to take the potty in to wimpys?

[grumpalumpgrumped]

Afternoon out to the seaside with Ds1, DS2 and me and DH. DS2 started potty training last week, was wearing pull ups as long journey and wasn't sure how he would be.

Went for some food, he asked for a wee so took him, this happened twice, both times freaked out about sitting on loo. Under his buggy was an emergency potty (should have put it in a bag), so took this out of buggy and to the loo, then returned it to buggy after cleaning it out. Buggy wouldn't fit in care so was outside.

One man very huffy about it.

Was it really that bad? Granted should have been in a carrier but DS1 never used a potty out so hadn't thought.

steff13 That sounds perfectly acceptable. Presumably if it were normal and acceptable to carry potties about in restaurants the manufacturers of your gadget wouldn't have bothered selling it with a drawstring bag.

She didn't have a bag!!! OP has admitted that it should have been in a bag but didn't have one! What on earth, Caitlin, did you want her to do?! What if she didn't have a coat on?! Then what?? We don't all have magic wands to make things appear when it is most convenient and considerate to other people, when really, it's a non-issue! I'm sure the OP has learnt her lesson and will never go anywhere without a spare carrier bag to placate everybody!!!

I find it very difficult to believe there was nothing in all the accoutrements that come with the territory of taking a small child out that OP couldn't have used nor that amongst 2 adults and 2 children she couldn't have improvised.

Basically she didn't think. Her child and her needs = more important than anyone else. Did OP actually say she didn't have a bag? Rather than she didn't put it in a bag.

saucyjack Actually I'd think someone wandering about a restaurant was extremely weird.

Her child and her needs = more important than anyone else.

Weird comment. Carrying a piece of plastic through a room doesn't impinge on anybody else in any way, shape or form. No sane person would have their existence or enjoyment of life affected in anyway by the implication of a small child having gone for a wee.

Oh FFS it's a potty. Non issue, OP YANBU. Caitlin, I don't know know how you've survived so long without strangling yourself with your own pearls.
Most people would have been too busy shovelling down their burgers to notice anyway.

She actually said "should have had a bag, noted for next time" so no, she didn't have a bag. She also said that the pushchair was outside so she mightn't have had anything actually in the toilet with her!
Seriously! If she had had a clean nappy with her would it have been an issue? A clean receptacle for pee?

I'm amazed that so many of you think that carrying a portable toilet through a place where people are eating is socially acceptable behaviour. I am a parent but but it's not surprising non parents get annoyed at the way some parents behave.

I wouldn't be very happy seeing a potty being carried through a restaurant either. I have never seen anyone do it, using a bag isn't difficult.

You might bump into someone getting up, someone carrying their food or pass the potty over the head of a small child (the parents don't know you've thoroughly cleaned it- not everyone does). Not nice.

Wimpy!! Not been in a Wimpy for years ...

One of our great family 'legends' is the time we went to the Pancake Parlour in Bognor on holiday when I was 2, and I decided to extract the potty from a carrier bag and perform in a corner while my parents were distracted with my DB aged 6 months. Apparently I elicited a round of applause.

This was in 1963. Chillax.

It's the association that will make people raise their eyebrows

It's toilet stuff and no one wants to be thinking about toilet stuff when eating

It would not make a difference if the potty was encrusted in diamonds and sterilized by unicorns there is always going to someone that see's it and will raise an eyebrow

Because it's really not that nice to see a potty when your tucking into your meal

I don't think I'd mind but I can see why some people would

Jesus some people are so precious.

OP I think you did exactly the right thing.

Good luck with the potty training, I'm sure with your sensible attitude to it your DS2 will be using the toilet in no time

YANBU but you could gave been a little more reasonable by using a bag.

I would have thought it a bit off putting but I don't think you actually did anything wrong. I suppose I just don't want to see toilet paraphernalia when I am eating... I know that's a bit silly though.

I would have tucked it under a sweater.

It's parents thinking they and their children's needs are more important than anyone else.

Nope, it's just life, how exactly does it effect your needs?

As for wrapping it in a jumper or coat, seriously? It's a potty not crack! :o

Focus on your food if you are so easily offended.

I'm in a restaurant eating burger and fries. Parent of q wmall child walks through with a potty. Do I
a) Assume it's been washed.
b) Assume that it's still smeared with poo and dripping with wee.

I'd go with option a, and wouldn't think anything about it.

Another suggestion for a no-bag option is to desguise the potty as a hat, worn at a jaunty angle. You'll look so rakishly stylish that all with hyper-delicate sensibilities will be too awed go waste their energy on pointless offence.

I may try that fashionable potty hat look once DS2 starts potty training. Very Lady GaGa.

TBH the only way I would ever notice a potty in a restaurant is if my soup was served in one.

But then again it depends on what restaurant I'm in and the colour of the soup.

Caitlin if potty had been in a bag you might still have perceived its outline through the bag, and wretched into your lunch at this awful reminder that toddlers pee and poo like the rest of us. With such delicate sensibilities I'm amazed you manage to ever leave the house, let alone potty train your children.

As for whipping out a potty in the clothing aisle example, I'm presuming the poster would have preferred a puddle of wee on the floor then? Because with a desperate toddler, actually reaching the loo is not necessarily an option.

It would put me off my food to see the potty being ported about.
It would make me boak to actually have to port one about.
I am so glad mine didn't mind using the big toilet.

Caitlin, you seem to have issues. What on earth is wrong with carrying a clean potty?! How on earth do you react to people who don't wash their hands after urinating or defaecating (and there are a lot of them - myself NOT included) - you're more likely to pick up germs from them than from seeing a clean potty!

OP you can get a portable potty toilet seat which is brilliant. Comes in it's own bag and I only took it out to put DD on the toilet. Fits perfectly under the pram and you never need to see another po face again!

Ohhh blimey, went asleep and missed my telling off! (Caitlin17 - have you never been caught off guard? Congratulations on being such a considerate and well organised person)

Off to look for a porta potty today.

OP get a Potette, best money I ever spent. If you are out and about you just tie up the bag top and dispose. Brilliant for the car/park/ beach/camping too.
My DC are a bit big for it now but we still use it as a sick bowl on long car journeys

Well, in the circumstances, what else could you do? No, YANBU. Also, you were in Wimpy, not the freakin' Ivy!

I haven't got anything to add to the thread apart from yanbu: it's not nice but needs must at times. You were in the wimpy, not some 5*, Michelin restaurant.
A portable potty, a potette I think, has been a lifesaver. Ds has one and we take it everywhere. It folds up to be put away in a bag to be carried under the pushchair, unfolds into a potty with a tie-bag which you then tie up and throw away the waste into a nearby bin or it can be used as a portable child's toilet seat.