5 year old in the ladies. Is it okay?

At that point in time I presume his most pressing need was to empty his bladder, and his mum was hoping to avoid him soiling himself. As I mentioned, the disabled facility was occupied, I doubt his mum would have used the ladies toilets if another option was available. Let’s not extrapolate too much from the scenario, the mum was making the best choice she could in the moment.

You could take the swim top off before the child goes to change. Washing hair “properly” and moisturising “properly” are things you can do at home .

You may need to google when puberty begins! There were girls in my daughter’s year who started their periods at 8, and an 8 year old these days is definitely curious about bodies and how babies are made and school education reflects this . My daughters friend was sexually assaulted by a boy in her year at school when she was 7 so people are sometimes misinformed about the importance of protecting primary age kids privacy .

Girls often start puberty from 9-10 they are allowed their privacy and dignity.

You are correct

I would ignore her. She sounds like an idiot.

No it is 8, not 11.
The 10yo girl who is starting puberty shouldn’t not have to be exposed to a boy this age when getting changed or handling period protection.

Most women are ok with boys 8-11 (late primary basically) but this is not fair on the young girls. If the boy or his parents are not comfortable with him using the men space alone they can find another solution but NOT allow him in the women space.

I can't believe anyone has an issue with a 5 year old boy though.

The woman's mental! My son came in with me (not in the same cubicle) until he was 11 then when he went into the men's in restaurants etc I stood outside & made it clear I was waiting e.g when he went in I would say quite loudly 'I'm just here by the door'. I did this until he was about 14! I don't give a dam if people think that made me look deranged!

Not all pools have family changing rooms, ours doesn’t and they’re at opposing sides of the pool so are nowhere near each other. Whats more, the men’s area didn’t have any cubicles at that time.

I can’t tell you how uneasy I felt sending my small 8 year old son off to a closed room with naked men in it, while I dealt with his sister in the women’s changing rooms. Awful,

Doesn’t everybody know the cutoff is usually 8?

Why so many threads on this topic recently? Is it spamming by trans groups to try to make it seem like women are crazy about the changing room / loos? IRL, nobody has an issue with a 5yo
with his mum in the women’s loo.

Oh I see. The cut off point is 7 at mine but there is a family room.

If they're accessing women's changing areas I don't want boys that age in there. I think 11 is too old for the ladies toilets too.

No way, 5 is too young

There isn't one at that pool.

No issue with boys under 11ish I’d say.

I was recently at a motor way services where the queue for the women’s toilet had got totally out of hand (as they do) and the men’s was, of course, no queue. So all the women were sending all the kids in with their dads! I’m talking all kids 10 ish and bellow, in the men’s. Nobody cared and cut the queue in half for the women’s

Lots of nutty people about. She's one of them. Ignore.

I have a 5 year old son who is massive so looks around 8/9. He is non verbal, severe learning disabilities, autistic.

No one has ever batted an eye at me taking him into the ladies. If there are family toilets of disabled loos I often use them as he does have a blue badge but equally I don’t feel wrong to use the ladies either. Personally I think as long as kids are obviously ‘kids’ so right up to about 10/11 it’s fine. Surely it’s when they reach puberty that the whole ‘gender separation’ thing kicks in anyway?

It seems OTT to expect a fiver year old to go to the men's alone. So yeah that woman was wrong. I guess the response would be 'he's only five and he needs me to help him'.
Maybe she doesn't have kids? Or was just being a bit weird.

If they need prompting use the family room.

Personally I do find swimming pool ages anachronistic. I mean, it is a bit mad to expect just turned 7 to wash and dry themselves effectively, as well as necessarily being alone and naked... but to think they shouldn't be going into a public toilet alone for a quick wee, a task that they do multiple times a day on their own anyway. I know I'm sensitive because it's my child's age, but DS barely rinses half the soap out of his hair, he needs prompting, but he won't be ready to fly solo until 8 at this rate... and after swim lessons I see all the girls his age being helped too!

It isn't fine if he's accessing the women's changing area on his way to the cubicle. He needs to be in the disabled or family facility.

My kids have gone in the mens on their own since they turned 8.

You can't access the female toilets in my leisure centre without being in the female changing room. I'm not too bothered personally about strict age limits for the toilets themselves but the changing rooms where women and girls are undressed are not places I want boys over 7 to have access to.