To ask if you allow your 3yo to go to the loo alone out and about?

[chaosisawayoflife]

Say if you were in a restaurant, cafe, pub, or similar public space, would you allow your 3 yo to go to the loo alone? Trying to work out if my attitudes to this are 'normal'.

Glad it's not just me Grillembake

NO WAY. The thought would not even enter my mind.

We've only just started letting our very nearly 7 year old DD go by herself.
Even then, only if I can see the door to the room and we reiterate about how she goes away with no one, not even if they say that we have said it's okay, she shouts and screams if someone asks her to do something she's uncomfortable with etc. She's craving independence at the moment and it's so hard to try to give that to her, without me feeling uncomfortable.

No way - safety as no 1 reason, would be physically impossible for them to open door/ get at right loo height gand hygiene.

No way! I'll probably accompany mine (but stand outside the cubicle past about 7 obv until they're 14! I'm so paranoid. But seriously how would they even get up on the toilet by themselves at that age? My DS is 4.5 and he needs a step to get up and one of those little seats on the toilet so he doesn't fall in. So in public I have to hold him over it. He should probably learn to stand and pee, I'll get to that stage soon I swear but the mess.... And then washing hands too. How would it all work? They wouldn't even know how to lock the door, surely?

Absolutely not!

At 3 yrs old? Of course not.

My just 4 year old often wouldn't manage the doors and still needs a leg up to reach the sink/soap.

No, but DD2 probably went from about 5. She's a horribly fussy eater who finds food really boring. Getting up and down to the loo is just something to do.

Sometimes big sister would go with her, but she git fed up of her antics too.

I think the question to actually ask is the 3 year old OP saw going tot he toilet alone, how did it go? Was he/she ok?

Presuming some children do advance in areas quicker than others, may be taller than others or may have known the venue very well, then maybe he/she was capable of going alone. Only OP can tell us.

At 3, no. At 7, yes. Most kids should be able to go to the loo on their own at that age (in relation to people saying they wouldn't allow their 7YOs)

No.

Dd is tall enough to use a toilet by herself but can't always manage to flush it. The soap dispensers are usually out of reach and a lot of the taps have signs warning that the water is hot.

Then there's the whole 'queuing etiquette' to learn when the toilets are already in use by other people.

I let dd1 go to the toilet for the first time this week, she's 10 , I was ordering food in McDonald's and she was desperate for the loo so I sent her in alone, it wasn't busy but I was still nervous about letting her go alone ( not sure why ).

Goodness, no! DS1 is nearly 4 and would almost certainly leave a mess, not be quite able to redress himself and likely come wandering out with his trousers round his knees, certainly wouldn't wipe his own bottom without extreme help.

He would wash his hands though.

Three absolutely not, mine couldn't have coped with the lock and would ask for any random person to wipe their bum - your own child's poo you can cope with......

There are lots of incidents of children being assaulted ... I wouldn't let mine out of my sight !!!

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1370807/McDonalds-sex-attacker-Simon-Archer-jailed.html

Noway, she is still very little!

No but my 4 year old goes in places we know well. She is nearly 5 though and a very grown up 4, physically big and strong enough to do the doors and perfectly capable of wiping her bottom and washing hands.

At 4.5 mine go and I hover outside cubicle if it's a place where I know it's clean etc Perfectly capable of using a toilet and washing hands etc. I may even stand outside toilet. I don't get het up by rubbish in the daily mail

My 7 yo has just started going on her own and TBH I'm not always comfortable with it. Mainly from a stuck behind a heavy door/ not flushing point of view.

Even with an 8 yr old I check the cubicle quickly first to make sure there's paper and it's clean. We were out a few weeks ago and the toilet was in a total state. I couldn't have known that if I had just been waiting outside and she would have used it anyway, maybe.

Not at 3, but ds at 7 refuses to go into the ladies anymore. So I have no option but to trust him to go alone.

As off supervising til they are 14, really, my dd has been at secondary school for 3 years and even with additional needs has been shopping alone, going to the cinema and out with friends without me for a couple of years.

Going to the toilet alone is the start of bringing in independence.

No way. DS 4 does not - ahem - have a very good aim, struggles to get on the seat if he needs a poo, would not wash his hands (or not well, and he makes an holy fuss if he gets a drop of water on his clothes), and if all that weren't enough, he'd be too scared to go alone. He won't even go alone at home which drives me berserk!

No, my 6to goes with ds1 (8), but I wouldn't let him go by himself. DS1 was 7 before ge went my himself.