Public toilets

[Bedsheets4knickers]

What age do you start letting your children use public toilets on their own. Boys !!

I did from about 6 or 7 I think (DS is 10 so you'd think I'd remember ).

Yes about 6

Swimming, the youngest was changing in the mens at age 5

Nb OP why about boys specifically pliz?

Forgettable he was drying/changing himself etc. in the men's changing room at age 5?

Is it different for boys and girls?

It's very situation dependant - he sometimes went on his own when he was 4, now he's 5 he goes on his own approx 50% of the time. We don't have a general rule, just assess risks at the time/place & do have a generally very sensible little boy.

Yep. Mr independent.

This was for swimming lessons, i had to post him through the door of the changing rooms, sit in the viewing area to admire his strokes, try to be caught thumbs upping at him (woe betide if i didn't) Then recieve him at the door in reverse. And then dry him properly and turn top right way round blah blah at home. Sigh.

Wow! I think I'd be nervous as hell letting my 5 year old do things like that alone... God I hope mine's not an independent one like yours or I'll spend the whole time worried.

Och it was fine. More worrying was the tanty potential if I was caught Not Watching, tut tut bad mummy. Hahahaha.

I'd presume that the OP is asking because either she has no girls, or any girls would go into the ladies with her, and at what age would you let your DS go to the gents on his own, as opposed to taking him into the ladies with you.

Oh YES Peter, I was having one of my (many) thick moments.

It depends. At my swimming pool yes I would. Train stations and shopping centres no I wouldn't just yet. U wait inside for her I don't go in the cubicle but I wait outside.

This due to height of locks and the weight of the doors and height of sinks.

It really does depend where we are though.

Dd is 7

From about 5 or 6 he's 8 next month and never comes to ladies with me now. It depended where we were and how confident he felt but he preferred going into the gents if he could. Ds2 is not 4 yet and complains loudly that he has to go into the girls with me.

I'm assuming she asked about boys as she is a woman and can fo into the ladies toilets to retrieve a child playing in the sink and supervise if necessary. DD and I tend to visit the toilet at the same time when out and about so go together. Something I cant do with ds going to the gents.

Is this a TAAT?

I wont be letting ds change in mens changing rooms for a long while yet (he is 6) its all individual cubicles in ladies but the mens is apparently more communal. This is because swimming club sent me an email about a sexual assualt that happened on the mens changing side at during one of their swimming lessons.

(It was apparently a parent not a child from the club assaulted and perpetrator was caught, admitted it and imprisoned). I don't feel comfortable that something like that could happen and nobody notice or intervene.

I have one of each my daughter will always come in with me just asking for my son really. He gets confused because I take him in the ladies with me but he goes in the men's with his dad. He wants me to take him in the men's (never going to happen)

We have a DS, just turned 6. I wouldn't have him go in the gents on his own yet, and he doesn't even question it.
If there's a disabled cubicle avaliable, he goes in there on his own, otherwise he's in to the ladies with me and I stand outside the cubical.
Re. Swimming, we only go to pools with family changing rooms, unless DH comes along and they go in the gents together.
I'm thinking it'll be another year or so before we have to re-think....

Like the previous thread which sort of covered this subject, I think it just depends on your child and where you are. You then make a judgement.

DS1 (7) needs more coaching before he's able to handle himself alone, DS2 I would trust to be able to go alone by the time he's his brother's age.

I didn't used to give it much thought, but last year a man was caught sticking his phone under a cubicle my friend's child was in, in order to take pictures. He apparently denied doing it and claimed he had just dropped it, but he was arrested when blurry images were found on his phone.

Of course these things don't happen all the time, but you just need to be careful.