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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To be annoyed with cleaner in John Lewis?

195 replies

Tralalalaha · 03/01/2013 21:42

Went out with 21 month old DS in a back carrier to buy some new shoes in the sales. Got to JL and realised as I took him out to get his feet measured that he'd done a mahousive wee and was sopping from waist to knee (as indeed was my back). So nipped over to kids wear, bought some lovely trousers in the sale and sprinted into the changing room bit to sort him out. Both changing mats were in use by little teeny babies, the BF and bottle feeding rooms were in use and I didn't think anyone wanted to see a nappy change while feeding, but there's a big lobby bit so I thought for a quick whip and wipe, I'd just kneel on the floor and rest him on my bag.

I'll say now that DS never ever wees on me during nappy changes, so I was a bit surprised and horrified when he started peeing like a horse and grabbed a cloth out of my bag to put over his winky while jokingly saying 'naughty boy DS'. All of a sudden someone starts shouting at me, and I look over my shoulder (while mopping up DS and the floor) to see a cleaner looking pretty angry. She was shouting and saying why didn't I use one of the mats, so I said they were busy, then she said why didn't I use the table in the disabled loos. I hadn't spotted it to be honest, but wouldn't have taken up a disabled loo just to change a nappy anyway, then she told me I should have waited for a mat to be free. Leaving aside the fact that the little babies on those mats were still being changed when this was all over and I was leaving, poor DS was sopping wet and I didn't want to hang around with him in soggy clothing. I said as much, and then got a bit peppy and asked her if there were any of my other parenting choices she'd like to question and she stalked off muttering about mopping the floor and I finished up DS, wiped the floor with antibacterial wipes and left in a bit of a fricking snit actually.

So, AIBU to be peed off if you'll forgive the pun, or was she perfectly within her rights to be annoyed at the pee on the floor?

OP posts:
CaHoHoHootz · 03/01/2013 22:13

YWBU. (but I see you have agreed Smile. The cleaner was being crabby though.

I would forget about it.

chickensarmpit · 03/01/2013 22:14

Yabu.
A child peed in my shop the other week i was miffed. I don't go to work to clean up other peoples wee.
You should of waited a little longer for the changing area imo

Boomerwang · 03/01/2013 22:14

YANBU. She's a cleaner. If she had an issue with cleaning it up she could have handed you something to clean it up with, or told you to make sure it's cleaned up before you go.

I've changed my baby on the floor of a store once because they didn't have facilities. She'd pooed. It needed doing. Maybe they should install facilities. I didn't leave a mess, I carry those cheap nappy sacks and I popped it back into her nappy bag.

I assume you wouldn't have left a dirty nappy around, and your son needed attention asap. I don't think you were in the wrong.

MonetsGardens · 03/01/2013 22:14

Wouldn't happen in Asda.....

Tralalalaha · 03/01/2013 22:14

You know I would have apologised if she hadn't shouted at me, but I really don't like being shouted at. Especially not in JL.

OP posts:
TandB · 03/01/2013 22:15

No-one's upset about wee. People are just telling you that you were unreasonable to have a go at the cleaner for being unhappy that your child had weed on the floor.

Your child got wee on the floor.
The cleaner was annoyed.
You should have apologised instead of getting the arse about it.

CailinDana · 03/01/2013 22:16

So if DS were a potty training toddler would you just let him whip his "winky" out and piss all over the floor of a shop? Because that's basically what you did today, only with a younger child. It's pretty normal to expect people to deal with bodily functions in the appropriate place, especially when it's not an emergency. You should have just waited until the mats became free.

gordyslovesheep · 03/01/2013 22:16

you should have apologised anyway and offered to clean it up

no one likes being shouted at but I doubt many of us enjoy cleaning up other peoples wee either

anyway it's done now - next time wait for a mat - no problem

Lindsay321 · 03/01/2013 22:17

OP

Was this JL Cardiff by any chance? If so I understand the changing room/corridor thing. If not maybe lots of JL are arranged this way.

Also you said you wiped up the wee so I don't understand why everyone is making out you slaughtered a cow on the floor of JL?! Maybe wait next time though Xmas Smile

elvislives2012 · 03/01/2013 22:17

YABU! Could have waited a few more minutes. No wonder the cleaner was pissy

Floggingmolly · 03/01/2013 22:17

You asked her were there any other of your parenting choices she'd like to question
as your DS pissed like a racehorse all over the lobby
And you were going to complain? Shock. They should have thrown you out.
I would have; and I'd have made you clean the floor first.

TandB · 03/01/2013 22:17

Why "especially not in JL"?

Don't you mind being shouted at in Debenhams?

JamieandtheMagiTorch · 03/01/2013 22:19

The parenting choices thing was irrelevant, admit it Grin.

Changing a nappy on the floor rather than in a designated place is logistics, not "parenting"

tiggytape · 03/01/2013 22:21

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Tralalalaha · 03/01/2013 22:22

I did clean the fricking floor! Jeez, it's part of the effing toilets - not the bloody food hall. I can see that I probably should have waited, although I can assure you there would still have been piss on the floor thanks to the wonder that is the penis. Which I would also have cleaned up. She had to mop a floor which had been cleaned with a cloth then an antibacterial wipe, so presumably less dirty than what most people trail in on their shoes. If I'd wanted to be rude, I would have been. What I was trying to do was get her to piss off while I finished up, rather than shout at me while I tried to change DS and clean the floor.

For the last time, it was part of the toilets, an area prone to spillages of an intimate nature.

OP posts:
JugsMcGee · 03/01/2013 22:23

I was about to say YABU but if you were in the changing room then it sounds like the floor would've got wet even if you'd used a change station.

Toddler wees in cloth are bloody annoying.

tiggytape · 03/01/2013 22:23

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

itsmineitsmine · 03/01/2013 22:23

I'm bored of your bit now, op. I want to talk about boomwerang changing a shitty nappy on the floor of a shop instead minger

Sirzy · 03/01/2013 22:24

You said it was in a lobby, that isn't the toilet or part of the amble changing facilities they provided.

LetsFaceTheMusicAndDance · 03/01/2013 22:24

Lindsay I bloody hope it wasn't JL in Cardiff.
When discussing which 'special place' I might want my ashes scattered in, DS2 said 'I don't think they allow that in John Lewis, Mum!'

I nearly pissed myself laughing (but not on the floor, obviously Grin)

Sirzy · 03/01/2013 22:24

Ample even!

OhlimpPricks · 03/01/2013 22:24

I said as much, and then got a bit peppy and asked her if there were any of my other parenting choices she'd like to question
How rude. Nothing gives you the right to speak to someone who is just doing their job and questioning your choice to let your child to piss over the floor instead of just waiting.

EmpressOfThePuddle · 03/01/2013 22:25

Welcome to Mumsnet, Tralalalaha. I think you can get away with penis if you whisper. After all, you can get away with fuckity fuck fuck, cuntworm & wankbadger so I wouldn't worry too much.

You sound like you recognise that you were U, and maybe you do just end up desensitised to wee. There was a similar thread a while ago by a poster who'd popped her DS on his potty in the middle of Tesco.

doublecakeplease · 03/01/2013 22:25

You should have waited. Seriously- 2 changing mats?? They'd have been free fairly quickly I'm sure!

CailinDana · 03/01/2013 22:25

There are designated changing areas. It's not too much to ask you to use them. Get some sense.

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