To insist my 5 yr old ds uses toilets in Halfords, when they say 'NO' due to insurance reasons?

[DrNortherner]

In Halfords last night at 5.30pm. Dh was spending £400 on a new bike. Ds needs loo.

Spotty teenage staff say no, not insured blah blah blah.

I say OK, lets go outside. Ds says no I need a poo.

Staff say use pub next door. Ds getting more and more desperate. Poo is coming.

I say 'Let him use your toilet now or dh will not buy bike' (dh looks aghast)

I demand manager.

We get escorted to toilet, but only a one off.

What do you think?

Is it true that there is a law requiring a British bobby to make his hat available to a pregnant woman who needs to pee, or am I imagining things?

I worked in a building society (for my sins) and the biggest risk we had there was getting robbed at gunpoint (and yes that happened to me).

This was a branch in the City of London so we did not see many children as a rule. I would say that if a child needed to use the toilet they would have been allowed to (the toilet was nowhere near the secure areas).

LOL at Batters getting on to a train to Carshalton just to use the toilet. genius! Lucky it wasn't non-stop to Edinburgh!

Of course I symapthise with NorthernerJnrs dilemma - but the other problem with shops like Halfords is that they are very hierarchical etc and the assistant could probably have been sacked for leading customers through security coded doors etc - even if they were 5 years old.

Fio

You mean that this person got let off?. Oh great.

Oh, sorry - I think i mis-read your post, batters. I thought you had got onto a train which wasn't on your route (or that you weren't intending to catch a train at all) to use the toilet on the train, the train had gone off and you had had to get off at the next station and come back.....

x-posted.
But I will always think of your adventure in my own way

I'm still sniggering over naily's mr arse who seems to have been sadly overlooked in the flurry over knives and guns in woolies

I too love Mr Arse and am starting a fan club for him.

M&S always let you in stors without loos - they have to escort you but that has never been a problem for me - more for DD who gets terrible stage fright if someone even knows that she is going!!

My 5 year old could not wait. Halfords is off the beaten track, no public loos nearby and no other shops, only a pub.

Dh was choosing a bike costing hundreds of pounds, he was talking about suspension, saddles, safety, bad weather maintenance and insurance plans, not buying a quick loaf of bread.

If I was in the town centre with other options I wouldn't mind so much. I had no other option and my ds could not have waited.

ELC didnt let us use their toilet once

I suppose at the end of the day if they let one, they have to let them all

My DP works in retail and the policy is not to let anyone use the staff toilets. He is very nice and will let small children, older people and pregnant ladies go for a wee but only when his manager is not around because he is not supposed to.

He is not a mean person, he always tells people where the nearest toilet is but ultimately this is his job and whilst I am sure some people he refuses may think he is a spotty ignorant teenager he is just doing his job. Like everyone he has company policy to follow.

My dp works in a store like halfords too - in a retail park type place.

He cannot always tell childrens ages too - he usually only lets toddlers in to stop 8/9 yr olds who could hold it using the toilets, the shopboy may not have been familiar with how 5 yr old boys bladders work.

It's not the retailers fault though is it? Legally I beleive that toilets only have to be available to the public when food or drink is being sold to eat on the premises. If there is one toilet for the staff I don't think it's unreasonable to want to discourage members of the public from using it - of course discretion should be used when pregnant women or young children want to use it but I can't help feeling that all this moral outrage is a bit much Spotty teenagers aren't all that good at using their common sense and he was just following the rules he'd been told. It's the fault of the local council if there isn't a nearby public toilet or the owners of the shopping centre.

Twas not his bladder smurf but his bowels.

He was red faced, holding his bum and hopping.

Look, I am not an unreasonable person. I wasn't asking for anything for free, or for a lie down in a drak room while they pour me a glass of wine. My son needed the toilet, there was one there and we were told he could not use it.

Whoever's 'fault' that is, they are unreasonable not me.

... which reminds me, when I was a teenager, I had to lie down for 10 minutes in a shop's staff toilet once after a heavy night. I came over all weird at the bus stop. I still think it was the pork chops we'd had for dinner but my mate reckons it was the Stella.

I threatened to go elsewhere unless the let ds use the loos. And they lat him. And we didn't die.

I said show me the toilet or the bike get's it and took out my gun.