Council to ban kids over 8 from using opposite sex toilets!!! Sign this petition!!!

[Weemee]

Hi,

Glasgow City Council are proposing to change the parks management rules...I think in reaction to the problems had in the past with social media organised events. However, they are proposing (amongst other things):
-Children over the age of 8 may not use opposite sex toilets;
-that nurseries/ schools may not take children to the park without written permission from the director at the parks dept. and only once a charge has been paid;
-No congregation of more than 20 people without permission;
-No playing group sports (an intended legacy of a commonwealth games city?!?)
-No music;

There's a petition doing the rounds and an email to tell the council what we think. Seems to me a pretty heavy handed reaction to an incident from 3 years ago.....and one which will negatively impact upon everyone. Many inner city nurseries use the parks as many have little/ no outside space. It's not exactly promoting a health lifestyle either! Not the best legacy for a commonwealth games city!

If you agree this proposal is not what's needed there's an email address to the council directly and a petition here
Thanks for reading!

Womens toilets have stalls. Men have urinals so women shouldn't really go into the mens.

My son will continue to come with me until I feel like he's safe.

Well Patrick, other women will feel as entitled as you obviously do and it will reach a point where it becomes more regulated. It's not your call to determine how long your son should be able to use ladies' toilets as they aren't your facilities to make that decision.

It doesn't mean that I don't have sympathy for you, I do, but by the same token we follow convention of not using disabled toilets if we're not disabled and other social rules. Otherwise, we might all do as we want, after all, what bothers one might not bother somebody else.

8 year old boys, assuming no special needs, are perfectly capable of using the mens loos unsupervised. The chances of "something happening" are miniscule.

I really can't understand why, in this day and age, all toilets are not unisex and in cubicles. Its not that complicated. Any parent, of any age. could choose to accompany their charge into the washroom, and stand beside the cubicle to make sure nothing happens.
It can't be the urinal thing, guys manage at home without them.
You can even use the tiled dividing walls, no glory holes issue then.
Why does it have to be so complicated?

Where are all the sensible people?!

8+ year olds, without SN, can use the correct toilets.

There is a (very small) chance that they might get murdered or raped in the toilets, there's a (very small) chance your DH might get murdered or raped in the toilets, should he come in the women's too?

If you feel the toilets are so dangerous they cannot be used, then you need to wait or find other toilets and then report the rapist-filled toilets to the council/police.

What do you all do in public toilets that means it matters if males over 8 are there?

Personally I don't care who sees me wash my hands...and I'm behind a locked door for the rest of it.

charging kids to go to the park (with school/nursery) is terrible!

Lying. I mean toilets like the ones at service stations etc.. not cafes or at the supermarket.

'What do you all do in public toilets that means it matters if males over 8 are there?'

Nothing. Unisex toilets would be fine. It's also fine for 8 year olds to go to the toilet by themselves. It is not fine to flout the rules because of an irrational fear of toilet rapists. The queue is long enough in the women's as it is!

Patrick... Services toilets are very busy, safety in numbers. For every potential rapist there are many more non-rapists who would help your son should he run into trouble. I would go so far as to say that even a potential rapist wouldn't risk molesting people at a busy services toilet. I would say that they are busier than supermarket toilets and even if your son is in them alone, you can wait outside and he could shout if necessary.

I hope you are not passing on your fears for your son's safety onto him.

My DS ( 6 closer to 7) went to the toilet in Pizza express the other week..In one long corridor of individual toilets... He got stuck..I went to see where he was as he had been a bit longer than I expected..He was knocking on the door everyone walked past him.... So he is just over one year over the cut off age and yes he comes with me in public places...

How are they going to assess SN in your opinion all disabilities aren't obvious...I am not sure the outrage over having a 8 year old boy in the womens toilet..they are all invidual toilets....

I think the nursery thing is awful too... the government wants the kids taking more exercise what is more natural than a walk tot he park and a play.

People of all ages get stuck in toilets. It's an unfortunate event, but I don't believe it's specifically age related. Will you take him in with you when he's 25 in case he gets the cubicle with the dodgy lock? I doubt it. Telling him not to lock the door, to check how the lock works first or waiting outside for him would all go some way to solving that problem, without needing to infantilise him or add to the queue in the ladies.

Wonder how many of the 'long queue' whiners have 8-13 ds?

Starlight... Did he shout out? I'm used to seeing women taking their children into toilets with them and I wouldn't take much notice of knocking - but I would if somebody called out for help. Maybe give your son a bit of guidance about what to do if he would get stuck again? If your son doesn't learn now then when? 9, 10, when he's a teen and his friends laugh at him? I know that the 'Swallows and Amazons' halcyon days are over (unfortunately) but 8 is really not a little boy anymore.

Sorry if it sounds harsh, but I really don't think that we should be encouraging helplessness and fear of things that aren't actually present. Better to make him aware and confident that he knows what to do in every situation.

Sorry - 7, even 6... old enough to be able to confidently call out.

I can't believe anyone thinks that they need to take their NT 13 year old to the toilet with them?!

Do they never go out alone? Or are they strictly banned from urinating when not with mummy? What about at school?!

OP. Post again without the frankly daft thread title.

Mumsnetters are completely oblivious to the needs of girls and think they have a perfect right to take their NT boys of any age into the female loos because they think they are either too pathetic to do up their own buttons or will be attacked by the hordes of marauding paedophiles who are hiding in the cistern tank of every loo in the land.

My 9 year old ds would be mortified if I told him he had to go into the women's toilets, though I do hover outside the mens if it is a public loo.

What if a child is just tall for their age. Ds1 is 6.1 but as tall as an average 8 year old. I would get in trouble

Have I stepped into a parallel universe?

One in which perfectly innocuous public conveniences are a hotbed of murder and mayhem? Really? Really????

And what boy over the age of 10 would even want to set foot in the ladies? 13?? They'd be mortified. Do they not go anywhere else on their own age 13? Dear god.

My niece, aged 12, has just started her period, and is at a painfully shy and self conscious stage. She should be able to go about her business in the ladies without feeling nervous that some lad from the year above is going to pop up near the hand dryers!

It's age, not height.

At worst someone will ask how old he is and you can tell them he's 6.

I don't think you'll be facing a ten-stretch for the crime of having a tall 6 year old.

FWIW I also have a 6.1 year old and he is able to go to the toilet by himself in the vast majority of places. 8 years old is a generous cut-off, most children are able to go by themselves long before that.

A I said, Khama- on Mumsnet the needs of girls not to bump into boys from their year in the loo is completely ignored- the needs of boys to be protected from the imaginary dangers lurking in the men's takes absolute precedence. And, as usual, girls just have to accept it.

Yes ds does mainly go in male toilets by himself - but sometimes he is wary if I have to take ds4 and dd2 into female toilets in a slightly different place to the men's.

Notnow. I had a 'disagreement' with a woman in M&S toilets a couple of years ago when Ds was 6 but looked about 9. She insisted he couldn't possibly be 6 and should use the gents.
Incidentally, I used the cubicle after her and she had left the most awful mess (tmi). I would have banned her from the ladies.

Nodding at Karma's post. I've had periods for some 30 years now and even with all that experience and practice with tampons, I can't avoid getting blood on my fingers. Even wiping it with tissue, I want to get to the sink without being watched by boys who should not be there.

I'm wondering, if some women think they can take their sons in - whatever age if they are concerned for his safety - will we eventually have a 'Timmy Lumsden' scenario?

I would be very annoyed to see older boys in the ladies and would definitely report their mother. Perhaps we'll start having men coming in to bring their boys 'for safety'...