Child using potty in public

[Moominfan]

I'm pretty easy going, bordering on complacent to mumsnet standards. Went to a fair today. Kid and dad in queue. Dad whips out Potty and the kid does their business there and then. Is this what I have to look forward to? Mines not potty trained yet. Would most people atleast go hide behind a bush or something? There were loads of people around. Place was heaving.

If a parent is supporting their child to respond to bodily functions instead of training them to sit in their own faeces for a few more years for convenience sake (sorry i mean until they are 'ready')

There is little to no point in attempting to toilet train a child who is not showing signs of readiness. Who wants to spend months on end wiping piss off the floor, doing extra laundry, and having their child's confidence knocked by the many accidents?

Waiting until a child is ready and showing clear signs of readiness isn't a matter of convenience, it's a matter of good sense.

It very true that if your child is ready it’s not that hard @User8888888. My son was toilet trained at 2.5 and my daughter at 2. I started in the summer and went in the garden a lot so any accidents were easily cleaned up. Picked a week for us not to go out much and was done pretty easily. The scenario you describe with being somewhere with no toilets would be rare and we’d just find a bush. I never knew of a poo emergency tbh, I think that’s quite unusual. If you plan to carry a potty around please do your child a favour and find somewhere discreet. Let’s give them ^some^ dignity at least 😂. Good luck!!

A few weeks ago we went to a cafe and sat outside as the weather was nice. About halfway through the little boy near us sat down on his potty and proceeded to give everyone a running commentary on his shite.

That is just vile. What on earth goes on in people's heads to make them think that this is in any way ok?

My DS1 suddenly announced that he needed "emergency bigs" (which I correctly took to mean impending diarrhoea, as things turned out.

He had been clean and dry for almost a year but this was a situation where we were watching the Queen Mother opening a bridge, and there were no toilets nearby.

So I rushed him to the nearest private space and he did what he had to do...……….before we got there...……..right in front of Her Maj's helicopter.

If a parent is supporting their child to respond to bodily functions instead of training them to sit in their own faeces for a few more years for convenience sake (sorry i mean until they are 'ready')

This is so hysterical. Nobody sits in their shit because they're in nappies. You will know when they've done a poo and change them. Much nicer than having a panic 5 times a day for years because dear little Johnny is toilet trained but only if you can whip a potty out with 30 seconds notice.

You're also basically transferring the inconvenience onto the general public who don't want to see or smell your child's excrement in John Lewis or a fair.

I totally agree, Doom. Let's give our toddlers a break, and not jeopardise their long-term psychological health by expecting them to master a developmental stage they are not biologically or cognitively ready for.

We saw it in the restaurant in an hotel on holiday - they’d bought a special travel potty with a lid especially. Pretty gross and am sure between mum, dad, grandma and grandad someone could have taken her to the (very) near toilet.
Made sure we didn’t sit anywhere near them for the rest of the week!

Parents can’t win. They’re lazy if they’re not potty trained in time for nursery and then told they’re pushing the kids who aren’t ready into potty training by carrying a potty around with them. Seriously!! No wonder parents are stressed. The parent in question could have a child waiting to go to a nursery who won’t take them in nappies and is doing everything they can to get their child using the potty. Some kids take a week. Some kids take weeks. My eldest child wasn’t toilet trained until she was in reception and 4 years old. We tried and abandoned it several times. I was called lazy and it was assumed I’d hadn’t tried and was expecting the school to do it. It was forced in her even at that age. She now has phobias of certain toilets that she point blank won’t use and will still wet and soil herself in those situations despite being 10 years old. Her sister toilet trained herself before she was 2 and took about a week.

Don’t judge other parents for trying their best in a world where advice and expectations are constantly changing.

Parents can’t win

They absolutely can. But putting your child on a potty among a crowd of strangers is always a massive fail. As is getting the potty out in John Lewis.

@ScrewyMcScrewup. I personally wouldn’t. The crowded fairground I can understand. I certainly wouldn’t in a shop or a restaurant. But I try not to judge people who do - unless it was at the table in a cafe, really would judge that one.

As an FYI, nurseries/pre-schools can't refuse a child for being in nappies.

I used to carry a potty around in public (discretely in the buggy) with DD1 (now 10). I never put her on a potty in a queue, though, that would be a step too far. I would have taken her to the toilet with the potty before queueing up. (I’m assuming that there would have been public toilets not too far away.)

With DD2 (now 7), I left it later and never had to carry a potty around; it stayed in the car. That was much better.

I have a 45 minute school run. If DC2 has to go at the start of the journey I can’t let him shit his pants and sit in it for the whole journey. Can’t use the toilets at school anyway and there are none on the dual carriageway to stop at while we are driving. I keep a potty in the back of the car for such occasions, it’s called a Potette and the bags tie up and get thrown in the bin. If you think that’s disgusting, I don’t care

To the posters who would rather their kids poo in parks and behind bushes I hope to goodness you carry plastic bags with you to take the poo away and dispose of. It’s disgusting to leave for other people to tread in.

Parents who take out a potty in public for their child to toilet on deserve to get judged. It’s disgusting and completely unnecessary

Kids shitting and pissing into potties in John Lewis.

Some parents really are the most selfish turds.

Sorry, I missed that post about there being toilets but not nearby. But they still could have gone there first before queuing up. If a child needs to go again so quickly and can’t wait, they probably should be in a pull up, I think.

I used to take the potty in the car and I would take them back to the car if possible and sit them on it on the tail gate. Also woods and dense bushes and once in an alleyway of a city over a drain. I always tried to be a discrete as possible.

We never had to deal with a poo thankfully only pee.

@DoomOnTheBroom. Our nursery did just that. I explained she wasn’t potty trained and they told me to send her in knickers and she would just pick it up and follow the crowd. She’s 10 and still won’t use a school toilet.

I happily judge the disgusting parents who do this.

Our nursery did just that. I explained she wasn’t potty trained and they told me to send her in knickers and she would just pick it up and follow the crowd. She’s 10 and still won’t use a school toilet.

That was really shitty of them to put you and your DD in that position, I can see why it's given her toileting issues.

How do you delicate little flowers cope when out in the park a dog takes a piss within your eye line and your DH has forgotten to bring the smelling salts?

Stop being a lazy parent who lets their kid piss and shit in inappropriate locations.

'why yes, Harry darling, of course you can take a dump beside the Clinique counter'.

And then we wonder why kids are still in nappies at 4yrs of age