.. to use the disabled loo when out with DD

[Gster]

I'd bet this has been covered many times, but I'm fairly new.

When I'm out with DD ( 2.5 years ) somewhere like a museum and she needs a pee-pee ( or me ) , I use the disabled loo. I obviously wouldn't venture into the ladies being a bloke, and more often than not the gents are pretty grim.

What do other dads do ?

Or general opinion.

I remember in Holland once seeing unisex toilets. That was pretty novel.

oh yes, and the urinals openly in the street - very to a shrinking violet like me :)

Maybe there should be separate little mini toilets / cubicles for toddlers / children.

Now that I'd like to see.

Then MN would be filled with threads complaining that little Tommy had to wait for the loo because Tarquin's mummy nipped in there and peed at the same time and these toilets are exclusively for children doncha know?

YANBU, I don't see the problem tbh. I use the disabled loo regularly if I have the pushchair with me, as space is so limited in most ladies' toilets. In your position I'd want to take my daughter into anywhere other than the grim men's toilets too.

Like I say Gster, you need to get to john lewis.

The ones near us have big "parent and child" toilets that you can get a pushchair/pram in, and they have two toilets, one normal one and one low one for a child, with matching high and low sinks, and a selection of potties, all of it immaculately clean.

I am also not clear why my daughter is such a princess that I should shield her from the fact that public toilets are, well, public, and therefore sometimes a bit unpleasant?

And, as a man, I could not give a tuppenny fuck about a toddler of either sex seeing me weeing and I suspect I am part of the majority in that respect. And, by the same token, I see no need to hide the fact that I am not the world's only owner of a penis from my daughter.

If you go to the science museum in London in the basement there are children's toilets. Ditto Gambado

The only downside to the men's is they have fewer cubicles. Believe me, the womens aren't a sweet-smelling-fresh-as-a-daisy oasis.

Those of you who wouldn't leave a baby outside need this

I'm quite lucky where I live in that there are parent toilets, though they have only been here for 2 years.

That is fab 5. Can just imagine the look of outrage on my children's faces if I'd attempted to hook them on the back of a door

karmabeliever

Ah but you see these cubicles would fit an adult, so only kids could use them :-)

As for the John Lewis suggestions, yes sounds good, but not if you're in the Natural History Museum or Waterloo station.

"But I can totally understand women not being comfortable with random men coming in the ladies."

Some women are spoilsports

wound = wouldn't ... d'oh !

aggghhhhh !

Would = Wouldn't

Ahh well, that's alright then

Maybe some of the problem stems from the fact that in the majority of places in the UK, the baby changing facilities are in the disabled loos.

Very occasionally, there'll be a table in the ladies but because it is now recognised that men might need to change nappies too, it tends to be the unisex disabled loo that gets the baby changing stuff.

I guess then parents get used to using the Disabled facilities and the lines between 'need to use' and 'can use' get blurred.....?

It would be nice if everywhere could have Ladies, Gents, Disabled and child friendly toilets but not everywhere has the space.

Is it wrong that the picture of the baby hanging in that thing on the wall made me laugh ?

It is wrong, really wrong..

I laughed too. Couldn't help it

Bupcakes, you are a very naughty woman.

As an aside, I remember at a Notting Hill carnival one year, the women had become fed up with the cue for the ladies and a new one formed into the gents cubicles.

So there was a line of women standing directly behind all the men at the urinals. It was almost impossible to wee ( stage fright ) . There was a line of men all trying to focus on what ever was infront of them and mostly failing.

I considered hanging my DD from a peg by her dungarees when she was not yet walking.

I have peed holding on to my DD, wriggling around trying not balance her while undoing my zip and pulling jeans down. It is possible and probably a lot easier than trying to maneuver a wheelchair into a normal toilet.

The loos in one of the large shopping centers in Geneva has Ladies loos with extra large cubicle for taking prams into.

"I considered hanging my DD from a peg by her dungarees when she was not yet walking.

I have peed holding on to my DD, wriggling around trying not balance her while undoing my zip and pulling jeans down. It is possible and probably a lot easier than trying to maneuver a wheelchair into a normal toilet."

I think this is just ridiculous. People get totally hysterical about this issue. Just use the disabled toilet if you need to! It won't kill a disabled person to (potentially!) have to wait for a couple of minutes. As people have said here, not every disabled person has incontincence issues! And a 2.5 yo child may struggle to hold on until a toilet becomes free.

Also as somebody said disabled people may wish to blend in rather than have everybody start to flap around hysterically when a disabled person appears just so they don't have to wait for a minute or whatever.

Marianne
That was a joke. I did not really consider doing that to DD.

the clue is in the title.

if the womens is full do you go to the mens? of course not.

if you are able bodied and use teh disabled toilet unless instructed by the premises manager due to the alternatives being unavailable then you are an ignorant selfish bastard. it is as simple as that

MmeLindor - I always thought it was a very good thing that most dungarees seemed to have a tab on the back - made picking the dses up very easy!

Marianne - as I said earlier, I think people should use the normal loos, if they possibly can, and should leave the disabled ones for the people who need them. The people who need them have no other option but the disabled loo, so I don't think anyone else should be using them unless they have no other reasonable option either.

Life. It ain't simple.