To leave my DS with strangers while I go to the loo?

[MeerkatMerkin]

DS is 2 and a half and in the buggy. Big city park, mummy needs relief. There was a queue to the ladies, this is just two cubicles and a sink - DS' (double twin) buggy too wide to go into the loo and not block the other toilet or sinks. So I ask the rest of the queue (some women with children too) to keep an eye while I run in and out.

When I return from peeing (30 seconds?) a woman in her 30s with an older toddler told me I was irresponsible and that my child could have been abducted or worse. She hadn't been in the queue as far as I'd seen before.

AIBU to leave DS in the buggy with mothers watching him while I take a pee? Or am I some kind of terrible neglectful wench? I don't think I am BU but I might be wrong and would appreciate opinion for next time.

I would take him.in the cubicle and leave the buggy outside.

No of course you're NBU.

I'd have parked the buggy and taken him with me personally. I'm sure plenty would do what you did though.

I don't know, I would mabey ask a specific person, especially one with Chidren to watch the child, or just take him in minus te buggy

Yanbu, i have and do do what you did, i dont think thete are lots of random evil people waiting to abduct my chilf or that everyone else in the queue would let them.be abductef.

I would've taken him in with me too but I wouldn't be a judgy cow to anyone who did what you did either. I've kept an eye on kids at the park whilst their mum rushed to the loo before.

Of course YANBU. You left your DC not with 1 stranger (who, against the odds may have been a childsnatcher), you left him with a group.

YANBU

The chances that an entire queue of strangers are going to conspire to kidnap your child while you're in the loo are zero.

i would have done the same, its not like you left him alone. depnding on where i am. in my small town, id have felt ok with this. in a city or some where im not used to. i think iwoudl have taken him in and asked some one to watch the buggy.

and what exactly is worse then your child being abducted?

That lady was a stupid busybody cow.

A queue of mothers watching your child... what the hell could really happen??

Good God some people are horrible aren't they?

I have left my kids in similar situations. A whole group of women and kids aren't going to let your kid be abducted.

I've done the same as you in the past (although its been the fastest pee ever)! YANBU

I've done this in an empty loo before with DD before DS arrived, so she would have been around 2.6-3yrs. I asked her to sing to me so that I knew she was ok. Now I look for the disabled loo or take them both in with me. It's a squeeze...

YANBY

*YANBU

If you've asked a queue full of people to watch him then surely nobody would try to abduct him as the rest of the queue would stop it!

I think it's fine. I've been asked to watch a toddler in a buggy laden with shopping in a bus station while the mother took an older child to the loo. Toilets were out of sight and earshot of where I was and yet I didn't abduct the child!

I think the world would be a nicer place if we all helped each other out in little ways like this.

you should of taken him in with you and left the buggy , you can replace the buggy if its stolen !

I think YABU sorry. All it takes is the stranger you asked to not be paying too much attention to what you look like and someone else to walk over and claim to be you or someone with you. Or the stranger you asked is a bit dopey and when its her turn to use the loo, she asks someone else to watch your toddler who takes the opportunity to leave with him. With a group of women too, you could end up with a sort of bystander effect where they all think someone else is watching him so don't intervene when someone walks off with him as they assume that person has told someone else who they are.

YADNBU.

Some people on here must spend their whole lives expecting the worst to happen.

AmyFarrah the chance of that happening is miniscule.

Minuscule chance of it happening or not, that's how I feel about it. I wouldn't take the risk.

You are being perfectly reasonable. Please ignore the storm of posts from the tinfoil hat brigade which will follow.

Her son would probably have been at a higher risk of being taken from inside the toilets to be honest.

Would a stranger really walk up to a queue full of women and children and just try and walk off with one?

God, I despair! I've been asked to watch a strangers small child before and I don't have one of my own. And I've offered to help / hold hands / lift a child to a sink to wash its hands when it's mother has a buggy, another on a hip, a gazillion bags etc.

It's nice to be nice and the woman who spoke to you was a nut job.

amy you wouldnt.take.that timy risk.but.i bet you put your child in a car and drive for unnecessary journeys when you could have walked etc.

Risk assesment is seriously scewed in this country sometimes.