To think toddlers/young kids are not thought of

[Doncarlos]

It’s one of those things you don’t have to consider until you’re a parent, but I feel like in certain situations toddlers are totally disregarded.

Two examples;

1. we have a big Sainsbury’s nearby that has a large baby changing room. Inside there’s a set up for a baby change station then a cubicle within that room with an adult toilet, so it’s great you can take a baby in and go for a wee yourself. But there’s nowhere for a small child to use the toilet. The adult toilet is difficult for them to use and when they do manage that, you have to lift them up to the sink (normal height and set back into the changing unit worktop), but the single push down tap releases water that feels uncomfortably hot for my hands, you couldn’t possibly allow a child to use it.

2. visited one of the new parks that have been installed locally. The only thing suitable for young child is a slide but it’s quite high so you have to be confident they won’t drop off the climb up. That’s it, everything else is designed for older kids. The climbing equipment is all open sided so too many points for them to accidentally fall off. I’ve been to so many parks in other countries where smaller kids can play happily on more than just a swing without you fearing they’ll fly off a 6ft drop.

Does anyone else find this a very annoying part of life with a small child?

I fully agree about letting them explore and my child certainly isn't wrapped in bubble wrap, but when the platform is above my head and I can only just about reach his ankles, it would be pretty stupid of me to just let him loose. He's 3, I can't assume he'll just stop when he needs to. That's the sort of thing I mean.

Lift your child onto the toilet and up to the sink. How do you think the rest of us have coped for years. If you want every facility under the sun in every establishment it has to be paid for - I don’t want to pay for people’s sheer laziness.

You’re creating problems that don’t exist.

Some park equipment is deliberately designed so toddlers cannot access it so that older children can play without risk to the younger children. Older children are faster and stronger.

I think it is true in some places but not all so you do have to change your habits when you have young children and actively seek out the places that are good.

I do agree with this to an extent but it also makes in inaccessible for children with disabilities
It is even harder to find suitable places for disabled children than young children.

We have good parks for toddlers in my area but I agree about public toilets.

So you have a large changing room with toilet and sink. That's for more than previous generations have, I rember having to change a baby on a toilet floor 30 years ago. You have a toilet and sink, lift them up for heavens sake. God this generation makes me mad.

This is a real bug bear of mine too! When mine were small, if they couldn’t climb it/do it by themselves with light supervision from me then they didn’t go on it. It wasn’t fair on older children who the item was designed for.

Now they are older, I find it so frustrating that they sometimes have to wait patiently behind a 2 year old trying to climb a 6ft cargo net at a glacial pace when a toddler friendly version of EXACTLY THE SAME THING is about 10 meters to the left.

It's almost as though the world doesn't revolve around your every whim.

Sometimes life has inconveniences, sometimes we just have to suck it up.

The water in that particular bathroom is too hot. If it’s too hot for a toddler it’s also too hot for an adult so the issue is with the tap.

You have a playground 25 mins away that has toddler stuff and the one closer to you doesn’t.

Its doesn’t mean that in general toddlers and young kids are not thought of.
There are a lot of group of people in society far more in need of resources than parents of young kids.

A toddler can be lifted onto a toliet, or you can take a few toys to the park.

I think the absolute opposite ( maybe not regards the bathroom though) , I have 3 much older kids and as a teacher with summer off it’s a billion times harder entertaining preteens (mine are sporty and not even that screen focused) , so much is geared for small kids ;softplays , playgroups, events in the library wall for small kids, playgrounds, people give so much more leeway when you have little kids . I still have 3 children but way less facilitating and any info re support is aww for parents of babies and toddlers .

Maybe my friends and I are all reckless daredevils, but our toddlers have been up on the big equipment since about 14m old?

So long as they can climb up themselves, you just "mark" the drops and teach them to be careful - much healthier for them to take calculated risks and learn to be careful.

Big kids go on the little kids stuff and little kids on the big kids - some like to play it safe, some like the adrenaline rush. Tbh, I find that at least with toddlers there's a parent supervising closely (I move my son out of the way of faster older kids), but with older kids on the toddler equipment, the parents are nowhere to be seen, failing to stop their big kids bowling over the little ones.

I think this. Most of the free or in any way cheap activities in my area are aimed at young kids, especially stuff in the library. It’s ok for me right now as my kids are pretty young, but I have thought what am I going to do with them when they are a few years older.

And people aren’t as nice about facilitating bigger kids. They are seeing are annoying and potentially problematic.

That's understandable. Completely relate.

There is research to show that relaxing the boundaries more is beneficial for children. Playgrounds, even if they're set up for older children, do tend to have safety features that make serious injuries less likely (and small bumps are beneficial to let them know their current capabilities). I wish I'd been able to internalise this when my daughter was younger as I was a hoverer and I believe it does more harm than good! Of course if it's genuinely dangerous then you can't relax too much.

People notice things when they need them. And when they don't need them they don't care (any more).

See also pregnant women at work, people like Sheryl Sandberg handwave the issues away until it affects them.

Campaign. Ask the managers. Get signatures?

I’ve never experienced that and I’ve had three toddlers. They can use a normal toilet, don’t you have a normal toilet at home. Mine were toilet trained on the toilet I didn’t bother with a potty (who wants to empty that no thanks!). They hold the sides and never once fell in. They have a step at home to use to wash their hands but lifting them to a sink in a public toilet or at a friends house takes a few seconds.

Our parks have baby swings, slides that are suitable for anyone who can climb (so mine were comfortably using age 15 months ish), seesaws you can hold them on, roundabouts they can sit on and you push. Wooden play trains to sit in and pretend. Some have sandpits and paddling pools too. A few of the bigger ones have some really great toddler specific areas. All these standard issue park things are great for toddlers but do of course need parent involvement.

All mine did

Most playparks I've been to in the UK have a range of stuff for kids up to about 10 years - mix of toddler things then swings & zip lines. I've been unimpressed with city playparks abroad compared to what we've used in the UK.
Agree there are fewer free activities aimed at pre-teens & teens. Can't recall there being much other than paid for sports camps when I was a kid.

Whilst I don't have an issue with taking my 3 year old on bigger toilets - we were in Italy last month and the airport there had toddler toilets in the baby change room and it was amazing. My little boy was so happy to feel independent and that he could get on/off himself, I get the cost implications mean they're not worth doing everywhere but it was great!

With the parks I agree somewhat - I tend to go to a few specific ones near where I live as the closest 2 have nothing he can use safely. Just annoying they can't put a little something for everyone in all parks I guess!

There should be more little loos. Ikea has them.

one I find crazy is soft play. Why do the soft plays not have little loos? Literally most of their clients are too small to use standard loos independently

the UK is not great at including kids. In my mum's home country in central Europe, where my parents have a holiday home and we go a lot, it's pretty standard in any restaurant, for example, to have a children's area with toys and we really appreciated that when the kids were little. Rather than having to stay at a table and wait, kids could play safely near at hand. It's small thing but it makes a big difference.

Can't please all of the people all of the time.

In the case of little ones using the loo: I wouldn't want them sitting on any public loo seat!!! Yikes! You can buy kiddo seats (same as you use at home - but smaller) that you can take with you - they usually have a carry bag. Or lift your child while they are peeing. Some little boys may prefer to pee sitting down, but for public toilet purposes I would strongly urge you to encourage them to pee standing up - the less amount of contact with a loo seat the better.

The toilet example is weird, why would you expect a little toilet especially made for toddlers? That would then double the cost, cleaning and maintainance of the toilet (and seems totally unnecessary! Take a little toilet seat if you must).

All playgrounds are different and suitable for different ages I've found. I'd rather this than each playground only have one or two pieces of equipment to cater for all ages 0-13+ You'll realise this as your child gets older. I'm so appreciative of all the different playgrounds available, and it's nice too as you tend to go to different ones as they change age which gives variety as well.

I do get what you're saying in general, but obviously apply a bit of common sense too. You can't cater for all ages, abilities and needs. YABVVU.

I have never avoided sitting on a toilet seat, nor have I discouraged my children from doing so. That's not an unnecessary neurosis I want to saddle them with.

Can't say I've ever been annoyed by there being an 'adult toilet' for a child!
My child has always used an 'adult toilet'. If she can't get on I've put her on myself. And I've often lifted her to the sink as well.

Bit annoying about the playground. Maybe that's something you can feed back