5 year old in the ladies. Is it okay?

It's OK to take a female child into the men's up to about 5/6, with a hand over their eyes if any urinals. From 7/8 they can go into the women's toilet on their own.

I'd rather a 5 year old boy in ladies than 5 year old girl in mens

Seriously I wouldn't worry about it.
MN is almost overly protective of girls but boys are expected just to get on with it.

@Butchyrestingface

Adult males should never be in the woman’s toilets for whatever reason.
If their daughters need the toilet they need to take them to an accessible facility.

I feel a bit guilty now - I’ve only stopped letting my son come into the ladies loos with me when he turned 11….
I know it’s no excuse but he is hopeless in the men’s loos because he will only go in a cubicle and there not many of those. If he can’t find one then he just comes out without going at all.

Eh? You are more ok with adult men in ladies than boys under 10?

There is no logic to this batshittery. When will it stop?

We need way more changing places in the UK so.that this shouldn't be a problem and disabled children and adults are treated with dignity .

10 but its difficult to tell a childs age

I really do not understand why anyone would care about a supervised male child being in the ladies toilet at almost any age. Changing rooms are different but you don’t see anyone unclothed in a ladies toilet. Unsupervised male adults or children over about 8 should not be in the ladies toilets.

I would not be sending a young boy unsupervised into a men’s toilet under any circumstances. Thee is zero risk to women if I supervised that same child in the ladies but a huge risk to that child unsupervised in the men’s.

To be honest there needs to better catering for opposite sex parent/child combinations. I think it’s more difficult for men taking care of female children as definitely not ok to take them into the men’s and adult males shouldn’t be in the women’s either.

I agree with this but OP is talking about toilets. With locked doors. Not changing areas.
I can’t imagine a young looking small 8 year old boy is that safe in the mens. Especially when women wouldn’t feel safe either in there.

But at 9 some girls are entering puberty, and may feel really uncomfortable entering a changing area with boys the same year group as them - year 4. I know my year 4 daughter does. She has a right to feel safe and comfortable too.
As others have said, the reasonable cut off is infants vs juniors - so end of year 2, or 7 years old.

No it’s not!

Disabled means ‘can accommodate’ disabled.
Not
Only for

They aren’t parking spaces needing blue badges
They are for everyone…..legally.
Lets not deny women ( particularly for various reasons ) the use of all facilities there for them

Clue is in the wording.

Obviously a 5 year old can but so can a 9 year old.

8 is still far too young imo.
Unless he’s a very big sturdy strong 8 year old.

No parent should be ashamed of protecting their child.

Not your 5 year old no. But yes when he is 8 and moves from infants to juniors.

@Yellowbluemonday

Its not 100% true

Its 100% untrue

@YosemiteTrail24

Tell me where it states disabled toilets are for disabled people only

Ill answer for you
No where

They aren’t

I design buildings. Accessible toilets are designed to ‘accommodate’ disabled people and nothing more. Women queuing up waiting to use a toilet and leaving the disabled toilet free because disabled people think they have a right to it’s sole use are denying themselves facilities designed for them as well.
Young boys being sent into mens facilities because mum is too worried to use the accessible toilets is being forced to put her child at risk because disabled people wrongly assume accessible toilets are all there’s

They aren’t

That woman was being v unreasonable.

No way would I send my 6 year old DS unaccompanied in to the men’s. He comes with me to the ladies or with DH to the men’s if he’s available, and if in to the ladies he comes in to my cubicle.

Yes.
They often have wheelchair signs on to identify to disabled people that this is the room big enough to accommodate them.
Not just big enough but with grab bars etc etc.

The image on the door doesn’t mean anything more than these are designed to accommodate people who have different access needs.

When we design buildings we do so in accordance with Building regs and standards re number of WCs needed / capacity. The number of Accessible facilities is included within those numbers. If you don’t use the facilities provided then you’re denying provisions there for you…..for everyone.
Women often lose out because they spend longer using facilities, are more likely to have children who need support, are pregnant and can’t fit in cubicles ( I had this carrying twins) and are more likely to have incontinent issues

If there are accessible facilities just use them. They are for everyone. You have kids who need to change @aster10 theres absolutely nothing to feel guilty about and no one has a right to make you feel that way.

Neither of you are disabled though, right? So use the main toilets. In single toilet places you can start sending him on his own so he gets used to it, and build up over a year or two.

5 is fine, I was doing it until 10

Fair enough.