To think that parents shouldn't let their children use the bushes in the playground as a toilet?

[CharlieMouseWillDoIt]

There's a hollowed-out bush in our local children's playground that children use as a little den to play in. That's what I thought it was used for anyway.

Most times when I visit the playground (several times a week) I've seen parents allowing their children to use it as a toilet. It's not just the occasional potty-training toddler who is obviously desperate to go; I've seen/heard older children (perhaps aged 5 or 6) saying to their parents "I'm just going to go to the toilet now..." and head off over to the bushes.

I know I'm not the only parent to find this pretty disgusting - I've heard other parents warning their children not to go in the bushes as other children use it as a toilet. Surely once children are old enough to use a toilet properly they should be told that there are appropriate and inappropriate places to go??

We have dog free parks btw so no dog wee in any of our parks.

parks are usually managed by council, and there should be a contact email from their webpage

not that i think this is something worth complaining about.

"
We have dog free parks btw so no dog wee in any of our parks."

just foxes :

and birds, badgers, squirrels, rats, rabbits.... etc.

Yanbu - huge difference between being 'caught short' and kids being allowed to use a specific area as a toilet. Grim!

Agree with this very much, big difference between a child about to have an accident and them thinking this den/bush thing is an actual bathroom.

Oh bugger off with your nocturnal animal knowledge and common sense!!!

will do :)

DD keeps on doing the park wee thing so we now go straight home if she does it- this is so she remembers to wee at the end of school.

can't tell her to hold it til we get home as its 25 minutes walk (or thirty if i am tired)

Um. I'm 50/50 on this one. When we were turfed out for the day as kids we had no choice. If you'd ventured miles from home you weren't going back for that - so we all found bushes/middle of the field/whatever (OK, I lived deep in the country). Never really thought about it.
When DS are at football/rugby they use the bushes as do the other children.
Not sure that a tree in the middle of the park is really on though .

Not a problem, if dogs can wee why not little children!

Not a problem, if dogs can wee why not little children!

This ^^ definitely.

And it's not like it doesn't constantly piss down with rain and get washed away.

I'm actually amazed at my dcs ability to hold it tbh the few times they've been caught short ive tried to encourage a wee in a bush or behind a tree and they say they can't, then go off and play for another hour they are normally desperate by the time we get home but thankfully we've never had any accidents.

I think YABU though in a way, if there's no alternative they're still only little let them do it. If there is an alternative that's just lazy parenting!

Exactly, what's the difference. If there are no public toilets than wats the alternative.

The town I lived until a year or so ago had a lovely award winning park with no toilets. There was a toilet block just outside the gates but it was filthy and full of used hypodermic needles,condoms and faeces on the walls. The local leisure centre (next to park and run by council) had a sign in reception specifically prohibiting the use of the toilets by anyone except customers. The local library (50 yards from park) had a staff only toilet. They did let my daughter use it once or twice when she very small and I shall always be grateful to them but as a family we are massive library users so don't know if that made a difference. About 4 years ago the council turned the ( well used and needed) car park outside the park into a multi million pound bus station to try and encourage outside footfall in the town. It is the world's only toilet free bus station. So in answer to OP I have no problem with kids using bushes in an emergency and mine frequently have - both sexes and all ages up to about 7.

Posh if the toilets are like that I would rather my kids use the bush