To put my 2 year old on his potty in a restaurant?

[Volodya]

I took 2yo ds and 7mo dd up to town yesterday. We're on week 2 of potty training ds. It's going fine but I still carry a potty everywhere I go.

I was planning to get us sandwiches for lunch and sit outside but it was raining so we ended up in a museum cafe at lunchtime. Of course I tried to put ds on the potty before we went in and of course he declined to do anything.

When we were about 15 minutes into the meal, both children in high chairs, everything liberally smeared with pasta bolognese and spinach puree, dd's buggy piled high with all her lunch detritus (cool bag, bits of rice cake, muslin, blah blah), ds announced that he needed his potty. That tends to mean that he needs it NOW.

So rather than clearing everything out of the buggy, strapping in spinach-covered dd, packing everything up, picking up bolognese-covered ds, and heading off to find out where the loos were, I simply whisked the potty under the table between ds's high chair and the buggy and popped him on, crouching down in front of him so that (I hoped) he was virtually hidden from view. (It was not a busy cafe and we weren't very close to any other tables).

Within about a minute and a half I was approached by the waiter asking if we could "transfer your son to the toilets", citing health and safety and saying that he'd already had a couple of complaints from other customers! I said that I didn't see how this could be done, with dd, buggy etc and ds already on the potty...! The waiter was v sympathetic and said he completely understood but that he was in a difficult position because of other customers' complaining. Fortunately the situation was resolved at that point by ds standing up to reveal a clean potty...

So WIBU to put him in the potty in the restaurant in that situation? (WIBU to leave my house on week 2 of potty training?!) How would you have handled this differently?

Agree it is totally gross.

But also admire your bravery going out on such an ambitious trip so early into potty training. I hardly left the house for the first few weeks, and then only to whizz around the shops etc.

Pee or Poo - still very unpleasant.

my dh and dd would've barfed if they were there

very squmish when poo involved

Think about the poor kid - shitting in front of an audience of diners?

Not really reasonable, whatever way you look at it, is it?

YABU - I agree with ggirl, you should have planned better

DD potty trained recently so the "I need potty NOW!" scare is still fresh in my mind and still can safely say YABU.

In fact, I can't recall another AIBU topic that most clearly deeserved a "YABU" post.

Sorry.

hmmm i can see why you felt you had to do it and of course you shuldnt have to stay in the house while potty training but to be honest i wouldn't do this. I would wait until ds was more reliable before i put myself in that situation.

i can see why the waiter had to come and speak to you ad the other customers had complained, wonder if they had childrn though as i dont think i would actually complain about this having seen your obvious situation

i wouldnt say it was "vile" just not really proper iyswim

maybe dont go for lunches out just yet or go with a friend who has kids who can watch the baby while you take ds to loos/convenient alley etc etc

i seem to remember i didnt stay in at all when potty training, we just had a few accidents and made sure we limited it to shops with loos, and places with other kids eg baby music classes, toddlers.

Yes of course I knew it wasn't going to be poo!

YABU , of course you are.

i have just toilet trained DD, went straight to toilet , no potty and had to spend a day housebound and a few days not going too far from home.

if your child needs a poo, a potty on the floor of a crowded restaurant is not the place.

I'm sorry but you are seriously deranged to think that was acceptable

Agree - it's gross. Personally didn't go far from the house during early potty training stages and tried to restrict that to the great outdoors. I admire your ambition though .

Oh, but peeing in a restaurant is okay?!

and i didnt take dd anywhere to lunch on my own until she was reliable to within a couple of minutes

Picnics! Those are our solution during potty training.

Not restaurants. And in a museum, at this time of year, you can be sure there'll be plenty of tourists and people without kids who just don't want to be around that.

Hence, why there are toilets.

he takes a minute and a half to wee?

i presumed you meant he was pooing

then you have enough time to run to the toilets with him and your DD.. and you grab a waiter and ask them to watch all your things

I remember a less than pleasant, cramped, restaurant loo - having 8 wk old DD under one arm, hoicking DS onto the toilet with the other as he was too young to get on and off himself and still needed to be held there. On getting him down, he announced he had 'a bit more' to do. I yanked him back onto the loo and he proceeded to poo, which I then had to wipe, still with DD under the other arm. Buggy, shopping, lunch etc was abandoned at the table - purse stuck in pocket.

I know it is inconvenient but I don't think letting him use the potty in the restaurant is on.

Put trainer pants on him as insurance if necessary, that stage usually only lasts a few weeks.

I would have picked up DD, and we would all have gone to the toilets as quickly as possible (taking my bag with me)

Maybe a little food would have got on all of us, but that is preferable to getting a potty out in a restaurant.

Jeez, I hope this is a wind-up.

Vile.

And probably in breach of several different health and safety directives.

yes. it was VERY unreasonable of you.

wee or poo you did the wrong thing sorry

I'm afraid that you need to plan your 'potty training' better so that this doesn't happen and if that involves avoiding cafes and public places for a couple of weeks then so be it .. you could put him in the pull-up feel it nappies for public if necessary until he's sorted

I think you were very courageous attempting this with a 7 month old in tow too

YABU - revolting.

eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

that is my very considered response

YABU

What were you intending to do with the contents of the potty?

And the fact that he didn't do anything meant you did have enough time to go to the toilet.

How would you have transferred a filled potty to the loo?

Personally would have asked the waiter to watch the baby or just carried baby into loo and asked him to keep an eye on my stuff.