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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To insist my 5 yr old ds uses toilets in Halfords, when they say 'NO' due to insurance reasons?

193 replies

DrNortherner · 24/04/2007 14:41

In Halfords last night at 5.30pm. Dh was spending £400 on a new bike. Ds needs loo.

Spotty teenage staff say no, not insured blah blah blah.

I say OK, lets go outside. Ds says no I need a poo.

Staff say use pub next door. Ds getting more and more desperate. Poo is coming.

I say 'Let him use your toilet now or dh will not buy bike' (dh looks aghast)

I demand manager.

We get escorted to toilet, but only a one off.

What do you think?

OP posts:
Smurfgirl · 24/04/2007 17:02

My dp works in a store like halfords too - in a retail park type place.

He cannot always tell childrens ages too - he usually only lets toddlers in to stop 8/9 yr olds who could hold it using the toilets, the shopboy may not have been familiar with how 5 yr old boys bladders work.

Smurfgirl · 24/04/2007 17:00

My DP works in retail and the policy is not to let anyone use the staff toilets. He is very nice and will let small children, older people and pregnant ladies go for a wee but only when his manager is not around because he is not supposed to.

He is not a mean person, he always tells people where the nearest toilet is but ultimately this is his job and whilst I am sure some people he refuses may think he is a spotty ignorant teenager he is just doing his job. Like everyone he has company policy to follow.

anniebear · 24/04/2007 16:55

ELC didnt let us use their toilet once

I suppose at the end of the day if they let one, they have to let them all

Original poster
DrNortherner · 24/04/2007 16:55

My 5 year old could not wait. Halfords is off the beaten track, no public loos nearby and no other shops, only a pub.

Dh was choosing a bike costing hundreds of pounds, he was talking about suspension, saddles, safety, bad weather maintenance and insurance plans, not buying a quick loaf of bread.

If I was in the town centre with other options I wouldn't mind so much. I had no other option and my ds could not have waited.

OP posts:
Twinkie1 · 24/04/2007 16:54

M&S always let you in stors without loos - they have to escort you but that has never been a problem for me - more for DD who gets terrible stage fright if someone even knows that she is going!!

MuminBrum · 24/04/2007 16:50

I too love Mr Arse and am starting a fan club for him.

FioFio · 24/04/2007 16:40

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WendyWeber · 24/04/2007 16:36

I'm still sniggering over naily's mr arse who seems to have been sadly overlooked in the flurry over knives and guns in woolies

Blu · 24/04/2007 16:36

x-posted.
But I will always think of your adventure in my own way

Blu · 24/04/2007 16:35

Oh, sorry - I think i mis-read your post, batters. I thought you had got onto a train which wasn't on your route (or that you weren't intending to catch a train at all) to use the toilet on the train, the train had gone off and you had had to get off at the next station and come back.....

batters · 24/04/2007 16:35

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FioFio · 24/04/2007 16:34

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FioFio · 24/04/2007 16:34

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FioFio · 24/04/2007 16:33

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AttilaTheMeerkat · 24/04/2007 16:33

Fio

You mean that this person got let off?. Oh great.

Blu · 24/04/2007 16:33

LOL at Batters getting on to a train to Carshalton just to use the toilet. genius! Lucky it wasn't non-stop to Edinburgh!

Of course I symapthise with NorthernerJnrs dilemma - but the other problem with shops like Halfords is that they are very hierarchical etc and the assistant could probably have been sacked for leading customers through security coded doors etc - even if they were 5 years old.

AttilaTheMeerkat · 24/04/2007 16:33

I worked in a building society (for my sins) and the biggest risk we had there was getting robbed at gunpoint (and yes that happened to me).

This was a branch in the City of London so we did not see many children as a rule. I would say that if a child needed to use the toilet they would have been allowed to (the toilet was nowhere near the secure areas).

MuminBrum · 24/04/2007 16:32

Is it true that there is a law requiring a British bobby to make his hat available to a pregnant woman who needs to pee, or am I imagining things?

FioFio · 24/04/2007 16:31

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AttilaTheMeerkat · 24/04/2007 16:30

The incidents you both mention whilst shocking at the very least (and I hope the perpatrators in both instances were both arrested and subsequently charged) do involve adults, not children.

A lack of public conveniences in high streets (I only know of one actual public convenience run by the council in this immediate area of Essex where I reside) and I'm not just talking about those tinny portaloos is a real problem. This is also particularly noticeable after the Friday/Saturday night drunken rampages when some streets themselves are used as public conveniences.

We as a nation need more public toilets!!!.

FioFio · 24/04/2007 16:29

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batters · 24/04/2007 16:28

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catsmother · 24/04/2007 16:28

I understand and sympathise with shop staff who are rightly worried about being assaulted if they help someone out ..... but this thread is about very young children who need the toilet. Unless an adult is pregnant, or carrying a card re: a medical condition, I don't think anyone would mind if they had to hang on for a public loo elsewhere .... but toddlers don't have that level of understanding, nor do they always have that level of control.

Original poster
DrNortherner · 24/04/2007 16:27

I get your point ladies, but a mum with a 5 yr old boy in tow and a dh buying a bike do not pose a thraet.

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FioFio · 24/04/2007 16:18

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