I don't know if I'm reading too much into this

I'm doing a sponsored swim (shameless plug: www.justgiving.com/MiniChannelSwim) so I've been spending a lot of time at the pool recently. You get to see an odd cross section of people when you spend a lot of time in one place - from the old women who are trying to stay mobile to the semi-professional swimmer who has their own swimming hat and nose clip to the cocky but attractive lifeguard and not forgetting the fat guy who is actually fitter than I am. It's almost a fascinating study of human behaviour if I wasn't too busy concentrating on breathing properly so as not to drown.

As much as I find myself fascinated and interested at the kinds of people I see, I also sometimes get a shock. It usually comes when I see someone I know but don't like or a type of person you wouldn't expect to be doing serious exercise.

But today I got more than a shock. I was so horrified by what I heard I had to start blogging again just to tell you.

The local schools take the children swimming once or twice a week and they put all of the girls in one big changing room and all of the boys in another with one member of staff each. The children all run in and unlock the door while the teacher signs them in. It's how we did it when we were young and obviously it still exists because I've seen it three times in the last two weeks.

But today, as a bunch of primary school girls (no older than 11 but only looked about 8) run in to go and get changed, I hear "No way, Katie is the skinniest girl in the class" followed up a few minutes later by "I'm only joking Katie, you're not really".

I was horrified by this! I guess I felt like the girl was indirectly calling Katie fat. In my eyes this is almost like bullying. I wish I'd been able to catch their teacher to tell her what I'd heard, but even if I had I'm not sure if she'd have laughed at me or not.

I don't know if I'm reading too much into it from my perspective I heard a girl who is no older than 11 indirectly telling another girl who is also no older than 11 that she at least is fatter than someone else in the class.

I didn't think that girls cared about their figures the figures of other girls before at least 13, but I don't know, that's just my personal experience. Maybe because I was always thin but was an early developer when it came to breasts so I had what you would imagine to be a good figure at the ripe old age of 11, but when I was in primary school we were all busy laughing at boys and seeing how naughty we could be and still get away with it. Bullies would pick on what colour hair you had or if you were smart; not your figure.

Am I reading too far into this? Or have primary school girls really changed so much in the 7 years since I was one?