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!

Looks like it curlew

Utter madness. Surely if your son is making his first forays into the public toilets on his own, and you were a bit anxious, you could easily stand right outside the door, tell him to come straight out if someone acts suspicious, even prop the door open with your foot if nobody else was in.

Not drag him into the ladies! Good grief. Even perverts have day jobs and are unlikely to be hovering round the smelly loo waiting for an unsuspecting PFB to enter

Another thought-surely these boys also use the school toilets on their own? School loos are a hotbed of bullying, more so than public toilets, I would have thought

That's fair enough not, just explain he's 6. By the time he's 8 he'll be able and confident enough to go by himself all the time . I think the boys that struggle at 8 are the ones who have never had a go before that.

Hi there

Lots of you have reported this one because of the petition in the OP, so we've moved it to the Petitions and Online Campaigns topic now.

Well just make sure you're sure of yourself if you do comment. The 'boy' could be a girl. Embarrassing all round.

Even when I'd just started my periods a boy in the women's toilets would not have bothered me - although I may have smirked if I knew him! There are cubicles, loo roll to wipe hands on.

On the other hand I am not sure I would want my 9 year old in public toilets by himself. DH usually takes him. Luckily we live near town so he can usually hold it till we get home.

In a place where theres lots of other children or relatively safe places like cafes, my 8 year old ds goes by himself, a quiet service station/anywhere i feel uncomfortable my boy comes with me, report away.

The safety of boys is just as important as the safety of girls. If the mens were cubicle only, yes i would go stand in there with him. Ladies loos are more private. My ds is still very much a young child at 8 and couldnt care less about what sex the person walking out of the cubicle is let alone studying their hands. And all the girls i know are the same unless the boys are teenage.

So i will continue to let him 'hold you up' (these inconsiderate boys hey) until he is 12 if it in is best interests, and have absolutely no problem with others doing the same to me.

It's not the boys who are inconsiderate, it's their overprotective, overbearing mothers who feel rules don't apply to them or their children.

Just out of interest why 12? Does he become un-rapeable at 13? Or do you think the rapists won't bother with him once he's 13? Or you'll have just had enough of worrying about his best interests when he hits 13?

Over protective? Why do females have to be protected from them? Some schools have open plan unisex loos. We're not talking gangs of teenagers here, just a preteen boy with his mother.

Crikey if I have to make the call, some Gents are horrible, I'll take him with me and tell him to put his hood up.

Long queue whiner here - my DSs started using the gents loos when they were 7/8. They had been mortified if I'd taken them into the ladies with me.

They don't need to be protected. Unisex toilets are fine imo. What is not fine is the attitude that 'the rules don't apply to me or my precious offspring' or infantilising children to the point that we end up with 13 year olds who need their mummy to take them to the toilet!

I think it is a decision you make depending on the toilets. If the door way is quite open and they fairly crowded, no problem.

Or if you I know there are attendants about, again no problem.

"Over protective? Why do females have to be protected from them? Some schools have open plan unisex loos. We're not talking gangs of teenagers here, just a preteen boy with his mother."

Females do not have to be protected from them. But girls have a right to expect their loo to be a female only space. I don't see why the imaginary needs of boys take precedence over the real needs of girls.

Would you expect DH to take a 9 year old DD into the men's toilets?

No I wouldn't but then again women's toilets are usually busier, with families.

I don't think females have a right to female only toilets. Unisex are fine.

In fact if all toilets were unisex it would not be a problem. And you would not just have the only baby changing facility in the female toilets!

On the toilets issue - perhaps what we need is actually to abolish the gendered toilets, and have toilet facilities where the hand washing area is open and can be seen easily from outside, and where the toilets are all in cubicles that are properly private.

I only say this because I saw a news item about a Scottish school that brought in this style of loo, in order to combat the problems of bullying - because the main are is open, there can be no bullying, and the cubicles allow privacy.

Th reporters spoke to a number of pupils who all said how much better the new facilities were - they felt far more comfortable using them, and apparently they were staying clean and pleasant.

Either that, or every cubicle is individual, with a lockable outside door, and washing facilities included - that way everyone queues together, and uses the next available cubicle - I imagine this would make the parents feel more comfortable, as they wouldn't be sending their child into somewhere they couldn't see or access easily.

If the boys were in the boys toilets where they're supposed to be, they'd be busier, with families!

What if the toilet wasn't busy though? Then you'd want DH to take her into the men's right? If 9 year old boys can't go to the toilet by themselves, then neither can 9 year old girls surely?

Or are you experiencing an almighty double standard based on a 'THERE ARE PEREVTS IN MENS TOILETS!!!!' Daily Mail mentality?

The bigger issue is the rest of this proposal. I have signed the petition. Bloody lunatics running the council!

Schools and nurseries without permission? Erm? Sorry to state the obvious to Glasgow City council but parks are PUBLIC areas. Durrr. What sort of idiots thought of this?

I'd be fine with a dd going with DH into an empty Gents. Men don't always like females in there with the urinals though...

Yes they bloody do capsium. Girls and women have different needs to men when it comes to toilets. They need places to dispose of their sanitary wear, they need tampon machines, and they need cubicles where they sit down to pee. It's not all about fixing your lippy in the mirrors.

I personally wouldn't give a hoot if I had to use unisex toilets, but then I don't have IBS or some other difficulty which makes a female-only toilet more desirable, I am not an elderly lady/young girl who may feel disturbed at having to share her space with men....

You're right, Glaikit - which is why I have signed too.

I share my house with men, always have. Got a brother, dad. No problem. With IBS I would be equally embarrassed in front of a male or female. In fact I did have to have a colonoscopy once, performed by a male doctor, and a man delivered my ds.