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AIBU?

Loo Story

18 replies

MarianneM · 30/01/2015 17:51

Not the most pressing concern in the world but...

My two DDs go to different schools. I pick up DD1 at 3pm and then rush to DD2's school for 3.20pm pick-up.

When almost at DD2's school this afternoon DD1 says she needs the loo, urgently. I try to reason with her, ask her to go to the loo at her school before she leaves, ask if she can wait until we're home (5 mins from DD2's school), but she says she can't wait, she needs to go now.

No public loos nearby, only a pub and we are already late for DD2's pick-up, so we go to DD2's school, I show DD1 to the children's toilet and go find DD2.

I have a little chat with DD2's teacher while we wait, go check on DD1 every now and then, she is sitting there for a while doing a poo.

When I go check on her again, the headteacher comes away from the loo waving her hand around and making a comment about the smell.

My DD told me afterwards that the headteacher actually knocked on the cubicle door while she was there and asked "who is there?"

While waiting outside with my other DD the school secretary zooms in with a bottle of air freshener and sprays everywhere.

Maybe I'm being ridiculous, but I felt very annoyed and bad for my little girl (6) who only needed to go to the loo. I don't think she was bothered by the teachers but I think they needn't have made such a big deal of it, it could have been embarrassing for her, maybe it was! Nobody wants someone banging on the door asking for your ID while you're trying to go to the loo!

I resent this prissiness around normal human bodily functions and smells, and having to be ashamed of them. I notice some young children are already reluctant to go to the loo at school because of it. Why do we need to be made to be so self-conscious and embarrassed by things that we all must do?

I am annoyed by the teachers' insensitivity and the air-freshener brigade in general.

AIBU?

OP posts:

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hiddenhome · 30/01/2015 17:55

Air fresheners are toxic substances.

HowCanIMissYouIfYouWontGoAway · 30/01/2015 17:56

It's a toilet. wtf do they think happens in there?

silly buggers.

cassie1051 · 30/01/2015 18:00

I think the teachers were being v. U! Maybe they like to pretend that as ladies they don't ever use the 'toilette' and always smell of roses. It really annoys me how ppl pass on their toilet judgements - a friend at work once had a dicky tummy and said she'd rather go home than do a no 2 at work cos she'd 'die of shame' or words to that effect. These people need to grow up!

kitchensinkmum · 30/01/2015 18:05

I suppose the teacher in question thinks her own poo doesn't smell.

Topseyt · 30/01/2015 18:10

I wonder if they make the same song and dance about it when one of their pupils goes for a poo during the school day.

Perhaps they have someone on sentry duty in each set of toilets to wage war on poo smells. Or maybe they like to believe that staff and children at their school don't actually do horrid things like poo at all. That is only for the rest of us mere mortals.

DandyHighwayman · 30/01/2015 18:16

Well tbh I expect the staff were "enough, already" with smelly primary aged children without having another pong added after the end of the school day.

I would pay it no more attention.

Unidentifieditem · 30/01/2015 18:27

If they can't cope with a turd they're in for a shocker of a career with kids...

FreeWee · 30/01/2015 20:23

'Child does poo that smells of poo in school toilet' shocker. What horrible people to belittle a child like this. Lots of people have public pooing anxiety no doubt caused by episodes like this. People poo in toilets and poos smell! The insensitivity is entirely unnecessary.

Whippet81 · 30/01/2015 20:49

That's a horrible thing to do to a six year old - they need to bloody grow up.

She needed the loo - can't think of much better place to let her go than a kids toilet at a school.

cosmicglittergirl · 30/01/2015 20:56

I think that's incredibly rude and uncalled for. I would have been tempted to say something.

JennyBlueWren · 30/01/2015 21:08

Sounds to me like they haven't any proper work to do in running the school if they're hanging around the toilets!

18yearstooold · 30/01/2015 21:14

There's an awful lot of farting going on in classrooms, I'd much prefer they go to the toilet to make smells

Everyone does it, no one's smells of roses, they need to get over themselves

Frozenchipsareawful · 30/01/2015 21:24

My god, goes to show teachers never grow up do they? What an over reaction.

MarianneM · 31/01/2015 09:40

Thanks a lot everyone, you made me laugh!

And I completely agree it's episodes like that which often make people self-conscious!

I might actually say something to them on Monday...

OP posts:

pieceofpurplesky · 31/01/2015 09:54

I going to stick up for the teacher a bit by turning this round. Teacher sees parent in school and there is a strong smell - doesn't want parent to think it is the school so does the waving hand poo smell thing. Teacher at the end of the day goes in to toilet and asks who is in there - totally normal thing to do.
Teacher sends secretary to spray air freshener as toilet smells - maybe visitors in after school? Maybe the cleaner had already been in and cleaned?
It doesn't sound like a crime - just how we would behave in our own homes if someone dropped a stinker ....

pieceofpurplesky · 31/01/2015 09:56

Even at high school at the end of the day we check the toilets and knock to see who it is ...
At primary even more important as a parent may be unaware child is in there ....

Meloria · 31/01/2015 10:22

Remember that thread months ago where the nursery child got locked in the toilet for a couple of hours? Headteacher had probably read that one and the evil bitch decided to check no one was going to be shut in alone. What a cow!

PtolemysNeedle · 31/01/2015 10:51

It's perfectly normal for a teacher to check who is in the toilet if it's been in use for a while and all the other parents and children are going home.

I don't think it's all that unusual to comment on a strong and unpleasant smell, and seeing a member of staff spray an air freshener isn't really them making a big deal of it. It's them trying to get rid of the strong and unpleasant smell so that other children aren't put off using the toilet of they need to.

I don't mind people being self conscious about the smells they create in toilets that aren't in their own homes but are designed to be used by lots of people. I know I don't like using a public toilet that smells strongly of someone else's shit, so why should a child be any different? You said yourself your dd wasn't bothered, so that haven't done anything to embarrass her.

I think you are massively overreacting.

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