Would you be offended by a father accompanying his small daughters into the ladies toilet?

[NickECave]

I have two dds aged 4 and 2. My dh often takes them out and about in town on his own and inevitably needs to take them into public toilets. The thing is that male public toilets are often extremely dirty and unsanitary and I'd much rather he took them into the ladies. My question is would you be offended by a man coming into the ladies toilet when he is obviously accompanying a small girl? I don't personally know anyone who would have a problem with this but would be interesting to see if lots of people disagree with me.

wait for that person to leave? i dont know i would probably be a bit bolshy and say that my small child was desperate and go in? or else ask someone if they could escort the child to the toilet? depending on the child, some would be happy with that others not.

i wouldnt tell anyone to get a grip, i would just wait for them to come out or i would take the child in and i would apologise profusely but better that than letting a child piss themselves.

I can. My Nan for example would be very much against it. She wouldn't say to use the street though. She would politely suggest the gents

but yes as farsideoffuckingballoons said i would be suprised if someone said no tbh.

I wonder how many men actually would take their dd into the ladies.....
perhaps none.

and if the gents was busy and there were no cubicles busy then i would politely tell her that and explain that my small child couldnt wait :)

this is rhetorical tho as i am not a man!! but i have had to take my small boys into the gents when the wait for the ladies was too long and i knocked and asked and no one had an issue, had they have done i would have done as i have just said. ^^

Finding a man in the ladies is about as rare as finding someone in the disabled loos IME.

See I think you get blinkered by your child's needs sometimes and forget the needs and preferences of others. I do think that the older generation would be horrified.

yon close to 1000 posts of debate on the issue later it is clear there is a huge difference of opinion. its sad to see such an innocent thing as taking a little girl for a wee being so controversial.

and we don't all have time to read all posts on such a lengthy thread. i have better things to do with my time. the last few pages however were enough to give a flavour no doubt

i have no ideas 2shoes i vaguely remember my dad doing so with me and my sister but we lived abroad and there was not so much of an issue regarding single sex toilets.

and my dd is too little for this yet, but i shall ask dp what he would do, i expect he would take her to the gents except for extremem circumstances and then he would knock and ask at the ladies rather than have her wet herself. but hey my dp is fully crb checked and works with vulnerable young children so does that make him ok to go in the ladies?

So what's the alternative??

Tbh I've never seen a man in the ladies, I don't think it would be a regular thing as dads might not want to go in to the ladies, but I don't think it's the most shocking idea ever.

Glitter you must have missed the really important point made on page 15.

maybe but my own grandma and my mil (who is in her 70's) would be fine with it, it all depends on the person so in order to not offend someone would people rather a child wet themselves?!

i am saying a man should take his dd to the MENS toilets when at all possible but if there were no cubicles free and his small dd was BUSTING ie newly potty trained etc, would it not be ok for her dad to knock on the ladies and say can i bring her in, or can someone help her? or would people rather the child wet herself?

"So the majority view here on Mumsnet seems to be that a man using the ladies loo is absolutely fine? Am I right?"

Having read the thread, I didn't get the impression this was the majority view at all. Perhaps it is your view? THat's not the same thing though

So you just come on and say stupid things, glitterkitten!

THEFARSIDE I think I missed it as well :)

I can't read 39 pages of this, but babychange in M and S or Costa loos are unisex AND NOT DISABLED.

PC enough for everyone, I would think...

I suspect the trick would be to say " hope you don't mind my dc coming in, it's a bit of an emergency "while speeding towards a cubicle so that nobody has time to object. You would have to be pretty miserable to object if it was an emergency, but it should only be done as a last resort. That would be perfectly acceptable, whereas someone waltzing in to the "wrong" toilet with their dc as a matter of course would be quite different.

no i dont think its the majority view at all, i think a man should take his dd in the mens loos where at all possible but in emergancies could ask to use the ladies loos.

i actually think one of the most frequent suggestions was to use the disabled loos, because of course being a parent makes you entitled to do that

But what if there IS NO COSTA????

It's not my view ZZZen. People are even asking what's the alternative to a man taking his daughters into the ladies now.

Luckily I don't think many men will want to use the ladies

I think there may be uneasy consensus that it is OK for a man to take his DDs into the ladies in extreme circumstances and provided he announces his entry first.

exaclty halcyondays you do it quickly and apologise for the inconvenience.

Please, please, please, not the disabled toilet, entitlement thing AGAIN

Can we go home now?