....to find this disgusting

stansgran when we were posted to Belgium in the early seventies, they were apparently still using night soil in agriculture. We were issued with instructions from the military medical authorities (American) not to eat any locally bought salad, leaf or root vegetables that had not been soaked in Milton solution prior to being eaten! I don't suppose the Belgians did the same and they didn't seem to be dropping like flies from horrible diseases, but we all did as we were told anyway. We got through a lot of Milton!

99 facts about urine. All you ever wanted to know about pee, and more.

I once read a book set in the 17th century, where someone had taken over an old, dirty property, and turning it into a shop. They needed ammonia to clean with, and left large urns outside the shop for passers by to wee into, then used the urine to scrub the place out with. It might have been clean, but must have been a bit whiffy!

Was it honey men in Australia who used to collect night soil? I seem to remember something Clive James wrote or I'm very confused.

An 'aromatic' trade, wot?

Yes, people used to collect it for them (in buckets) and they would come round and get it, presumably in barrels or something on a horse drawn cart.

I believe the fullers of cloth all used urine in their trade...

Porta not port

When my granddaughter was small she was always asking to go to the toilet at difficult times. We carried a child's ports potty around in the car which you could fit a special bag on . The child went in the bag which had crystals in it to soak up the urine ( and anything else that might follow!) and then you could tie up the bag and dispose of it . It saved our embarrassment many times.

Should have said allowing and not clearing up afterwards.

On the other hand, if one didn't have the means to clear up, imagine the embarassment of having to go into the shop and ask for a bag. It would not stop me from doing just that, small child in tow, but I can understand someone not doing it.

It is possible that the woman was mortified by the predicament and just wanted to vanish off the scene pronto.

I expect a parent can be charged for allowing a child to foul a pavement. Someone got charged for allowing a child to throw an apple core into a grass verge/hedge. I don't know what the eventual outcome of that charge was but it seemed a bit OTT to me. The apple was regarded as litter, which it wouldn't have been in a verge or hedge, but food for small creatures.

Meanwhile actual litter remains a problem and one never hears of anyone being charged.

I've known children (3 and under) who have needed a wee-but then the poo has followed.
If it was me, I'd be there with bags (like I am for my dogs).

If a dog owner can be fined for allowing a dog to 'perform' in the street, why not a negligent parent?

I used to have a baby bag(duffel bag type)that had a large zipped compartment at the bottom to put a potty in! This was nearly 40 years ago, not sure huge potties you get now would fit! But it was so handy, it meant a familiar place to 'go' no matter where. We didn't have a car so it was always hung on the back of our pushchair, our portable potty! Also became a feature when playing the game ' I'm going on holiday and in my suitcase I'm going to pack......a portable potty!'
Luckily a lot more places have toilets now,so it's not so difficult when out and about with little ones.

I think if one's child is always always needing the loo, one gets good at noticing suitable places so one's always ready for the demand.

Another interpretation of the woman's behaviour (at a stretch, but a possible stretch) could be that the supermarket loos were out of order or busy and there was nothing else available – a shortage, in short, of public toilets. Not sure I'd have been so bold as she but who knows in desperation?

Yes, I know it was the child doing the business but the child was in the charge of an adult.

Alea, I giggled too

I remember being on a beach with the children, where there were no toilets or shops nearby. Wees in the sand dunes are not a problem, but DS wanted a poo, so we used his bucket! Took it back to the car and disposed of it down a drain.

DD2 was always, always wanting to go at inconvenient moments, but somehow or other, I always managed to find somewhere, without having her do it in the street.

I think dorsetpennt's iPad was having fun there. If I didn't preview mine comes up with some howlers.

Is that a traffic roundabout (risking getting run down to get there?) or a children's roundabout (pooing where children will play???)

Please somebody else find this as funny as I did?

I don't think having a wee on a roundabout, however clean and public, is really any better than a shop doorway dorsetpennt

yes I agree disgusting but if the child was desperate and the loos busy why didn't the mother find a quiet place behind the supermarket or at least stood nearby to hide the child a bit. goodness knows what the little one thought (does she do this in t he school playground I wonder).

Well to top this. Coming home from an evening at the local cinema a young woman in her twenties was having a wee in a shop doorway, there are perfectly clean public roundabout twenty feet away.

As I often spend a whole day fishing upland reservoirs miles away from comfort stops, peeing in the woods is a necessity. Although my bladder control ain't bad, I usually have to give in after about four or five hours. Fortunately there is usually no-one around but me. I have never yet had to do anything other than pee! Going back to the original post, we were once on a very long beach with GS, then six, when he needed to poo and absolutely couldn't wait. He would never have made it back to the car park and toilets, so we did the doggie bag trick and carried it back with us to dispose of appropriately. DH suggested burying it in the sand and DD gave him a look as if he'd suggested mugging old ladies!

I'm afraid I water the countryside around me on a regular basis. I'm often out with my dog and will very discreetly do a pee into a hedge . Sometimes I just HAVE to.
But my pockets are full of doggy poo bags I clean up after her , so why did the mother of this poor child not do the same. There are fines for dogs messing in the street.
Especially so close to a public loo. Nowt so queer as folk .

Whitewave

Even if your 'theory' is correct why have a fag and simply drive off leaving the poo for someone else to have to clear up.?

No bum wipe, no privacy, no consideration to other shoppers, no consideration to the store etc. etc. I might have a harsher view of the mother in other aspects of her connection with the child too but then I could be rightly accused of having a 'theory'

Sorry it is the case there are some people and cultures too who have no social boundaries as most of us expect from others, especially in public.