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?

oh, fgs. it wasnt a great decision. but its hardly the end of the world. how hard can it be to help each other out. stop being so snooty. presumably none of you ever get flustered or stressed into making a bad call.

Fabio, I would like to have seen that

lol at Fabio

I have to confess to being desperate while in Sainsburys the other day, but I also restrained myself Fabio, and tempting though it was, didnt drop my knickers and piss in the aisle

I clutched them as I felt them move south. Luckily there was no one else about but I'm sure to have made the Christmas party cctv reel. I waddled around the rest of the shop with my knees stuck together for extra support and didn't buy anything from a high shelf. Twas the stretch-and-elongate reach what done it in the first place, y'see.

I bought lots of pies to thicken my middle and ensure it never happens again.

unlike the young woman who pissed herself in the Tesco lift a while back.

I'm still traumatised by the thought - Lord knows who she felt!

Thanks Fabio, I shall hold that thought and take to my bed. I bid you goodnight.

Ooh I can feel another thread coming on.
AIBU in allowing my toddler to piss in his potty in the supermarket aisle? I mean, why bother with the loos? Just imagine all those poor shoppers weaving around him with their trollies

ffs.

HOW she felt!

Are you being serious?
That is vile, and so rude. The world does not revolve around you and your children.

That is out of order you should have got him to the toilet and asked the waiter to mind your table or something.

Have not read the whole thread, only the first page but WHAT PLANET ARE YOU ON? That is absolutely disgusting and if I was the cafe owner I would have asked you to leave immediately. For goodness sake, people like you are the reason children are so unwelcome everywhere!!

Of course YABU, what everyone else has said.

I thought it was bad enough when I went to a zoo, we stopped to look at the bears, and next thing, a mother whips out a potty and puts her son on it....

What's the etiquette when you are out with your two children, with a group of friends, and your DS decides he needs a wee? Do you go find the toilet (five minute walk away) or tell him to just go in the bush?

Sorry not clear, I meant you are having a picnic outside in a park....

Yuk! You are being very unreasonable!

mm22bys - depends on age of child, proximity of other people etc. Don't think there's a hard and fast rule - you need to make a judgement call. Generally though I would say that from the age of about 7 upwards I would expect a child to use the toilet . Obviously if you're hiking across the moors and no toilets for miles then it's open season! No agre limits!
But potties in restaurants - NO, NO, NO

whoops, age limits!

Thanks FTR.

It was a group of us, some of us were a bit shocked by it happening....(we generally don't let DS1 use the bush toilet unless there is no other option!)

well personally i feel potty's just complicate toilet training so teh idea of lugging one about everywhere i went is just madness.

BUT either way, there is no excuse to allow a child to defecate in an eating area.

Yeah, it's not really on. I would have been so cross if I was eating there when someone did that. BUT, I do see that it was a difficult situation.

Take them to the toilet before you start eating...Ds would squeeze a wee out when prompted especially before going in the car etc....anything else would come out at the same time!

Well I think this is pretty off really. I did once sit DS on a travel potty on a boat trip down the river once. There was no toilet on board and it seemed the only option at the time. I did try and find a quiet corner though and no-one was eating nearby - thank gooness it was just a wee

I would never have sat him on a potty in a restaurant. I realise you had a baby with you but if I was patty training I would have satt near the loos and had my handbag with he portable potty inside near to hand when I sat down to eat.

If my ds had wanted to use the toliet I'd have grabbed the baby and my handbag with the potty in and gone into the loos. Your ds could have used the potty in the loo. I might have asked a waiter to watch the baby at the table if I'd have thought about it which would have been more convenient but otherwise I'd have just grabbed the baby and gone.

You do need to think ahead a bit when potty training and possibly modify what you will do a bit - it's not forever.

That really is quite gross.

I often do big craps in the middle of cafes; I don't see what the problem is.