharie and I had a chat about “being discreet” on the way home. I reminded him that the potty is just a few steps away from the shower, and he should go if he needs to. If he absolutely must pee in the shower, he needs to be like a super spy and face the wall.
How do you deal with public showers with your kids?
I’d be annoyed at the boys as well. On another note, I read that children that use proper terminology are less of a target for predators. Saying someone touched my peeps might not alert another adult to a problem. Someone touched my penis has a much stronger affect. I know your boys are young but my kids are too and it’s all about penises and vaginas.
I wrote about that topic for Babble today.
http://www.babble.com/kid/my-son-and-his-peeps/
My sons are quite aware of the real names, we just use peeps in conversation.
That’s good. (You’re hard to keep up with between Babble and Dadcamp.) Right on the money most of the time!
My children of 13and 9 were showering after a swim session and a man showering close by was in a state of arousal, the eldest boy immediately left with his younger brother and got dressed, exiting the changing rooms still wet. I was glad he has the sense to put as much distance between this guy but in our society now with offenders in common places I think stalled showering and changing rooms should be standard. The leisure centre which is government owned will not let my son identify the guy due to data protection of CCTV . What rights have young children got . Please comment