Or was Pizza Hut?

[Scarlett555]

Took my DD (4) to the park after school. She suddenly announces she's desperate for a wee - no toilets in the park and it's a 15 minute walk home.

Park is packed with kids from her school and near a busy road with lots of cars going past - no opportunity for a quick wee behind a bush.

There is a Pizza Hut near the park and so I take her in there and ask nicely if we could use the toilet.

The waitress states toilets are for customers only.

I explain it's for my DD, she's only 4 and isn't going to make it home.

Waitress repeats toilets are for customers only and we would have to stay and buy a meal if we use the toilets.

Restaurant was practically empty, only one table occupied.

We left and of course DD wet herself on the way home, poor thing was really embarrassed.

WIBU to think a big chain like Pizza Hut could let a 4 year old use the toilet?

I think it's rude to expect to be able to use a business's toilets without paying. They're running a commercial enterprise not offering a public service. You could have bought something.

JacquesHammer

''Privileged'''

Holy moly. If only you knew! I'm very, very on the flipside of ''privileged''. We don't know each other so I'd refrain from speculating about our financial security.

My point was that I wouldn't deprive a little kid of toilet use. Anything else on the back of ''corporate policy'' is pretty ''robotnik''. ChurchAndStae will like that

FineWordsForAPorcupine. I was thinking in the case of a small child nearly wetting themselves. The fact there is a park nearby may not necessarily mean this would be a regular occurrence.

If councils hadn't shut a lot of public facilities then people wouldn't have to ask businesses
Our local council closed the toilet block and sold the building because they didn’t want to pay for maintenance. Their reasoning was that nearby businesses had nicer facilities anyway. So they absolutely intend for people to use business facilities.

Of course when a couple of thousand people descended on the town centre for the fireworks display and other events - the businesses were either closed or purposely locked their doors for the duration in order to prevent their facilities being trashed.

I also assume you wouldn't have been the first person to ask for their child to use the loo (possibly not even the first person today!!)

If PH is the closest thing to a park without toilets then I imagine it's a pretty regular occurrence and therefore they have a policy specific to that branch.

I think they were being a bit mean, but you could've just bought a drink to save hassel.

This reminds me of going to Budapest last year, busy shopping street, bursting for a wee, couldn't see any public toilets, ran into mcdonalds, up 3 flights of stairs to the customer toilets, bloody keypad on the door, you had to buy something and they gave you the code. I had no change on me, the same in KFC. What the fuck! I presume its to stop vagrants and addicts using the toilets but was a bit hmmmm this is strange.

Really rubbish of Pizza Hut which purports to be a family restaurant. Surely they should be a able to exercise some discretion when it’s a small child in need of a loo.

I think it's the location of the park to the restaurant that's the issue. Can you imagine how many people with children ask to use their toilets and they are the ones who have to clean it after the mess is left.

@GPatz

I was thinking in the case of a small child nearly wetting themselves. The fact there is a park nearby may not necessarily mean this would be a regular occurrence

What's more likely? That other parents at the nearby park with no public loos have been in this situation and assumed that "a big chain like pizza hut" would be happy to let their kids use the facilities, or that this is a freak occurrence that has literally only ever happened to the OP?

Similarly, is it more likely that the waitress was lying about the loos being for customers use only for her own nefarious reasons, or that pizza hut really do make their staff enact this very common rule?

There is a little cafe on the outskirts of Bristol Temple Meads station with a prominent sign in the window and the outset of the toilet. I ate there while waiting for a train (c40 minutes) and you would not believe the sheer number of CFers who saw the sign but nevertheless thought it didn’t apply to them!

All the fast food places near me in S London have keypad locks and a Code on your receipt.

Sorry if I've missed it but why didn't you take your DD to the toilet before going out to the park?
I've had similar needs with DTs but have always bought something in Starbucks/Caffe Nero etc so we were paying customers at the time

Just let her wee outside the door next time.

Shit attitude from Pizza Hut, small children can’t hold it, you weren’t a drug addict or going to do anything bad.

I struggle to hold it some times, thanks to childbirth 😬 it painful and embarrassing.

The current severe shortage of public loos is awful, and disproportionately affects the more vulnerable (children, the elderly, the disabled, pregnant women or those left incontinent after labour, not to mention those who simply don't have the money to keep going into cafes and spending money on coffees and bottles of water just in order to use the loos, etc etc). It's largely because of swingeing cuts to local authority budgets, meaning that councils are indeed increasingly relying on other sources including private businesses to provide facilities to the public for them. BBC article on the subject here.

Being glimpsed squatting by a bush in the park would have been less embarrassing and less uncomfortable than wetting herself on the pavement.

I imagine the staff in Pizza Hut get fed up of kids from the park wanting to use their toilets. It's their prerogative to allow them in or not.

This reminds me of going to Budapest last year, busy shopping street, bursting for a wee, couldn't see any public toilets, ran into mcdonalds, up 3 flights of stairs to the customer toilets, bloody keypad on the door, you had to buy something and they gave you the code. I had no change on me, the same in KFC. What the fuck! I presume its to stop vagrants and addicts using the toilets but was a bit hmmmm this is strange

No - it simply to preserve toilets in a tolerably clean state for , you know, paying customers

Yes I have eaten at that Pizza Hut before. Not for ages though as I must have the only 4 year old in the world who doesn't like pizza.

So your boycott is going to cost them nothing. Impressive!

But why only in this case? Should they let every kid from the park nearby in, or just the OPs?

Just the OP’s, @FineWordsForAPorcupine, just the OP’s

you could just send an outraged tweet and cross your fingers that a minimum wage employee loses her job. And maybe you get some vouchers or something. Sadly this is the driving force of majority of 'outraged and offended' people!

The waitress was no doubt just following instructions to ‘not let one or they’ll all be after a free wee!’ If it’s in a place where there are no other wee stops around they probably get it all the time.

No need to make a big deal or boycott the place, just learn from it.

It reminds me of a road trip I was on, got a bit lost on a long drive in Austria and this restaurant in the middle of nowhere let a convoy of us all use the loo, even let us see maps to get us back on track. We all put money in their tip jar so they did alright out of it!

I presume its to stop vagrants and addicts using the toilets

Yes. And also people from just nipping in and using the toilets without buying anything.

Have you any idea how grim, time consuming and expensive it is to maintain a toilet that the public use? People behave like absolute animals - smearing faeces around, blocking the toilets, vandalising the facilities, etc. It is truly shocking. I can only assume you've never had to deal with it, or you'd realise that asking people to make a small purchase rather than opening it up to all and sundry isn't at all unreasonable.

Bear in mind that even public toilets aren't always free to use nowadays. Where I live, they mostly charge 20p.

She was only doing her job I suppose but it is harsh. Maybe there had been a clamp down and they had been told to refuse access.
A few fast food places have codes on the door so you can only access by buying something first and then the code is on the receipt!
I know a few people who would have just used the loo regardless or said ' I'll buy some thing after' then just walked out!
I would have done what you did though although I have been known to sneak into a busy burger bar and used the loos but not bought anything before now.
She was a ' jobsworth' but I bet something has been said to them and she had no choice but to refuse.

OP I'm pretty surprised about your lack of initiative here, you let your poor kid wet herself??

Why didn't you just take her to a Bush or tree and let her wee there? Or in the middle of the playing field if necessary, she's only 4, she's still a little kid.

I've a 4 (nearly 5)year old and on plenty of occasions I've still had to hold her up whilst she wees in public.

Pizza hut may have been more amenable, but as pp said if they let you then they'd have to let every other kid who uses the playground in as well (as Yes can you imagine the uproar if one waitress let a white family use the loo against restaurant policy then unknowingly a different waitress didn't allow a minority family use the loo, adhering to restaurant policy?).

Yabu and rubbish of you to slander pizza hut online.