to think that a potty in a trolley is a step too far?

[homeiswheretheginis]

Saw a woman with her two small girls going into the supermarket. She casually told the smallest to pop her potty in the trolley.

I felt sick. I try not to package vegetables etc, but rather put them unwrapped straight into the trolley in a bit to do my tiny bit for the planet. But never again. The idea of residual faeces in the trolley (having landed there when a potty was left there...) ending up on my food repulsed me.

AIBU or is that utterly revolting and unacceptable? Food goes in supermarket trollies, not receptacles for human waste...?

My child's potty is normally quite clean, do you not clean your child's potty after every use? I always clean it well, with proper bathroom spray cleaner after every poo.

Also, loads of people poop in the supermarket, don't wash their hands then they man handle your fruit and veg and get loads of poo particles all over it.

I've seen lots of cashiers sneeze or cough into their hands and then they touch your food when they are ringing you up.

Do you really think a most likely CLEAN potty is worse than this? Besides I let my child sit in the trolley where the food goes and she is wearing shoes, what likely horrors has she walked on that is now in the trolley?

what was the mum meant to do?

• not take them to that shop?
• put them in nappies as they clearly aren't toilet trained?

Billions of humans have been toilet trained without the instant availability of a disgusting receptacle in public venues. Clearly, it can be done.

Whether the poop buckets are clean, or not, is beside the point. The point is that subjecting the public to your private toilet-related matters is rude and uncouth. Again, if the child is not continent, put it in pull-ups or limit its presence on errands during the period of time its control is so precarious.

The other amazing thing is the entitled "I don't have to conform to any long-established norms/notions of standard public decorum if it inconveniences me or my kid. If you don't like it, tough luck!" attitude displayed by so many parents. So little respect for "the village" yet the paw is always out to the village for benefits, support and tolerance.

So, for those of you that think it is perfectly acceptable for children to use a potty wherever they want.... Is it also absolutely fine for an adult to use a commode wherever they like?

YANBU, that is revolting.

I cannot believe she (or anyone else) thinks it's acceptable to carry around a potty (especially unbagged) while out shopping and for their child to whip their pants down and have a pee/poo in the middle of a shop!

What on earth was she planning to do with the contents of the potty if her child had needed to use it? Bearing in mind there are no toilets in the shop to empty it down?

I really think you are getting your knickers in a twist, How do you know it was dirty ?. How many people do you think have pushed your trolley without washing their hands. I don't think you should leave the house again

No one has said it's acceptable for a child to use a potty wherever they want and lots of people have said they carried a potty to take into the toilets with them as their DC couldn't/wouldn't use the big toilet.

What people are saying is that it's an empty, presumably clean, potty in an trolley and certainly not the worst thing to ever be in a trolley.

At what point did this woman say her child was going to use the potty in the shop? Or at what point did the child actually use it in the shop? You're all frothing over a presumption and this poor, presumably real, woman has been branded both selfish and wicked in the last two pages.

WhoDrew, the OP has said there were no toilets in the shop so why not leave the potty in her car or have it in a carrier bag if she was walking- surely no one would carry a loose potty around all day? The plot thickens!

It still doesn't mean she was going to use it in the shop though. When DD was 3yo she took to carrying around an empty Diet Coke bottle that she filched from the recycling box, doesn't mean that she'd drank the coke that was in it. Maybe it was new potty and the little girl wanted to carry it around, DS1 loved his when we bought it and carried it all the way home himself, including during stop offs at the GP and the library.

There's been loads of threads in the past where people have witnessed children being put on potties in shops, supermarkets and even cafes. A poster on this thread has said their chime used the potty in Aldi. It's disgusting.

My daughter suffered from urinary incontinence. She needed to urinate very frequently, the urge came on very quickly, and she couldn't hold it in. There was no way we could get from one side of Sainsburys to the other, poss having to queue for the loo when we got there. We learnt the hard way that it was less inconvenience all round for her to use the potty. We might have to use the loo three times in one shop. That could be three puddles in the aisles, or three times emptying a potty. Not ideal but the best I could do in the circs.

But no one here - including the OP - knows that she was planning to use it.

Carrying is not the same thing as using.

If the OP had been "I saw a child shitting in a potty in the crisps aisle at Tesco" then, yeah, I'd be in the disgusted camp. But the OP was basically "I saw someone carrying a clean potty in a dirty trolley" and I can't bring myself to be disgusted by someone carrying an object.

Has anyone considered the fact that as the OP didn't actually see the potty being used that this was not bought along because the mother was going to use it as a potty but because the youngest child had decided that morning that the ONLY THING that she wanted to play with that day was the potty and that unless they had that potty within 30cms of them they were just going to spend the whole day screaming and crying and the mother had decided (rightly) anything for a quiet life and just told the youngest to bring the potty with her?

Yes it is revolting I don't understand how any mother could think it is fine bringing a potty with them to the supermarket, let alone putting it in the trolley also, when I was potty training my two boys potty training ONLY happened in the house and never in public.

bearing in mind they don't even want you to let your children stand in the trolley for hygiene reasons!

Trollies are left out in the carpark all the time where they are splashed by dirty rain and cars etc people who don't wash their hands after going to the loo and then touching the trolly handle, think how noting the crates are that the food is carried about in, in transit and while shelf stacking. Then there's the people who pick up and put back food who also haven't washed their hands. Then there's sneezing, coughing etc etc... Supermarkets are bogging, so are the trollies, little people's feet and (assuming) and empty potty is the very bottom of the scale. Maybe just wash your fresh food and your hands...

Yes the amount of germs a small child in a trolley seat must sneeze & drip over the handlebars of a trolley on an hourly basis must be quite astounding.

YANBU. Then again, I never expect trollies to be clean. Wash everything unwrapped very carefully!

As a waitress I saw people whip out potties and let their kids use them in front of an entire restaurant, with the loos just steps away. Although better than those who'd change their kids at the table and leave the shitty nappy for me.

Meh! Like PP's I would never put unwrapped produce in a trolley. They are kept outside in the rain. DC stand in them with shoes on not any of mine of course - whistles and I would never judge them to be hygienic.

The mother put the potty in the trolley, presumeably to use in a emergency. No problem with that if they are going to rush to the toilets. Or perhaps it had just been bought from another shop?

Toilet training can be so difficult with some DC, that I would not judge anyone for being prepared and potties are rather large to carry in a handbag.

If the child had been sat on it, inside the trolley, whilst using it. That would have been a different matter.

I always sprayed ours with anti bac and rinsed it in boiling water after use, so it would have been cleaner than the trolley.

I am more concerned about the trolley handles myself and who's germ laden hands have been on it before me. I did go through a phase of keeping anti bac wipes in my handbag so I could surreptitiously wipe the the handle down before using it . I am slightly less anal now!

Better than a poo in a potty in the aisle of the plane and a performance parenting show of excitement. And it was business as well.

Goldfinch, I laughed out loud at "the plot thickens!"

Here in the US, most supermarkets place a dispenser of antibacterial wipes at the store entrance so one might wipe down the handles and whatever else of the trolley before use. Perhaps they should start issuing toilet paper as well in case any little snowflakes can't be bothered to wear a pull-up.

Also, as for the 'put them in pull ups if they're not reliable' that's against the standard potty training advice given out on here - it seems you can't win!

This sort of that makes me so angry that I want to go round doing exactly the thing that upsets people so much...

Firstly, those complaining make no allowance at all for the individual circumstances and issues that you can nothing at all about, and all of your judgemental attitude is based entirely on your assumptions. Secondly, it goes completely against potty training advice to put them back in nappies willy nilly. Thirdly, I'll bet there are less germs on most potties that get cleaned regularly, than you get on your hands from the handles of the toilet doors you touch AFTER washing your hands, and probably less than on the handles of the trolley.

Just because something wasn't a struggle for you, doesn't mean it isn't for others. Wash your hands, cover your food and be a little kinder to other people who might be dealing with things you can't even imagine.

that's nothing. when i worked in a supermarket you'd be surprised at how many people will just shit on an aisle rather than go to the toilets.i counted four human turds left on different aisles in the two years i worked there. one random lady took a shit in one of the sinks of the customer toilets and left her shit soaked undergarments in the other, including trousers. i didn't see no one leave semi naked either. so think about that next time you wash your hands :/