To expect Mothercare to allow my dd to do a wee in their loo

[snickersnack]

Mothercare, people. Whose mission, apparently, is to "meet the needs and aspirations of parents for their children". Well, today, my need was to find somewhere for dd (4) to do a wee when she announced she needed to do one in the (extremely long and slow moving) queue to pay. My aspiration was for her not to do it on the floor of Mothercare. Would the sour faced misery behind the tills let me use the loo? No - apparently it is "not for customers". Winner of the Tomy Let's Get Baby Friendly Awards my arse.

I feel a stiff letter to customer servicdes coming on. Particularly as the very nice man in Halfords next door let me use the staff loo there instead.

I would have let her piss on the floor (joke).

Perhaps she has been told that kids can't use the loos for insurance purposes. I think in your situation I may have asked to see the manager and put the request to her.

mothercare near me has a changing room, feeding room and toilet for customer use - shame this doesn't seem to be a standard thing

I used to work at Icelands, we were told not to let the customers use the loo for health and safety, as you had to go through the back area, tho some duty managers would let u take a child with a parent through if it was a real emergency.

our mothercare has a ublic loo and a changing room
is your mothecare a tiny one?

ELC wouldn't let my DD use their loo either. A few weeks ago I asked a cafe if they knew where the nearest loos were (not using the cafe) they said my children could use theirs for asking.

You would think that a shop that specialises in products for pregnant women/babies/small children would have a customer loo/change table available wouldn't you?

The nice man at Waterstones let DS and the little girl I was watching use their staff loo yesterday, was very kind of him - worked out though, because I didn't have to rush afterwards I bought an extra couple of books.

I think the mothercare near me has a baby changing area but im not sure if it actually has a toilet, its only a small cubical if i remember correctly.

You would certainly expect that if your customer base contains a high ratio of short, young customers that at some point on most days, one of those little people will need a wee suddenly.
Ah well, if they want to lose the sale, I will dump my basket and run out of the shop, unlucky for their tills!

yanbu every mothercare i've been in has a toilet and a baby feeding area, i thought they all did. very at that attitude.

YANBU that is so stingey. I often think health and safety is a catchphrase for not wanting to help.

I was in Lidl last week and ds needed a wee - the guys there were lovely and escorted us to their (spotless I must say)staff loo. If they can do it then surely a "child friendly" shop like MC should

You would be being unreasonable had the shop not been aimed at people with children. Usually they have a customer (minging) toilet. Thing is the people who work there have to do as they are told, so the sour faced misery was just doing as she had no doubt been told to do!

I'm with leonifay. All the Mothercare's I've been to have toilets and changing/feeding area's. One even had a whole room for mother and baby groups before it got merged with ELC.

Very shocked. I would have though Mothercare would be more, well, Caring towards Mothers!

A store like Mothercare should have a loo available for people to use but the health and safety reason is legitimate as the store will be insured for staff being in that area but not members of the public.
And I wouldn't risk my job if management weren't allowing members of the public to access the staff loo.
Also stock and staff's belongings may be stored in that area.

It would make sense for them to have a loo available though I do think, as they will have so many pregnant women and young children entering their store.

I think Health and Safety must definitely be an excuse. I've not had to ask many times but the few times I have, dd has always been allowed to use staff toilets (waitrose, matalan and b&q are 3 I can think of where we've asked).

And a parent/child shop should definitely be more helpful !

Ours is quite a big Mothercare and has only been there for a couple of years. It has a big baby changing and feeding area. But no loos, which I find very odd!

You should have used one of the potties from the shelf !

Did they have a potty on a shelf your dd could try on for size

(ooops x post)

H&S is not an excuse, if they are not insured to have customers in that area, they can't have customers in that area, otherwise if you slipped and fell while there, they'd be up shit creak.

The health and safety article makes me larf. How stressful must it be for their employees to have a widdle if it's such a scary place near the staff loo

It doesn't mean it's ''scary''hmm It means that any possible hazards have been assessed and that the employees are covered by the company insurance. Members of the public are not.

People will sue for anything and these areas tend to be rather cluttered and if a child or adult, other than an employee was injured, the company would not be covered for that by their insurance company.

YANBU. Our Mothercare used to have a lovely nursing room, a loo and a changing room. Then ELC closed (they also had a changing room and a loo) they moved into Mothercare and the space from the loo and nursing room was turned into their stockroom.

In the town there is one loo in the changing room that has been our of order forever (plus it's too small to fit a buggy in with you and I mean a maclaren no chance with the bugaboo) and one disabled loo with changing area in M and S. It is always packed! I tend to go into work if I am in town and need the loo!!

Message withdrawn

YANBU

Most places, if you ask nicely and have an obviously busting preschooler, will let you use a loo.
DS1 has sampled most on our local high street