Toilets with children

Im with you on this one OP. Don't think it's acceptable for a little girl to go into a blokes toilet in the pub.

Okay, I don't agree with you but okay that's your view, so can you explain what you think should happen if a 2year old needs a wee when out with daddy or granddad/big brother/uncle?

2 year olds need a little help or at least supervision and checking of the cubicle before hand.

Should the dad go into the ladies?
Should the dad trust a random stranger who happens to be female?
What should happen, in your view?

As for a 2YO being in a pub, there are lots of different kinds of pub, I call our local harvester a "pub" and on a sunday there's very few tables without kids sitting at them.

Our local pool has no sex segregated loos or changing rooms ,there are just single or family cubicles and you just choose what you want .I would not be happy with an 8 year old boy or girl going into changing rooms on their own . Driving through France and Italy last year I had no issue with men using the ladies and visa versa when the loos were being cleaned .It happened at least once a day during our trip and they were always spotless , which is more than I can say for our UK loos .

I couldn't care less who s cleaning my toilet
I think this is all hugely over thought just go have your wee and leave, If a small child needs a wee do whatever is best in the situation, the more you make a deal of it the more the child will grow up with hang ups
I cannot understand the 'shock/horror of the original poster at a 2 year old maybe getting a few secs sight of peeing men It won't cause her life time trauma however if she stood and weed her pants in public she might well remember that

I can remember my Dad having to take me in to Public Toilets when we were travelling home fairly late. Ladies Toilets were closed but Gents were open, I would have been about 8.

Most men don't choose to sit if there are only cubicles.....I'll leave you to form your own pictures.

How many women would refuse to use the Ladies if there was a Male Toilet Attendant on duty? That is the case at many Railway Stations & Motorway Services - doesn't bother me - I'd rather have clean toilets

Just to clarify, a few posts are maligning the man for leaving the child whilst he went back for a pee

WE DONT KNOW THAT it seems as if OP just made a BIG presumption

So Smithy if you wouldn't let your grand daughter go in the mens if she was with dad or grandad what WOULD you do ? Let her pee her pants ?

My 3-year-old DGD has been known to exclaim "Daddy, you've got a penis. You could use one of those penis toilets!"

I think the man who was using a urinal at the time was the one who was embarrassed.

I have taken both grandsons into the ladies' loos with me as they have grown but understand the problems on both sides. Now they are older, the 12 year-old uses the mens' loo but I stand guard outside and have been known to yell through the door to check all is OK! The younger one, at 5 is still shepherded into the ladies with me.

As ladies' loos are cubicles and ladies don't actively show any bits, having a boy in the ladies' isn't too much of a problem. A girl in a men's loo is more problematic although surely small children wouldn't really notice men's 'bits'. Post 5 or so, I feel that girls can manage the loo on their own and use the ladies room, perhaps asking a passing woman to escort the child in and out.

Conversely, I do feel uncomfortable when in the changing room at the swimming pool. Other women take in boys aged, say, 8 to 12 and the eyes of the boys are most definitely swivelling, watching the girls bodies as they are rubbed dry and dressed. I try to ensure my granddaughter finds a cubicle but as they are in geat demand, this is not always possible.

My grandson has been using the male changing room at the swimming pool since he was 8. Yes there is a problem with someone prying/preying on him but one has to start somewhere and after a swimming lesson there are other boys using the changing rooms too, so I deem it safe.

Many years ago I did a lot of dinghy sailing. There's no way you could be a prude doing that when the need took you. And performing a good balancing act with the bailing bucket ( that's not a bucket)

Dont quite believe the part where the father left his DD outside the cubicle while he used it. The reason for urinals is you can get about 6 urinals in the space of 3 cubicles and why there is rarely a queue at the gents unlike in the ladies. Fathers today seem to be the parent to take the little ones to the loo when out as a family. I have seen it in several countries. Whereas when we were younger it usually fell to Mum to take the children to the toilet or change nappies.

I had quite an experience last year in Portugal. I needed to use the loo before shopping at the supermarket. I walked into the ladies to see a man disappearing into one of the cubicles. Not unusual here for men to use the ladies and vice verse of theirs is being cleaned or out of action. I came out to this man washing his todger under the tap. That rather unsettled me for a moment but just walked out. I reported to the store because supposing a young girl had gone in there on her own. Still not sure whether he was doing it to shock or merely fastidious. He didn't look Portuguese.

I think I'm a bit of a prude

Peeing is peeing! Everybody does it!
I am not a prude, my dgd sees me naked in the shower often if she needs to use the bathroom! I sleep in the buff and she sometimes gets in with me. I wouldn't feel any different about a dgs tbh.
Bodies are bodies, same functions different shapes!

Yes, Aslemma, we've already been told that joke (or a version of it) earlier today!

What an uptight view the British have, which is another thing that sets us apart from other parts of Europe, with regard to using the toilet. In France, particularly, they have outside urinals, and when we camped, at one site a couple of urinals were on the outside wall of the toilet. Whilst queuing for the loo when visiting the Palace of Versailles I was hauled into the men's by the female attendant because the queue was so long. Women, in some other European countries will go into the men's at service stations if the queue is too long at the ladies.

Perhaps the child's father knows best

Wouldn't have bothered me at all when dds were very little. They were used to seeing daddy having a pee so they were hardly going to be shocked or bothered by glimpsing other men or boys ditto.

I wouldn't have called my own parents prudish by the standards of the day, but I never saw my own father unclad, still less having a pee. My younger brother was another matter, of course.
In later years I was glad dds knew what grown up willies looked like. Less of a shock when it came to the, er, nitty gritty later!

A little true tale to lighten the mood. Some years ago my friend had a West Indian visitor. He asked to use her downstairs loo but forgot to lock the door. Moments later her young son wandered into the hall and she heard his little voice saying loudly "Oh, my dad's got one of those, but his is pink". ?

I'm not sure why men have to stand and do it either

Because it's easier
Because it's more comfortable
Because for men who have issues with slow flow they cannot do it sitting. They just can't go sitting.

I would never teach a little boy that the only way to pee is sitting, I think that's actually unkind, Why not teach them both ways so they can be comfortable?

Goodness, there are some (not many) prudish attitudes on here! As long as the child is with a parent or other responsible adult that he/she knows and trusts I don't see anything wrong with taking them into a public toilet.

And I think that the information about the child in the OP being left to her own devices while her father used the cubicle is either exaggerated or guessed at (unless she and her DH can see through walls!).

That's what I hate about men's toilets, why do they have urinals in the first place, how lazy not to have time to go in a cubicle. I never can understand why men like to get it out in public. Surely going to the toilet is a private affair. I'm not sure why men have to stand and do it either. When I toilet trained my Son, he was trained to sit down, unfortunately when he went to play school that all changed and consequently urine all over the floor. No I wouldn't be happy for my young children to view strangers penis'.
I have no problem with nudity, but there's a place and a time.

Also, womens toilets sometimes have overspilling sanitary bins, or not full sanitary bins where people have let the sticky bit stick to the door thing at the top.

Mens loos can be pongy, but womens loos can be more dirty in other ways.

Either way, they go in with us, which ever one of us they're out with

My only concern would be the standard of hygiene in the men's loo as, in my experience , some men/boy children haven't been trained very well to put up the toilet seat before weeing and so leave urine spattered all over it.

At least men who use the cublicles sit when they do! A lot of womens loos have the result of hoverers who splash pee all over the seat.

I don't think either sex toilet is good for kids without their adult there to check they're okay

Oh dear, my kids go into the female toilets or change rooms when out with me, and into the male toilets and change rooms when out with their dad.

I don't care what people like you think, there's no way I'ld shove a 2year old through the door of a pub toilet without me just because he was a boy, and no way would I be happy if DH shoved DDs through the ladies toilets door alone at 2 - at 2 they still needed help, and I always check the cubicles for spills/soiling/needles before letting small kids go in - I would not trust a 2 year old to pick a clean/safe cubicle all by themsleves and would not be happy leaving them alone with strange adults in a toilet just because I was a different sex to the child.

Penises being used to urinate are no sexual. Just like breasts being towel dried after swimming are not sexual.

FYI sports centres general have a policy that children of both sexes should change WITH their parent in the parent's sex change room up until the age of 8 in most places.
And you're talking about a TWO year old???

My only concern would be the standard of hygiene in the men's loo as, in my experience , some men/boy children haven't been trained very well to put up the toilet seat before weeing and so leave urine spattered all over it.

I was shopping in Asda just before Christmas and as soon as I arrived thought I would pop to the ladies before I started my shop. There was a man with a girl of about 3 or 4 standing outside and asked me if I would please take his daughter to the loo as the men's smelled and his wife did not like her going in the men's toilet. His wife was not with him so I agreed and took her in with me and luckily she just needed a just a wee. She washed her hands nicely and thanked me for helping her. I took her back to Dad then went back to wee myself

Retro Sadly all boys and men don't aim well. Even if they lift the lid properly and put it back down. The rim gets covered with splatter. I prefer a reasonably clean rim under my seat, especially in a public loo!

That said, before Christmas a brilliant GNer here recommended those Illumibowl lights and I got 4 sets of 2 each in a pack from a reputable Amazon supplier. All family members got a set.

They are like sliced bread... no more men going to toilet in dark when they can't be bothered to put the light on in the night! Or don't want to as it wakes them up.