Boys using ladies loos

iammumtoone

Fed up and stressed. I am interested on your view regarding what happened further up the thread when a woman was shouted at in the general toilets for taking her disabled son in. He clearly could use the general toilets if his mum was with him. Do you feel this was right? Or do you think he should have used a disabled toilet (if available) stopping someone like yourself using it when he was able to go in the general ones?

hawk30

hawk30 wrote: »

Yes, exactly buzzybee! I'm talking about when she was very little.

Anyway, I think I have to agree to disagree with some of you as GBBO is about to start. Please be assured that I will continue not to park in disabled spaces (and be cross with those that do) and happily give priority to those who I am aware need it. I will, however, defend a person's right (as I perceive it) to use the disabled toilets when they have a young baby and a pram, when there is no such facility in the baby changing rooms.

Oops, wrong night, that's what sleep deprivation does to you.

fed_up_and_stressed

Indie_Kid wrote: »

That's different. A disabled child has much right to use a disabled toilet as a disabled adult. What isn't ok is when a non-disabled person chooses to use a disabled toilet because they can't be bothered to walk the few extra meters to where the male and female toilets are.

I agree entirely with Indie Kid on this point.

lostinrates

Disabled loos should have facilities in them I would have thought, as some wheel chair users will also be parents of very young children.

iammumtoone

Indie_Kid wrote: »

That's different. A disabled child has much right to use a disabled toilet as a disabled adult. What isn't ok is when a non-disabled person chooses to use a disabled toilet because they can't be bothered to walk the few extra meters to where the male and female toilets are.

But how do you know that the 'non-disabled' person you are referring to isn't actually disabled? Disable people don't walk around with signs on saying they are and not all have mobility problems that can been seen.

iammumtoone

lostinrates wrote: »

Disabled loos should have facilities in them I would have thought, as some wheel chair users will also be parents of very young children.

Yes you are right they should, and maybe thats why alot of these facilities are in the disabled toilets to save companies the expense of having to install them twice.

fed_up_and_stressed

iammumtoone wrote: »

But how do you know that the 'non-disabled' person you are referring to isn't actually disabled? Disable people don't walk around with signs on saying they are and not all have mobility problems that can been seen.

Most of the culprits tend to come out and meekly apologise and admit they shouldn't be using them in my experience when they see me sat in my chair waiting whilst they exit with their gangs of kids.

fed_up_and_stressed

iammumtoone wrote: »

Yes you are right they should, and maybe thats why alot of these facilities are in the disabled toilets to save companies the expense of having to install them twice.

Again we are not on about babychanging we are on about older kids going to the loo with parents through choice or convenience issues

rozmister

Indie_Kid wrote: »

Are they? I have problems with my bladder and bowels which means that if I've got to go, I have to go now. Not in 5 minutes time. The majority of people can wait.

Most people I know also aren't so severely sensitive to noise that they can't handle the sound of a hand drier.

My 3 year old niece is terrified of hand driers (you're guess is as good as mine why) and still has the occasional accident so if there are no disabled people in the vicinity waiting and the hand driers in the general toilets are going full blast or they've all been full for ages I'll take her in the disabled one.

This probably makes me a terrible person but I'm not going to make a small child hysterically cling to me or wet herself on the off chance someone in need of a disabled toilet turns up at that point. If someone in need of the disabled toilet turned up before we went in she'd have to wet herself but if no one's there waiting I don't see the problem, she's pretty quick.

I've also not seen many stand alone changing toilets, most of the ones round my way are combined into the disabled facilities anyway so there is no 'exclusive' use. There's also plenty of people who aren't in wheelchairs that still need to use disabled toilets, I've met lots of people who need to use disabled toilets because they need a carer in with them & they can't fit into the tiny general cubicles.

lostinrates

Indie_Kid wrote: »

Are they? I have problems with my bladder and bowels which means that if I've got to go, I have to go now. Not in 5 minutes time. The majority of people can wait.

Most people I know also aren't so severely sensitive to noise that they can't handle the sound of a hand drier.

Sometimes non disabled people face this problem. This was something that came up earlier in the thread. Personally, I'd be happy to let someone desperate in front of me in a queue, man, woman, boy, girl, if I were not in the same state. I can have problems too with waiting and the last thing I would want for anyone, disabled or otherwise, is to have an 'accident'. ( and it really can happen to people,who aren't disabled....people who have tummy bugs, people who ate something funny, people who aren't used to the air conditioning in a shopping mall, people who are just very stressed, people who aren't yet diagnosed with something but are in fact going to be in the future if they seek help......)