7 year old using restaurant toilet alone

[Sparklebaby111]

Hello, please don't shoot me down, I come in peace! My 7 year son old is regularly invited to parties in public places like Goals and more recently Pizza Express. Can I ask how you feel about children, of this age using toilets unsupervised. I know most parents drop off and go, but I am concerned about him taking himself off to the toilet at these venues on his own. Any thoughts?

Everyone is advising that they should go in 2's but would that really prevent anything untoward happening? I don't think soft play centres etc are a risk as much as public ones in shopping centres etc. I think my ds was maybe 8 or 9 when he a started using toilets independently but had lots of practice going with dad first. A 10 year old girl should definitely be capable of using the women's toilets independently.

I'd not let my 7 yo old go unsupervised to men's toilet in public place.

Teach them to go in pairs

I don't understand why it's ok for young boys to go to the toilets alone but not girls? Surely there's more of a threat to children from grown men in male toilets? My DS is only 4 but 7 does seem young to me.

This is tricky & depends very much on the individual kid. My just turned 8 y/o DS is intellectually young for his age but also big for his age. I was still taking him into the ladies with me when we're out, but one day recently he was waiting near the sinks as I came out of the toilet, and a young girl (perhaps 12-13) came and stopped dead, then yelled "There's a boy in here!"

Shit!! It hit me like a tonne of bricks that young girls should feel safe in a public toilet and she clearly didn't.

Now I'm trying to get him to use the mens while I stand outside, but it's a battle.

At a restaurant, he simply wouldn't go by himself. In general I think either send them in pairs, and/or have an adult wait for them outside the door.

Thanks everyone, the party is today. We have decided his Dad will take him to the loo as soon as he arrives (it's a two hour party), and tell him that if he really needs the loo then he should not wander off on his own, but instead tell an adult and ask one of his friends to go with him. We're very local so I may just pop in half way through to check - even though I know he'd hate that, but there has to be a compromise somewhere, until we know he can manage the situation safely. This is our first child - steep learning curve!
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