Kids doing their business in parks.

[Happycabbage]

As a regular user of parks, I regularly hear about people complaining about dogs doing their business in parks, but what rarely gets mentioned is how big a problem there is with kids doing the same.

And I'm not talking about your 14 year old that got caught short, I'm talking about what tons of brainless parents make happen.

Sit near a kids play area on any busy sunny day and you'll be witness to a never ending procession of toddlers escorted by parents heading for the nearest bushes.

All the parents think it's just them but anyone that spends any time nearby on a busy day can see it's one after another after another, all heading for the same bushes, all thinking nobody is noticing them and you know what, it's only one kids crap, what does it matter?

But no it's all day, and day after day. It happens in every busy park. It frequently ends up in the same handful of bushes. It's utterly disgusting and the parents that contribute to it are bad parents. Everyone complains about dogs but human crap is so much worse.

If you're one of those brainless people, can you please think about other people for once and stop being so disgusting? Take your kids to the damn toilets. It may be further away but it's what decent people do.

You are not a happy cabbage OP, you are a grumpy cabbage .😡🥬😡

I really can't see an issue with any human (adult or child) peeing in a bush if they're caught short. As a dog walker, I often do "wild wees" en-route to various locations - especially during COVID when all the public toilets were closed.

Poos are grim but all children can get caught short at some point - as long as parents clean up or bury it, I can't get too worked up.

I've hardly ever seen children take a piss "in the wild". Some men, however, seem to piss on a tree every chance they get...

Our park doesn’t have toilets and the local pub landlady shouts at parents if they try to use pub toilets.

Many young children can only hold it for a few minutes, sometimes seconds, after they feel the urge. (Google pollakuria).

If your local park has a steady stream of chilsren heading into the bushes, then:
a. Stop watching, that’s creepy.
b. It isn’t the families’ fault that local council toilet facilities aren’t close enough to the playground.
c. No one is making you hang out there. Maybe drive on by to a different place.
d. Humans have been weeing in bushes since time began. Who are you to suddenly ban it?

The thing is, there often are no toilets. I've two toddlers. If one of them needs a wee I have approximately 2-3 minutes to get them somewhere to do, it and pull their clothes down before they piss all over themselves and the floor. So I will quickly dash to a bush. It's not possible to pack up and leave the park with two small kids before they wee on the floor anyway.

People leaving human shit in bushes is not a common occurrence op, it's mostly small toddler wees.

And there aren't any toilets most of the time so what are we meant to do?! I could bring a potty and then tip it out into a bush, if that makes you feel better ?!

Do you have children Op?

I once went for a wee behind a bush in Epping Forest and found a half a crown, which was two and a half times my pocket money . I was over the moon.

(About 12 and a half pence if any one cares. )

@bloodyplanes - If you take a portable potty what do you do with the wee in the potty? Do you take it home?

You need to write to the local council and complain that there are a lack of public toilets despite the hefty amount of council taxes that we are forced to pay. If there is enough pressure they may rethink their ridiculous decision to get rid of most of our public facilities. In relation to any comments made on here about dog mess, human bodily funtions are generally not as diseased or dangerous as dogs.

My children have had many a wild wee behind bushes over the years.

I agree with the OP. People use this as the easy option most of the time. I've always planned my trips with young children around whether there's toilet access or not. There may be occasions where a toddler really can't wait but this should be a last resort and infrequent still. They should be able to wait a few minutes till they get to the loo if they're trained that way. They get the hang of it quite quickly. I'm very experienced with young children I'm not just saying it. It's just usually easier for the parent to go in the nearest bush.

This can't be a real post. Surely.

Let kids wee when they need a wee. And stop hanging around in park bushes.

Urine is no longer sterile once it leaves the body. It’s grim and it stinks. I can imagine that parents choose to do this as an emergency solution but I don’t want to teach DS that peeing in public - in a bush or not - is something that’s acceptable under normal circumstances.

Is your kid actually toilet trained then? If you are in the car what happens when you have 2 minutes or they will pee themselves? What about when you are at the checkout in the supermarket? Would you not just use pullups rather than having them peeing left right and centre? I have 2 kids and can only think of 1 occasion where 1 of them needed a wee when we couldn't get to a toilet and that was on a long journey in the wilds of the west of Ireland.

It's a shame because there should be a lot more public toilets but I can understand why councils don't want to have them because they just get abused, vandalised, used by junkies, homeless people etc etc. I don't know what the solution is. There probably isn't one.

If the OP doesn’t have kids then I’d a) query what they are doing sitting in kids play park watching this alleged “procession” of children going for a wee and/or poo in the bushes and b) if you dont have kids then you’ll never understand the urgency when your little one says suddenly “mummy I need a wee, and, knowing your little one, precisely how much time you don’t have before they wet themselves.

my 5yo loves a wild wee but she’s at an age now where she can hold it enough to get to a loo!
the only time we’ve had a wild poo was on holiday at an outdoor English heritage site and the toilets were miles away. She actually was starting with a stomach bug and ended up with diahorrea - we had no nappy bags (DH hadn’t put them in the bag 😫) and wipes which we had wrap up her dirty knickers in wipes to carry it around for 45 minutes (as DH said “oh she’ll be ok then when we got to the toilets she proceeded to vomit) also no bins to put anything dirty in.

A wild wee is one thing but the wild poo is an experience I would never wish to repeat 🤢🤢😫😫😂😂

I’ve spent a heck of a lot of time in parks over the last decade and have never noticed anyone taking their child to poo in a bush. I have taken my dc for a bush wee many times but have never seen any poo in them.
You should spend your time and energy complaining to the council about the lack of toilet facilities.

You think this is bad, I was at the airport recently and there was a little bit of astroturf with some seats outside. There was a naked toddler there with what looked like grandparents, and the kid was pissing all over the astroturf as they were taking photos. Disgusting and utterly bizarre that they thought that would be a good photo opportunity.

Our local park doesn't have a toilet. It's a good 15 min walk home or 20 mins to the nearest public loo (if the library is open).
I always made my children go to the toilet before we went to the park but inevitably, they sometimes got caught short. All my children were potty trained by 2 and when they're that young, they generally can't wait for 15 mins to get home for the loo.
If it was a wee, a discreet one in the bushes hurts no one. On the very rare occasion they needed a wild poo (happened once or twice I think), then I bagged it in a nappy bag as I would have done if my DDog had done the same and popped it in a bin.
Leaving human faeces anywhere is gross.

Bush wees are apart of growing up, I bet you did it when you were little!

I had an absolute nightmare with DD when she would withhold poo and once we were house hunting in a different city when she had to have a poo in the park. She had held it in that long it was very painful for her. There was no way it was waiting for us to find a toilet.

There often aren’t toilets. I don’t see an issue with kids weeing on a tree, and surely if they do a poo it would be picked up anyway. Some kids also have medical conditions meaning they can’t wait, why are you watching children going for a wee in the park anyway? Seems weird on your part.

Wild pooing is really unusual.

how do you know it’s poo?

why are you rummaging around in the bushes?!

Do you mean peeing or pooing? I've never come across any parent who would not bother with a toilet and just allow their child to poo in public. Pee is different, although personally I always made certain we found a toilet, going outside was definitely only in emergencies and it only happened once or twice with my son. Considering I now walk a dog who pees on every tree, I'm not going to worry about toddlers doing it too.