3 year old peeing in a potty in the corner of a museum

[Griddlesizzle]

As it says in the title. Mother just whips the potty out and the child pees away, without the mum even asking anyone if there was a loo nearby. As a side point, the loo was less than 10m away…

Ai by - it’s pretty vile
Aibu - what else are you gonna do?

Can't really get outraged about this.

If the choice is a) potty in the corner, or b) wet puddle on the museum floor (as opposed to 5 minutes spent finding the toilet), then anyone with an ounce of common sense must see that a) is preferable and much less unpleasant for museum-goers and staff.

Personally, I avoided this exact scenario by keeping my DC in pull-ups when we were out and about until they were 100% trained and able to hold it for at least a few minutes (even when they were wearing pants at home). Saved a lot of stress. DC would tell me they needed to go, we'd look for a toilet and if we didn't find one in time, no big deal.

Haven't read the full thread, but hope the parent did a quick check that they weren't in view of CCTV...I mean imagine being that kid, growing into an adult in some famous job, with images of you on the potty!
More seriously though, people have camera phones and it takes seconds to load an imagine on to the internet.

My DC are autistic, amongst other issues, and wherever possible I don't take them into situations that I know they'll struggle to handle. I have radar keys for the toilets so that they don't encounter hand driers that they don't have control over.

I'd be pretty revolted if a child was pissing in a museum.

Surely as a parent it is your duty to scope out where toilets are when you are going to be in a public building for a prolonged visit.
I would generally get my kids to go to the toilet prior to starting to go round an attraction and again before exiting.
It's good to get them into the habit of thinking of these needs, it helps as they grow up. First they know where the toilets are located and also you are unlikely to be doing emergency dashes.

Wouldn't bother me at all.

Wouldn't bother me in the slightest - better a potty than a puddle.

But gross but does it impact on you? No.

It’s ok saying a child should ‘wait two minutes’. Try explaining that one to my 3 year old with very limited speech. You can’t ever assume things.

Clocktopus, you are lucky that you have radar keys. Not everyone with an autistic child has access to those facilities. My son was not diagnosed until he was 6.

My only two options for were to either stay at home, or use a portable potty.

Other options would be to take the potty into the baby change or use a non-radar key accessible toilet.

The kid’s tiny, it’s not as though it pee’d on the floor so I don’t really get the angst. Why can’t people just assume mum and child have their reasons, unclench and just go on with their days?

Tbf though it was hellish trying to get DD into a public toilet, full on screaming meltdowns. It only wore off when she started nursery (happily this was two weeks after starting potty training). We would end uo having to take her to the car so she could do a a wee in the boot (always screened from view etc). I was at a complete loss what to do and it could very well have continued, I’m fairly sure I had nothing to do with resolving the problem.

However we still found a way for her to pee without being in full view - it is about her dignity and other peoples comfort. I do have sympathy with parents who struggle to get their kids into public toilets or those with disabilities.

People saying use pull ups or nappies for longer, you do realise a disposable nappy takes 500 years in landfill? For a child to wait 10 minutes you’re probably looking at training a year later. That’s 1000’s of nappies in landfill! I personally don’t think we should be having 3 year olds in nappies unless it’s necessary.

We trained age 2, I planned visits would usually use toilets or a potty in the car boot. I wouldn’t think anything of this though.

We do a fair amount of park wees (discretely) when there is no other option too.

Surely you keep a pair of nappy pants on dc when out until fully potty trained? I've never heard of taking a potty out in public

Couldn’t get worked up about a little wee. Seeing someone bend over in the street and pick up a steaming turd with their hand in a little plastic bag gets me every time though 🤢

I thought this was why pull-ups were invented. Sort of toilet-trained but not 100%. If we were going out for the day my dcs would always wear a pull-up just in case. Especially if we were going on a bus, a possibility of being stuck in heavy traffic, out and about in London etc. We never had potties anyway so I suppose that's why it would never have crossed my mind to take one out with us!

Disgusting. You just take the kid out quickly and find a toilet. Holding a wee for a couple of minutes is a good thing to learn. Otherwise a child just thinks it can go anywhere and at any time.

@Bumblebee1223

People saying use pull ups or nappies for longer, you do realise a disposable nappy takes 500 years in landfill? For a child to wait 10 minutes you’re probably looking at training a year later. That’s 1000’s of nappies in landfill! I personally don’t think we should be having 3 year olds in nappies unless it’s necessary.

We trained age 2, I planned visits would usually use toilets or a potty in the car boot. I wouldn’t think anything of this though.

We do a fair amount of park wees (discretely) when there is no other option too.

And I guess YOU do realise that there are other options?

For example take your child to the toilet regularly and plan being close to a toilet into your day.

Or if your child isn’t ready for potty training but you are concerned about your environmental impact there are other options there too - like reusable nappies.

Clocktopus, I did use those options where I could. But it took him a long time to even be able to go near the toilets, he was so afraid of the hand driers, if he even saw one he would melt down.

I also have another son with autism who did not have issues like this, I never had to use the potty with him.

@LookingGlassMilk

Clocktopus, you are lucky that you have radar keys. Not everyone with an autistic child has access to those facilities. My son was not diagnosed until he was 6.

My only two options for were to either stay at home, or use a portable potty.

You can buy radar keys on Amazon, just like I did (have a disability myself)

Yanbu. My mum tells me that she used to take the potty on the bus for me to use! She didn't want to keep me in nappies any longer as she'd have to wash them ( no disposables in those days).

I'm told I was only a year old, certainly less than 2, so too young imo.

Still cringe thinking of it even though I can't remember it

People saying use pull ups or nappies for longer, you do realise a disposable nappy takes 500 years in landfill? For a child to wait 10 minutes you’re probably looking at training a year later. That’s 1000’s of nappies in landfill! I personally don’t think we should be having 3 year olds in nappies unless it’s necessary.

What a load of twaddle. If you cared so much you’d get cloth nappies instead of using disposables in the first place and then trying to potty train your child before they’re actually ready.

@DeepaBeesKit

I don't see why parents ever see this as appropriate.

If it's the difference between
a) puddles if urine in the floor
b) waiting until children are about four to potty train (and creating landfill nappy mountains)
c) occasionally using a potty in an an antisocial location in an emergency

I would pick c, personally.

Or D) Take them to the loo every hour and just wait for them to have a wee, you know like most of us do 🙄, Jesus put yourself out a bit, parent your child to get used to the real world I hate lazy parents like you, every child deserves some privacy

@Kanaloa like I said, we usually planned toilet breaks. The fact is most people have busy lives and don’t want to use reusable nowadays. I couldn’t get worked up over a portable potty and still think it’s a better opinion than a pull up in those early months.