When should children start using public toilets on their own?

Oldernotwiser

mrcow wrote: »

Are you for real? Or are you just typing as much old tripe as possible to try and get a rise out of people?

How is using a buggy whilst out shopping with small children "less convenient" than using a sling?

At least with a buggy I can hang my shopping over the handle bars. It's better than walking around like a pack horse with a 17lb baby strapped to me.

It's difficult enough when you're pregnant and they only weight 6lb then!

And what would you suggest I did when my 2nd daughter came along as I had two children under the age of 18 months? Perhaps strap one to the front and one to the back?

Maybe I could have balance my shopping on my head? After all, one of my free hands would have been in use for holding my four year old's hand.

Okay - now how am I going to go to the toilet then?

How is a sling more convenient when you've got a family?
I mean if you're actually living in the real world rather than some fantasy made up land that none of us are ever going to visit?



And my buggy cost £70. My double buggy cost £130. Hardly expensive when you consider the use that they've had. Whereas a sling would have proved an expensive waste of money.

Well, I don't know where that rant came from!

Baby slings are common in many countries and are both convenient and good for the mother baby relationship. They may be out of fashion in the UK at the moment but fashion doesn't necessarily dictate what is or isn't a good idea.

They may be less suitable for shopping but not everybody thinks that the retail experience is the most important thing in the world! They are perfectly usable with an older child on reins and not that many people have 2 children under the age of 18 months apart from twins.

Just because you don't agree with someone's views, there's no need to be abusive. A different point of view is always useful.

mrcow

I very much doubt that hardly anyone with children "thinks the retail experience is the most important thing in the world"? Rather a ridiculous comment to make wouldn't you say?

I'm not abusive btw. Just tired of people making sweeping generalisations of how stupid some parents must be when they clearly have no practical experience or consideration of why someone may adopt a particular type of behaviour. A different point of view is always useful wouldn't you say?

To suggest that a sling is always the most convenient way of going about things is naive at best.

Baby slings may be popular in some countries.......but I can assure you so are buggies.......and for a very, very, very good reason!

barnaby-bear

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

They may be less suitable for shopping but not everybody thinks that the retail experience is the most important thing in the world! They are perfectly usable with an older child on reins and not that many people have 2 children under the age of 18 months apart from twins.

Yeah it's the shallow materialistic women that go to the supermarket and buy food for their kids.... they should go out in the fields with a child in the sling like other parts of the world and collect grain... and a few more of them should have died in childbirth rather than have a C-sec like other parts of the world to stop them cluttering up the streets whilst not being able to lift a child... and no child need clothes or shoes - you see plenty of kids in other parts of the world in a blanket....
Do you really care how someone else chooses to carry a child or assume that they are too stupid to decide between the alternatives for themselves....

andrealm

I know plenty of people with 2 children under 18 months but I don't know anyone with babies or toddlers who hasn't used a buggy. I've used a sling sometimes but could never have done without a buggy. I don't know why you say mothers "nowadays" prefer prams when most people in this country have used them over probably the last 100 years.

patchwork_cat

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

I adopted, so missed the baby stage. They're made to fit children up to the age of toddlers but mothers nowadays seem to prefer to use expensive pushchairs which are far less convenient.

The ones upto toddler stage are on the back and are very cumbersome. I certainly couldn't carry my children in them or the front ones past as I say about 4 months. We did hire one for a walking holiday in the Lakes when my DS was about 18 mths and it was awful, my 6 ft DH couldn't get on with it at all. They are not a solution.

Also can you imagine trying to negotiate a small toilet cubicle with one of them on, I am laughing imagining it!

By your wording you have obviously NEVER tried one.

Mr Cow going to compare scars now 4 inches wow your surgeon was good I was cut right across!! Mind I did lose a litre of blood and my DD was given an umbilical hernia with the speed they pulled her out to try and stop the bleeding, so I think I had my incision widened to get better access. Back on topic. Seriously buggies are cumbersome, but much better than the alternatives.

Whilst 18 mths is a fairly narrow age gap and 2 to 2 1/2 is the norm I could name you half a dozen people with 18 mth age gaps. But there is nothing magical about 18 mths a child of 2 or 21/2 can walk obviously, but you try and get them to walk for more than 15 minutes and it is 'pick me up'!

tiamai_d

*random curse* :rolleyes:

In some cultures it's normal to circumcise females, so lets start doing that because they do it so it must be better than what we do.... :rolleyes:

Why is our own culture always less preferable to another? Is it just some form of keeping up with the Joneses I wonder? Oh this country has started to do this, that's so cool, we need to get everyone here to start doing that!

I do at times use a sling and a baby carrier and I still find it near impossible to use a loo without taking her off first! You got to turn round to get the door shut, then there is the whole wiping issue, fine while she is small but I don't fancy attempting it when she is a toddler!

Another thing, the only 'disabled' toilets that are exclusively for the use of those with long term disabilities are the radar key ones. A 'legal' disabled toilet must be laid out for the ease of use of those with disabilities under the DDA, but is not for the sole and exclusive use of those with disability, unlike disabled parking spaces, there is no comparision between the two.

Back to the original question, DS1 is 7 and I let him use the gents on his own in places we go to regulary, but not in public toilets, he comes in with me or his dad or we use the disabed toilet (oh golly gosh...).

BTW, it is now compulsary (where we are atleast and in places serving food) to have baby changing facilities available for both males and females, so either in the ladies and the gents or more usual in the disabled toilet.

Oldernotwiser

andrealm wrote: »

I know plenty of people with 2 children under 18 months but I don't know anyone with babies or toddlers who hasn't used a buggy. I've used a sling sometimes but could never have done without a buggy. I don't know why you say mothers "nowadays" prefer prams when most people in this country have used them over probably the last 100 years.

When I was younger far more women used slings, which is what I was referring to when I compared it to "nowadays" when far fewer people do.

I'm obviously in a very annoying minority so I'm going to leave the thread. I'll just finish by saying that it seems utter madness when we have internet shopping, home delivery services and most women drive, for people to find the whole shopping experience to be so difficult that they feel it justifies them in using disabled facilities with school age children.

How on earth did mothers manage 20/30 years ago? I know I managed with a toddler in a backpack and carrying my shopping on the bus. It's amazing what you can do when there's no alternative!

barnaby-bear

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

When I was younger far more women used slings, which is what I was referring to when I compared it to "nowadays" when far fewer people do.

I'm obviously in a very annoying minority so I'm going to leave the thread. I'll just finish by saying that it seems utter madness when we have internet shopping, home delivery services and most women drive, for people to find the whole shopping experience to be so difficult that they feel it justifies them in using disabled facilities with school age children.

How on earth did mothers manage 20/30 years ago? I know I managed with a toddler in a backpack and carrying my shopping on the bus. It's amazing what you can do when there's no alternative!

Why bother providing disabled facilities in that case. The disabled can nowadays stay in and use internet shopping/delivery if they find it so hard to cope with the occassional other user of a toilet.

And 20/30 years ago loads of businesses had steps and no disabled access and the buses didn't have lifts and there were no disabled toilets.

tiamai_d

Strange... all my friends have used a sling or baby carrier at some point with their babies as well as the pram/pushchair so hardly a minority. Maybe more a case of what is most appropriate and where? For long trips (shopping or otherwise) I'll take the pram because I like her to be able to stretch and kick out rather than be cosseted up in the one position for hours.

And the whole point is that there are alternatives now (there was back in the day too) so why should people struggle just because you did?

Who is struggling doing their shopping? I thought the discussion was about how safe or unsafe it is for a child to use a public toilet on their own?

patchwork_cat

We have a problem with perception as to what the disabled toilet is - Is it disabled only or suitable for disabled use?

My opinion is suitable for disabled use.

Perhaps infact that is also some peoples' perception of disabled parking spaces -not a commonly held one, but a view.

If the car park is full is it acceptable to use a disabled parking space? If the answer is no then a perhaps a disabled person is a more important customer than an able bodied - topic for discussion !