AIBU to think a seven-year-old going alone to restaurant toilets is unsafe?

[MountainBiker]

Central London chain restaurant. Small 7 year old on the next table (definitely 7, she had a badge and a birthday balloon tied to the back of her chair) went off to the toilet on her own.
Toilets were out of sight, downstairs, in a corridor of floor to ceiling unisex cubicles.
Am I a helicopter parent or do most people think this is unsafe?
YABU: kids should be able to cope with this by age 7
YANBU: more supervision is required

This happened at my local sainsburys a few years ago. A young child, cant remember if a boy or girl, was assaulted in the toilets by a trans"woman" which was actually a man😡

There have been several cases of children being assaulted in supermarket and other toilets as pp have noted. Why on earth would you say it sounds made up?

There was an horrific case years ago of a girl assaulted in public toilets in a forest/park. And I remember the cases involving the male trans person in Scotland. I think those girls were around 10/12?

maybe they go every week. Maybe they are comfortable that the child won’t get locked in cubicle etc who knows

Gosh, that sounds horrific!

Threads like this are real eye openers to me. People really feel they have to take their dc to the toilet into their teen years? It just doesn't seem necessary to me. I think most school age dc can manage fine.

Teens no. But not a child alone at 7/8 or in my case 9

just not worth the risk

anyone can loiter in toilets and feel vulnerable when half undressed

My 8 yr old will now sometimes go on his own if we can see the toilet from where we are (restaurant, softplay etc) my 5 yr old would love to go alone but I go too with the exception of changing room toilets at sports where we're in the changing room

But no one has answered the question about what needs to be done if you insist on taking the child in. If I was 8 or 9 what was my dad suppose to do? Take me in the gents? Or go in the ladies with me?

It's not so simple then

I had a similar experience but it was my mum
who spotted the guy following me to the loos. I was 14 so older but still would have been trapped in an isolated, downstairs loo if she hadn’t come after me. I’m over cautious because of that experience. Or perhaps it’s not being over cautious.

DD (8) routinely goes to restaurant loos alone if we're somewhere familiar and they aren't on a different floor or something. In these circumstances I'd probably have gone with her but she does often go to the loo alone.

Yanbu my 11yo would often ask to go alone but i say no, either me or her younger sister go with her. Generally my two go together

Your dad should have waited outside the ladies. In the same way that mums of boys aged 8+ should wait outside the gents.

That's a different scenario though to this situation where there was a long corridor of unisex toilets

Too young IMO.

Because I am aware different people have different parenting styles. That's why I started this thread to see if others felt the same way as me

Maybe they do. Although unlikely to that venue as they were up in London for the day to go to the theatre. Before anyone accuses me of being nosy, it was a restaurant with shared long tables so some of their party were sitting right next to me

Did the child come back safely? I assume so or you would have said.

So it was safe. Maybe more of a risk than you like, but it was safe.

My dad took me into disabled loos until I was maybe 8/9 or so, can’t really recall. I do remember landing in Mexico and having terrible altitude sickness so he had to take me into a disabled loo then too. Never went into the mens.

But that wouldn't have stopped me being harassed etc inside would it. Which is what people are saying. It's also be said about mums taking older boys in the ladies. Obviously one rule for one .....

Obviously I had to go in alone much younger than that as no choice. . Dad did wait outside the toilets , especially at white hart lane

I have allowed it from as soon as they wanted to. Definitely from age 5.5/6 if I could see the loos.

But I live in a country where it is totally normal for kids to walk to school alone age 6.

Maybe there is a risk of something happening. But the rosk of something fatal happening whilst out in the car much higher and so far not heard many parents bot driving their kids anywhere due to the 'risk'

No way. I don’t even like leaving my 7 year old outside the toilet cubicle while I’m in there. I tell him to keep talking to me while Im
using the toilet and to put his foot under the door (where possible)

I wouldnt judge either way. Generally i would have let mine at that age because for me the bit i was looking at was the potential risk of getting hurt by a stranger (really low although not impossible) versus the certain risk if i dont let my kids do things which build their independence and confidence.

I let my kids mountain bike, i let them swim in the sea, i will let them drive when they are 17. Does each one of these come with a risk - yes.

I wouldn’t allow it at that age, no.

I wouldnt but maybe they have been there many times. I think id prefer to escort them though.

I missed that question

Handicapped toilet

or girl opens woman’s toilets and checks to see if anyone in it and same with men’s and guess then goes in and dad waits outside and asks other men to wait for a few mins

or vice versia - tho nicer for her to be in woman’s than man’s

I've let my 5 (almost 6) year old got to the toilet on her own in familiar places. If she felt confident to do so I'd tell her to go for it!