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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Or was Pizza Hut?

264 replies

Scarlett555 · 05/11/2019 17:09

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?

OP posts:
Bluerussian · 05/11/2019 19:45

I am sorry. That was harsh. I would let a child use my toilet any day.

McDonald's have a policy that anyone can use their loo, they don't have to buy anything.

Scarlett555 · 05/11/2019 19:48

Why didn't we use a bush? Like I said the park was packed with kids from her school. She would have been mortified to wee in front of them all, especially the older kids.

I'm hardly slandering Pizza Hut online. I asked for DD to use the toilet, was refused. As I said before if that's company policy then fair enough.

Should have got her to use the toilet at school, hindsight is a wonderful thing.

OP posts:
MidnightMystery · 05/11/2019 19:49

I'd have helped myself to the salad bar and let my DD use the loo

Furiosa · 05/11/2019 19:49

Babynamechangerr

''Yabu and rubbish of you to slander pizza hut online.''

So fucking what!!! They're a company not a person!

''lack of initiative here, you let your poor kid wet herself??''

She wet herself, it's hardly a fail. It happens and the op's asking to use toilets shows she did care.

And also slander? Pizza Hut are greasy, fatty and shit. Shove that in your pipe...

Candymay · 05/11/2019 19:50

@gypsywater I’m with you on this. I’m so bored with hearing about every issue being someone else’s fault. Park after school means making sure they use the toilet first.

Yes Pizza Hut could have allowed you but perhaps park users have used them as a public loo and they’re fed up? You had the option to buy something. You also had the option of an outdoor wee. You’ve just got to get on with it sometimes.

Bluntness100 · 05/11/2019 19:52

It's annnoying but not a big deal. Plenty of places have this rule. You just buy a coffee, ice cream, or soft drink and use the loo. Yes it's annoying you have to, but really it's better than letting your daughter pee herself on the way home instead of spending a couple of quid on an ice cream or something.

MeTheCoolOne · 05/11/2019 19:54

OP, I don’t think you were being unreasonable to ask but I think your bolshy indignant response to your request being declined is unreasonable.

You would have hoped the restaurant would have made an exception for your daughter but you can understand why they wouldn’t considering their proximity to the park.

Getting irate and boycotting PH over this is silly. It’s not unreasonable for businesses not to want people to use their toilets unless they are customers and it’s not unreasonable for the waitress to be doing her job.

handbagsatdawn33 · 05/11/2019 19:55

Hindsight is indeed wonderful, but so is foresight.

Did it never occur to OP that a child might need a wee if it wasn't the last thing to do before leaving school - especially as the journey home was delayed?

Doubletrouble99 · 05/11/2019 19:59

It's a shame a big business like that doesn't have any discretion. I have managed large retail stores and owned my own coffee shop for over 40 years and discretion was always used. We would even let a parent and child use our staff toilets. We would also make pregnant women and the elderly use them.

FineWordsForAPorcupine · 05/11/2019 20:04

We would also make pregnant women and the elderly use them

OK, I know 'make' is a typo but it's also a hilarious mental image :)

"...we would wrestle them into the khazi whether they needed it or not..."

Furiosa · 05/11/2019 20:07

I also wonder how people would feel if was an older vulnerable person requesting to use the loo.

Should they have been refused and the indignant response been that wetting themselves wasn't their concern?

LucaFritz · 05/11/2019 20:07

Basic human right to havw access to a toilet especially a 4yr old !! When ive worked in restaurants and bars etc we've always let people use the loos at our discretion and management never told us off for it. Sounds like she was having a bad day or was on a power trip at the expense of your poor Dd

AlexaAmbidextra · 05/11/2019 20:14

There is not a company on earth that would rob me of that. And yeah, I would risk a blocking from any manager to uphold this

Noble of you. But I would guess you aren’t a young worker on NMW who desperately needs their job. Hmm

Aridane · 05/11/2019 20:15

She was a ' jobsworth' - aka doing her job!

The80sweregreat · 05/11/2019 20:19

Sorry; jobsworth is a bit harsh, I suppose I was just pointing out that she was doing the job she's paid to do. Plus I also made the point that she might have been told to put a stop to people using the facilities and not then buying something. Probably company policy!

Sammy867 · 05/11/2019 20:19

I would not have let her wet herself either. I’ve been known to have to jump behind a dumpster and hover my 3 year old over a drain when in the city or even behind a bush and I think it would have been far less traumatic or memorable for her. Your body mostly shields them anyway and they usually take a few seconds and it’s over. We have the same issues; busy town but if you want the toilet you need to buy something and sometimes they just can’t hold on that long. I think as adults we hold more embarrassment about these things than our kids

brighteyeowl17 · 05/11/2019 20:23

Calling the waitress names is pathetic. Imagine she let them in after being told not to and manager was there. Could lead to a warning. She was most likely doing exactly what she has been told to do.

TitianaTitsling · 05/11/2019 20:34

basic human right to havw access to a toilet. .... Riigght so you're now going to let anyone who asks use your toilet at home or workplace as it's there human rights? Is that not meant to be in the context of those held in custody, not randomly passing somewhere?

TitianaTitsling · 05/11/2019 20:34

Their not there!

SarahTancredi · 05/11/2019 20:42

Riigght so you're now going to let anyone who asks use your toilet at home or workplace as it's there human rights?

Course not. Half of MN dont even open the door let alone let strangers in to the toilet. Besides, you cant be sure of your employment superiority when they come to you. Imagine if they turned out to be a lawyer and not part time.bar staff. Wheres the fun in that.

Winter2019 · 05/11/2019 20:44

YABU, I'm sure as it's near the park, they get loads of people with kids trying to use their toilets...it's a restaurant not public toilets. It's z shame there's no toilets in the park but it certainly isn't waitresses fault that your daughter wet herself.

dontalltalkatonce · 05/11/2019 20:45

I am sorry. That was harsh. I would let a child use my toilet any day.

So hang a sign on your door and register your home with one of those apps that lets people know where the nearest loo is.

whitetoblerone · 05/11/2019 20:52

I understand it may be company policy but you were asking for a 4 year old little girl!!

The waitress needed to forget about any policy in this instance and allow your DD to use the toilet. I'm sorry she wasn't able to!

WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll · 05/11/2019 20:54

Tweet the shit out of it.
It's one little girl, ffs.

Right, so it's a busy park that's frequently teeming with kids, but not one of the other children has ever found themselves desperate for a wee and their parent thought "Ooh, Pizza Hut will have a toilet." ?

As other posters have said, loads of people of all ages and in all circumstances sometimes find themselves desperate for a toilet - in fact, I doubt you could find a single person who could honestly say that they've never been caught short. Nobody wants to wet or crap themselves, but it doesn't make it some random company's problem to step in and take the hit to their business.

What about if a very poor and/or homeless person found themselves outside a food establishment feeling weak with hunger but penniless to pay for any food? Yes, it would be kind if the manager did decide to offer some free, but in what world would you hurl abuse at them, let alone a junior member of staff, if they said "Sorry, you're welcome to buy food, but we sell it here - we don't give it away."

Even if they did give the needy person a free sandwich, people would see and word would get around and, before long, you'd get loads of poor folk - as well as those claiming to be poor - expecting to be given a freebie. Every one of them in the queue would individually be 'just one person'.

I think, as has already been said, most people assume that they're the only one who ever thinks to make a cheeky request or otherwise things that the rules shouldn't apply to them. A PP mentioned 'vagrants' coming in to use the toilets, by which I'm assuming the intended reading was 'undesirables'. Just because you have a home and are wearing clean clothes doesn't make you any less of an undesirable when you're seeking to cost a random business money rather than being a customer from whom they can earn a profit and keep their business going.

Also, whether a vagrant or in your best finery, there's no telling as to which people will leave a toilet clean and who will leave it an appalling mess - toilets that people don't have to clean themselves are a great leveller when it comes to the risk of a user rendering it a public health hazard.

Also, I daresay that a person identifying themselves as desperate is statistically more likely to end up making a mess than a standard case of a healthy adult realising that they will need to go soon and being in a position to take their time getting there, with no risk of not quite making it and the inevitable aftermath.

Nobody would ever admit to making a huge mess in a toilet if they knew they could get away unnoticed - whether through a lack of consideration for anybody else or just pure embarrassment - they'd just scarper. If you wouldn't in your wildest dreams find yourself passing a cafe or restaurant and thinking "I've got a spare 20 minutes - I'll go and offer to clean their toilet for them" out of kindness and love for your fellow human beings, why would you think that they should risk subjecting their cleaners and paying customers to a vile, stinking, potentially unusable toilet, caused by somebody with no relationship with their business at all?

SarahTancredi · 05/11/2019 20:55

And she knows it was for the girl how?

Do you think no one who has a kid with them ever makes a mess, breaks stuff or consumes drugs/alcohol ?

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