A gym dilemma... Locker room etiquette in a mixed locker room....

[politicat]

I use the community rec center because it is the closest and has the best hours for my physical therapy.

I realize this is a community center, meaning that all ages are welcome and all members of the community are able to use it. I knew that going in. (For the record, I'm not a "kid hater" but I am very uncomfortable with children to whom I am not genetically linked. I'm somewhat the same with adults.) I realize that small children do not necessarily know exactly how to behave and that many, many parents do not have the foresight or the ability to discipline their children so that the children are polite about staring.

I have some pretty severe scarring at the moment (being 6 weeks post-op ACL reconstruction and several other surgeries of similar type). I'm not precisely ashamed of my body, but I am shy, I am reserved and I don't believe that anyone else has a right to visual access to my body without my express consent.

The problem is that parents are allowed to bring their under six year old children into the locker room with them, regardless of the child's gender. I am not comfortable changing in front of someone else's 5 year old son, especially when said boys tend to stare. (Four kids so far, and not a mom in the bunch has taken the moment away from her own swim-suit changing or hair drying to discipline her son on it.)

I've tried different times of day, but the SAH moms are there at all times of day, with their little boys. It really creeps me out and makes me feel like crying that I can't be ignored and treated with the same respect that I give them. Alternately, I really don't want to put myself in a position of being told off that the child has more of a right to what the child is doing than I have to my privacy - and knowing the local culture of parenting, it's quite likely that such a response is exactly what I will get.

Any suggestions? Is it considered bad gym etiquette to take over one of the curtained changing stalls for the time it takes me to change, hose-off and redress? (About 15 minutes, at the moment.) Or should I shorten my workout (I really don't want to do this, because I need both the aerobic and strength training for physical therapy) so I have time to drive home and do the necessaries before I have to be elsewhere? Or should I just give up entirely and buy a weight system for home? (I already have a recumbent bike and a treadmill and small dumbells and yoga mats.)

Thanks in advance.