Potties in restaurants

[enchiladaenvy]

I think I've seen it all now!! Chain pub that does food, nothing posh, cheap and cheerful but always edible. Went there for lunch yesterday and a family on a nearby table whipped out a potty and sat their child on it in the middle of the bloody eating area!!

My DC are now grown up, so I admit I'm not up to date with potty training etiquette but FFS surely this hasn't become the norm now? I've never complained about children's behaviour before, I usually just quietly seethe, but this crossed a line for me and I reported it to a member of staff.

Can you imagine tucking in to your scampi and chips with someone toiletting just a few feet from you??

Was I unreasonable for reporting to staff who had a quiet word with them?

In a beer garden I wouldn't but would understand if someone did. In the pub around food it's grim. I'd take to the toilet and use it there.

Surely a potty is for use when you're out and about and not near a loo. If you're in a bloody pub or restaurant then just take the kid to the toilet and hold them over it! Madness.

Absolutely disgusting. Going to the toilet should be a private act at all ages.

Vile.

That is FOUL. Totally not etiquette. I’ve seen porta potty’s whipped out in the park, side of road etc but if there are loo facilities available/ANYWHERE people might be eating then we always hot footed it there... sometimes literally a sprint. Surely that’s the whole point of toilet training! At what point do you teach them they might have to hold it 20 seconds if you’re whipping it out under the table in a restaurant - revolting.

If you’re still in the training phase where you have about 5 seconds warning (which I appreciate happens) then you need to be at home, or continue with nappies when out.

Reminds me of training DD, and we were having a Sunday lunch in a pub and took her to the loo. She did her first poo out and about on a toilet and we were of course full of praise! She casually wandered back in to the seating area and shouted to all diners “I JUST DID A POOOOOO!!!”. I was mortified at that visual for all the people eating but about 20 people clapped and cheered her! 😂

I'm sure there was the exact same thread before 🤔

Every six months or so!

No. I wouldn't have taken a potty anywhere except a long car journey. There are toilets in pubs for this!

Utterly revolting. I

When mine were potty training, I had a big bag with a change of clothes, wipes and a potty in a plastic carrier bag. If they said they needed a wee, I grabbed the bag and the child to go into the toilets, where I could easily dispose of the contents of the potty.

I was at a kid's theatre show and someone whipped the potty out in the aisle whilst the performance was going on. Thankfully an usher directed them outside once they saw what was happening. It's just grim to do that in an indoor space where people are eating and drinking and toilets are metres away.

Oh god maybe that was me talking behind you in the queue 🤣😅😅 Just joking but I literally have so much poo, sick and wee at home with a newly potty trained toddler and a baby that I feel I’ve just become immune to bodily functions. MUST remember in public to be discreet! It IS disgusting to other people, totally agree. When you’re in the thick of it sometimes you forget.

I'd be interested to hear why anyone would think this was acceptable?
Potties /nappy changing, out and about publicly, are for bathrooms only.
No wonder communicable diseases spread with that level of filth.

That's really made me laugh!! Poor you though.

I completely agree that what OP saw was revolting and inappropriate, but there's no way my fairly freshly potty-trained DC would go if I dangled him over an open toilet bowl too big for him to sit on. We have a foldable seat adaptor which we take with us now that he's used to the idea of proper toilets, but before he was prepared to use that we had a sealable travel potty which we'd use in the cubicles in the toilets.

People change dirty nappies on tables in cafés now. Apparently, there are zero boundaries left. It's vile, as was whipping out a potty, and you were not unreasonable at all.

It’s very poor manners (actually it’s grim) but unfortunately a sign of a certain generation these days where they simply don’t see or understand that certain standards of decency apply. Let alone exposing their child’s genitals for all to see.

betterangels · Today 12:44
People change dirty nappies on tables in cafés now. Apparently, there are zero boundaries left. It's vile, as was whipping out a potty, and you were not unreasonable at all.

Never seen this, thank goodness. Would raise merry hell if I did. Completely unacceptable.

That's disgusting. Everyone should have told them to go in the toilets! Gross and entitled.

I've seen someone do this in a cafe years ago during the Edinburgh fringe, they weren't sitting next to me, thank god

Some people can be disgusting.

Me neither, and I have little kids so I've been in that world for years now. I've seen the occasional wet nappy changed like that but never a dirty one. I really don't think it's a new norm or anything.

Some people are disgusting.

Oh this is grim! I’m currently potty training my 2 year old and we always take a potty but use it in a toilet cubicle, I wouldn’t even think of doing it in the middle of the restaurant! Unpleasant for everyone but also not nice for the toddler! I’d have complained too

Yes it’s gross but it’s not a “nowadays” thing. There has always been a section of people who’ve done things like that. I remember the potty being whipped out for us in the gym during our mums keep fit class 30 odd years ago. I also remember as a child seeing one set out in the cinema as well as a pub by other families. And these were the old fashioned type not any of the travel ones with lids.