Pooing at the table in the pub garden

[Freetodowhatiwant]

This happened on the weekend but I’m still mulling it over and unsure whether IABU so thought I would open it to the MN jury.

On Sunday we were sitting in a nice pub garden, leafy London suburb, a pub known for its food. Seating is picnic benches, close together, on a patio area with large sun shades above. There is a more open, fake grass area where kids play/people lounge on deckchairs nearby but we weren’t in it.

Picnic benches were all full. We were there with an almost-5 year old and a 2 and a half year old.

At the picnic bench next to us were two couples with two children aged close to 3. The Dad whipped out a potty and asked the small boy if he needed a poo. Small boy sat down for quite a while, as potty training kids do, and after about 10/15 minutes did a massive stinky poo. At the table in the pub/restaurant garden right next to all the other customers.

When they whipped out the potty I couldn’t quite believe it going to happen – I hoped they were just trying to encourage him to sit on it – but when the wall of smell hit me I couldn’t help but say something. I said to DH (a bit too loudly so for that I might have been unreasonable) ‘Oh my god it stinks’ but in my defence I was just so surprised they let the child poo at the table where everyone sits and eats (note: we were still waiting for food, not yet eating). I then said to the parents something along the lines of I know what it’s like to potty train but, really, did you have to do this at the table/could you not have gone somewhere else? They said sorry, walked the potty through all the other customers inside to clean it out in the loo and that was that.

But – WIBU to say something to the parents? Is pooing at the table in a potty something acceptable and I am just a loser about it (admittedly I am really not great with poo smells - I would've hated it even if I was one of the people they walked passed inside carrying an open potty with a poo in it)? I understand, in a way, not wanting to go and stand in the toilets with the potty for ten or 15 mins but when I potty trained my eldest I think I would personally taken the child somewhere less occupied and somewhere where people are not eating and drinking! I realise accidents happen too but this was a deliberate getting the potty out and getting him to have a poo a the table situation.

🤢😳🙀

🤢 yep totally, lazy bastard, pubs have toilets he could have taken said child and potty into it, just yuck yuck

That's something I've never seen, but it's a bloody odd thing to do...apart from also being very bad mannered!

I can honestly and thankfully say it would never cross my mind to let my child crap in a potty so publicly. Literally unthinkable. Jeez.

Reminds me of this classic photo! Uuugh dunno how you didn't say something much harsher.

Yanbu I think when you're potty training it's only for use when it's gonna take to long to get to a toilet i.e. Walking to a supermarket if your sat down and there's a toilet on the premises there really isn't any excuse not to use it.

Wtf cant belive that actually happened! Where people are eating?? Wtf. Go to the toilet with the potty, or atleast to a more secluded area (people are saying about being scared of dryers etc).

I would have said something to them and especially to the management. Imagine walking through the pub with a potty full of shit... wtaf is wrong with some people

It wasn't the Herne Tavern, it was a pub in a nice leafy area of Greenwich. Middle class looking parents, both mums at the table pregnant with their second whom hopefully will not also be pooing in the pub garden.

I'm about to start potty training DS2, it would be funny if I get involved in a situation where he ends up having a public poo! Karma

Yes if miles from any loo - countryside, wild camping etc - I can see how these things occur.

Did they wipe the bum of said child???

I saw a woman let her kid go in a potty in the frozen aisle of Tesco the store toilets were at the end of the bloody aisle

I must have been lucky with ds he was trained in a weekend without any need for a portable potty because he was ready!!

Disgusting!! I retch at the sight of poo.

Take potty and child to toilet! Not in the garden in a public place! Yak

That is vile!!! Well done for saying something!!

Didnt get to the end of the thread but like everyone else utterly disgusted with the krettins... Well done for sayibg somethng-I am typically "british" as in bite my tongue whilst muttwribg under my breath so as not to caiseca fuss... the lazy buggers were clearly too busy enjoying themselves/couldn't be bothered to get up and hang around the loo for 10 mins.... i am surprised managment didn't say anything as a total health hazard walking it through where people were eating-what if it was knocked or he tripped up carrying it 😝
Spuddington... I can match that or maybe it was the same woman... I worked for a furniture shop a few years ago and walked out of the office and a woman was changing a baby's stinky bum on one of the display sofas!....

It's fucking gross. There's no need for sitting a child on any kind of potty in public. None.

Some parents lose all sense of perspective about what is and isn't socially acceptable

I would say something if i saw that - now that I'm middle-aged and frankly don't care.

(I did once hold ds2 over a drain in a road, thinking he needed a wee. Crapped in front of teenagers coming home from school. Morto. But that was entirely unexpected and unplanned)

I think a big "You are JOKING, right? would come out of my lips

That's pretty gross 🙈
I was once filling up in a petrol station behind a car with a couple who had a small kid... as mum was filling up dad sat a potty down by the car and put the little one on it .
Then when the kid was done... dad just tipped the potty over the forecourt (was wee not poo) got in the car and drive off . I was quite irritated looking at that . Keeping their car wee-free but splashing the wee all over a public area instead .
Fact is some people have little consideration for others. It's wrong.

YANBU.

I'm surprised the parents weren't lynched. That is disgusting and unacceptable. I am surprised the pub staff allowed that to happen if it was witnessed! My husband definitely would have said something very strongly worded. No, that is selfish to everybody else eating around them and also to the child.

Why do parents take their children out for a meal when they are not ready. Why don't they go to each other's houses where they can cope with potty training.

Hideous. I don't believe in those portable things, part of potty training must be to indicate to a child when the time and place is. They can't get used to pooing any place, anytime , anywhere. No martini poos.

In the scheme of life it's just a short period of your and their life. It's not fair on others!

Yanbu they asked him to try so time was on their side. And if it was an issue with hand dryers etc as said above then not at the table...I would have gone round the side of the building or to the corner of the car park or whatever! The only reason it would have been kind of acceptable at the table would be if the child had suddenly said poo is coming NOW or similar, and even then as a parent I would have been appoligetic.

I don't believe in those portable things

You don't have to, but they are a life saver. No need to frantically looking for some public toilets, you can take your kids out all day beach/forest/fields or go on long motorway journeys.

Used a travel potty with all of mine without any ill effect, they all learnt quickly enough to wait until they were in a proper toilet, but still useful to have a portable potty handy for emergencies. Anything that makes parenting easier is a bonus!