AIBU to think child might struggle to poop in a hole in the woods?

This was expected when my brother was a Beaver/Cub/Scout. He'd go on weekend camps and not crap once, then be doubled up on the toilet when he got home.

Some people are ok, some people just can't.

My kids would manage this but we've camped and hiked in remote places.

You cant just "poo before you go". Its not like you can force one out before you are ready, the body doesnt work like that. Most people have a predictable cycle, given a healthy diet with plenty of fibre and fluid, they will defecate in the morning or after meals due to gastrocolic reflex.

You can wipe with loo roll & simply bury it with the stool. Most people pee when they poo & the liquid helps the loo roll break down or you can pour some water over. Or you can bag it and move on.

Do people realise all animals poo & pee outdoors, all the time?

My child wouldn't of done that at 3,5,6 or even now at 15,with his own spade.
It does remind me of an episode, when he was little, where he had to wee in a bush. I watched from a distance and saw him tear off a leaf to dry his bits. I nearly wet my self laughing. Good job there were no nettles.

This 🤮

oh wild wees are easy. I can still do that even with a bad back and a duff knee.

We had those toilets!
I’d forgotten about those little school purses, they came with the pinafores. I used to keep all sorts in mine!

I can’t just go because it’s a convenient time!

I remember those toilets!!! My mother used to give me soft toilet paper to take to school. It was neatly folded in strips of three squares and tucked in a plastic bag. It was a thing then (50's) for girls to have a bag on a cross body strap fastened with a zip or a popper and known as a "purse" to carry bits and pieces for primary school....a handkerchief, sweets, dinner money, money to spend in the sweetshop and so on.

What? 😲 You can't squat and wee like women everywhere in the whole world have done for millennia?

I think mine would if it was us out for the day, but with a teacher absolutely no way!

I just know that as a 5 year old pooing in the woods would have been my worst nightmare!

Even the actual school toilets were grim in my primary school the 80s as many were in blocks outdoors, complete with top flush chains, spiders & the infamous Izal ‘tracing paper’ loo roll (so which absolute numpty back in the day invented a type of toilet paper that doesn’t even do the job properly??).

My two have attended 3 forest school settings and all had a contingency for poos. Wees were done at a designated tree but poos required a trip to a toilet tent or composting loo. I don't think it's right for a setting to ask kids to poo in a hole. Settings should be all about developing independence and I think it's likely that usually independent toileters would need a lot of help with this - especially, as pp said, in the many layers of winter gear they will soon be in!

Edit to ask - are the staff expected to do this also or are they provided with better facilities??

because when you know better, you do better....

We had an allotment and my 3 DC favourite activity was pooing in a hole.
(Arguably not an exciting childhood!)

I am assuming you aren't 4 year old though.

How on earth did people manage in history, why are we all so precious now

They would just get on with it like every other child that has done in previous years there i suppose

That’s a WTF childcare solution 😂 I voted YANBU because my 8 year old daughter would freak out. My 4 year old boy would love it but ew no.

I couldn’t put my children in a childcare situation where they wouldn’t have safe appropriate and hygienic toilet facilities.
Privacy when toileting and soap and water for cleaning hands afterwards are non-negotiable.

Additionally, how are the adults ensuring they’re not disturbing a recent used hole? How fast can they dig if someone has a sudden need? How many adults do they have to maintain safe ratios, if one, two or more children need to toilet simultaneously because those children need privacy from each other and cannot be left with a solo adult.

🤣🤣🤣

Yup. too old and broken to hike now but I have done it at need for the same reason. I am kind of puzzled though because I am a city child, forest school wasn't a thing when I was a child and nobody ever taught me to do it that I can recall. I mean in toddlerhood a parent might have held me over a hole at need on a beach holiday but not in a sense of teaching how to do it.
Honestly it sounds to me like one of those 'what to do in a forest school" brainstorming sessions...and maybe ok in summer in easy to pull down and keep out of the way clothes but less do-able and more risky in winter in coats, wellies and waterproof trousers?

We had to do this on an outing during Covid! Classic timing from DS who was 8 at the time no toilets open so there I was digging holes and burying poo in the most remote part I could find in the gardens of a local attraction!!

Mine would be horrified but then I'd never send mine to a childcare in the woods

Unlike you and my other llama @Llamallamafruitpyjama friend, it's not that simple to just not poo when out for many people.

With my IBS I would have to fast from the previous day and take a shitload (pardon the pun) of immodium and reduce water intake to avoid pooing on a hike and even then it wouldn't be guaranteed.

@wldpwr Regarding this as a routine plan for a group of children I don't think it's a good one. Especially not the leaving poo everywhere. Or the safeguarding aspect of either others seeing them poo, or having to go far enough away to poo with privacy that they are quite a way from the rest of the group. No idea what the clean up arrangements would be but I can't imagine they would be satisfactory for anything but an emergency, not a regular arrangement.

Sanitiser also doesn’t kill norovirus, so isn’t a great solution in these circumstances.

Surely they wont all need to take a dump on a day out!!