Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Flip

1 2 3 4 5 6

Original poster

Little boys weeing in public...

126 replies

MrsFruitcake · 18/04/2011 14:45

Am I being U? Something someone said on another thread got me thinking about this.

At Kew Gardens on Friday, a little boy, probably about 4 or 5 had taken his pants down and was weeing into a bush in full view of his mother and her friends all sitting very nicely on a picnic blanket. We had to walk past on the path and he was about 2ft away from us.

Maybe I'm a bit old-fashioned, but if your child needs to pee, you get up and find a loo, don't you? Not continue chatting with scant interest in what your beloved children are up to...BTW - the loos were very close, I know, because DS aged 3 saw the little boy, wanted to have an alfresco wee too and was told no, we'd find the lavs.

OP posts:

BelleDameSansMerci · 18/04/2011 15:03

Don't see why, in a place full of bushes/shrubs etc, it needs to be in full view.

Also, if my DD (3.7) urgently needed a wee, we'd definitely go al fresco (as would I!!) but it would be done discreetly.

tyler80 · 18/04/2011 15:04

I had two al fresco wees myself at the weekend

Seeing little kids doing the same in outdoorsy places doesn't bother me at all

Original poster

MrsFruitcake · 18/04/2011 15:04

Not when you're potty training, Shatners.

OP posts:

RogerMelly · 18/04/2011 15:06

we wee wherever we like in the country, girl/boy, male/female

RitaLynn · 18/04/2011 15:09

I think it's disgraceful - but I know it sometimes happens - bad form though

Ephiny · 18/04/2011 15:09

I wouldn't mind in 'outdoorsy' places - after all adults sometimes have to do the same o country walks etc, though we'd usually go behind a bush or something! Don't like to see it just in the street, or against the wall of my house, or next to the supermarket door, which are common sights in the delightful place I live in.

As for dogs, mine is actually quite picky about where he goes, and won't do it on the pavement for example, only on grass or earth or similar :)

HowDoYouSolveAProblemLikeMaria · 18/04/2011 15:11

I've had some great al fresco wees in my time, in some interesting places. Never at Kew though.

schroeder · 18/04/2011 15:11

YANBU little boys in my experience just love peeing outside, so if you let them do it they get a 'taste' for it. They end up thinking it's ok and even fun.

When my ds was potty training; a couple of his friends used to stop and wee on a particular tree on the way home from toddler group every week! like they were marking their territory.

Children are better than dogs surely?

amberlight · 18/04/2011 15:15

At least it's toddlers. Yesterday we were treated to bloomin' great big adult rugby players nipping off the pitch to have a wizz in the bushes

LyingWitchInTheWardrobe2726 · 18/04/2011 15:15

YANBU OP. I understand that little kids might need to relieve themselves urgently BUT... the parent should find a place that isn't populated with people, certainly nowhere near a footpath or where other people are. That really is disgusting an inexcusable.

I do think that people are generally getting dirtier somehow, some people think it's ok to do whatever they want regardless of other people around them. It isn't ok. Urine stinks and you certainly don't want people peeing wherever they feel like it.

I don't recall it as a regular occurrence when we were little (four kids), we went to the loo before going out and didn't seem to eat/drink non-stop whilst we were out either. Have kidney/bladder functions reggressed or something?

mrsravelstein · 18/04/2011 15:22

ds1 is 9 and he had to have an alfresco wee the other day, though he did nip into some bushes. ds2 is 3 and wees about 30 times a day, so they are very frequently outdoors.

Rosa · 18/04/2011 15:22

All of you YANBUs whatever you do don't come to Venice you will be horrified...we let our little ones wee in the streets ..Usually down side streets and over the drain holes but public toilets are very few and far between..Brave Dads hold dc over canals ..I don't as I have a fear of tipping over ! Ok this is toilet training age up to when they are desperate. Bar toilets are generally horrible so I prefer the fresh air.and guess what nobody even blinks an eye !

SilveryMoon · 18/04/2011 15:23

My ds1 who is 3 went through a phase of wanting to pee every 15/20 minutes. Got to be a PITA to get up with him every single time, so I'd have let him do it in a bush, no problem.

TurtlesAreRetroRight · 18/04/2011 15:24

I hardly think parenting style decides whether or not a child needs a wee a long way from a toilet. Unless there's some research from Shitsville University I'm unaware of?

LyingWitchInTheWardrobe2726 · 18/04/2011 15:27

Rosa... Venice has a reputation for being smelly. I don't know if that's true, I've never been there, but I wouldn't want to be in a gondola with my DH, trailing a languid hand in the canal... and seeing stinky little boys peeing into it. I'm fussy like that.

Pancakeflipper · 18/04/2011 15:28

My 6 yr old has a very weak bladder. We walked from the park today. It's a 40 min walk ( we spent the bus fare on bouncey castles and icecream). He had 3 wees. We find hidden bushy spots or a drain on a quiet road.

Rather that than wet pants or never going out.

tyler80 · 18/04/2011 15:28

I can guarantee they put far smellier stuff on the gardens at kew than a little bit of wee.

Drinking lots and going regularly mean wee isn't particularly smelly anyway

rathlin · 18/04/2011 15:28

YABU, he's only 3! I was also in Kew Gdns on Friday (along with most of London I think) and was very of all those superorganised people with their picnic blankets on the grass by the play area! I have a 2 yr DS but he's still in nappies so swear it wasn't me

FollowMe · 18/04/2011 15:29

Its fine!
Thats still pretty young. My DS is nearly 6 and he often says he needs a wee and then has to go immediately

LyingWitchInTheWardrobe2726 · 18/04/2011 15:31

tyler80... But if everybody does it, that's not a little bit of wee, is it? I'm really surprised that some people don't mind it, women as well... I really think it's awful and it does stink.

tyler80 · 18/04/2011 15:37

I'm pretty sure there's also more than one bush at Kew.

And if my wee was stinky enough to offend I'd be going to the doctors or trying to remember when I'd eaten the asparagus!

RevoltingPeasant · 18/04/2011 15:45

schroeder you are right, they do get a taste for it. DP also does this and he is 32!!

Mind you so do I

WhereonearthamI · 18/04/2011 16:05

Little boys peeing into the bushes is one thing. Into the side of the swimming pool when you're IN the water only about a yard away from them.....YUK. And they were with an adult at the time who was encouraging them to go there.

Not nice.

HecateQueenOfTheNight · 18/04/2011 16:08

If you can find a toilet then you should, if you can't, then needs must. Better to wee quickly into a bush than to wet yourself. Children can't hold it as long as adults. So if they have to, they have to.

That said, I do think that if you can get to a loo, you really should do.

cybboid · 18/04/2011 16:09

I agree with Shatners, dogs crap and piss and infinitum so a small child peeing in the scrub is fine by me

Flip

1 2 3 4 5 6