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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:
Lindsay321 · 03/01/2013 22:44

Oh and the thing about weeing on the floor. My DS can wee on the floor from a changing mat on a table. In this area of JL there is always going to be some hideous mess on the floor.

Yes. I always clean up after DS. I clean hotel rooms and have seen my fair share of adult mess Xmas Sad

apostropheuse · 03/01/2013 22:45

OP Will you please explain how you cleaned yourself up or did you just wait to you got home until you cleaned yourself and your pissy clothes?

Just wondering.

Tralalalaha · 03/01/2013 22:46

Schro - Experience tells me that the horse weeing phase passes pretty quickly. I'd rather he was occasionally wet than I was filling landfill with nappies or remortgaging the house to pay for biodegradeables. He has a perfect peachy bum. Even if disposables are drier.

OP posts:
Tralalalaha · 03/01/2013 22:49

Wiped hands, bag and baby (as well as the floor of course). Coat sadly had to wait until I got home. I didn't sit down at all if that's any consolation to you, nor did I get close to anyone on public transport. Next time I will of course take a full set of clothes for myself as well as DS...

OP posts:
Alisvolatpropiis · 03/01/2013 22:49

Do that OP.

Sirzy · 03/01/2013 22:49

Why would an area outside the toilets be covered in some hideous mess Lindsay?

Boomerwang · 03/01/2013 22:51

If I'm a minger, then so be it. My baby gets priority over a car drive to the nearest available changing facility, which was the case.

Sirzy · 03/01/2013 22:51

Why not change the baby in the car then?

Lindsay321 · 03/01/2013 22:52

Further to the hideous mess on the floor - I usually clean up anything I find down there to be honest. No, Really! I had a wet wipe out wiping DS hand not too long ago and found myself cleaning the pedestrian crossing button !

It's nice when things are clean. Thing what the tourists will say when they're home!

Boomerwang · 03/01/2013 22:53

Ignore the pearl clutchers. Your son's needs matter more than a cleaner who obviously chose the wrong job.

Tralalalaha · 03/01/2013 22:54

Alis - like hilair. You've never wet your judgeypants then?

OP posts:
CloudsAndTrees · 03/01/2013 22:54

OP, you were ridiculously unreasonable, but I like you.

apostropheuse · 03/01/2013 22:54

Wiped hands, bag and baby (as well as the floor of course). Coat sadly had to wait until I got home. I didn't sit down at all if that's any consolation to you, nor did I get close to anyone on public transport. Next time I will of course take a full set of clothes for myself as well as DS...

Good idea if your son is regularly wetting through his nappies, and you use a sling, as you said yourself...or much easier might be to do as others have suggested and use different nappies for the moment.

Boomerwang · 03/01/2013 22:54

Sirzy because it was quicker and more convenient to do it on the floor? Actually I changed her on her own thick towel on top of a pallet and got my friend to obscure the view but I'd have done it solo too.

OnwardBound · 03/01/2013 22:57

Oh FGS why are some of you being so precious about a baby's wee?

And it's presence ON THE FLOOR, shock horror Hmm

I used to work in a fast food place as a teenager and part of my job description was toilet cleaning.

I can tell you I cleaned stuff that was much MUCH worse than baby wee - used tampons, toilets blocked up with shit up to the toilet seat [that was a highlight], vomit, large adult male wee puddles from misaiming at the urinal.

Aah the memories...

I would have thought happy days at a bit of baby piddle.

Lindsay321 · 03/01/2013 22:58

Sirzy

I don't know. But it is a family area and people hang around there. Maybe a reason not to change a baby on the floor (it's feet from the changing area). But you know, floors are generally horrible. Especially high traffic ones.

p.s - by horrible stuff I meant poo, faeces, effluence, leavings

ChaosTrulyReigns · 03/01/2013 22:59

Not sure there's often a great deal of choice in choosing a cleanign job, Boomerwang.

And she would have seen to her son's needs, just a small matter of patience.

Smile
NolittleBuddahsorTigerMomshere · 03/01/2013 22:59

I LOVE JL, but I'm not sure I would if I saw behaviour like this in there though, it is pretty gross Trallalah tbh. A close relation of mine works for JLP, and they are very conscious of providing a pleasant and I have to say very sanitary environment for customers, the high chairs in The Place to Eat are always spotless IME; chances are that the cleaner was trying to maintain the brand image. The tone of your post sounds very snooty in how dare a cleaner, tell me the customer, what to do kind of a way IMHO. (Which the cleaner probably encounters quite frequently as there are quite a lot of pathetic IMO who see being able to shop at JL as a status symbol.) When the brand ethos is quality and value for all, as was the norm in years gone by. Before you got all uppity you should have thought how you would have felt if someone had shown such a cavalier attitude to your work.

Tralalalaha · 03/01/2013 23:08

I went to JL because of the cheap shoes - awesome discounts and friendly service. Fifty percent off Primigi boots!

OP posts:
Lovecat · 03/01/2013 23:38

Ah. JL in Westfield Stratford.

IME this shop is not a real JL. It looks like one, and sells all the same stuff, but the staff there are the surliest bunch of bastards ever and appear to have had zero customer service training. I was so happy we were getting a JL in east London but having had the sort of sullen, ignorant service that would put Primark to shame on every occasion I've been there, I'd sooner go up west or out to Bluewater.

Not that I think you were in the right to change your DS on the floor, but it may explain the shouty cleaner.

McNewPants2013 · 03/01/2013 23:46

Not sure there's often a great deal of choice in choosing a cleanign job.

why not, i have a nvq level 3 in childcare, but working as a cleaner i get paid more, have more flexiablity and can leave to job at the door.

If i was the cleaner on duty in this store, i would say to the adult just get the baby sorted leave the mess to me.

ScarlettOoHara · 03/01/2013 23:47

YABU for thinking a 21 month old baby isn't going to wee all over you in the first place. Stop being so competitive and let him wear nappies until he can go a bit longer between wees.
Sorry harsh but couldn't resist.

Tralalalaha · 04/01/2013 00:13

Erm what? He's so in nappies. My three year old is still in nappies too because we didn't want to turn potty training into hell on earth (am beginning to suspect the six months of on off potty training is why I am desensitised to wee). Did you even read the OP? DD stayed at home exactly for the reason that she is still being potty trained.

OP posts:
numbum · 04/01/2013 01:23

scarlett read the thread FFS.

OP my waters broke in JL. Damn unpredictable bodily fluids!

DonderandBlitzen · 04/01/2013 01:40

and then got a bit peppy and asked her if there were any of my other parenting choices she'd like to question

No just the parenting choice to let your baby piss on the floor because you couldn't be arsed to wait 2 minutes for a changing mat. It doesn't take long for someone to finish changing their baby.

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