Oh, and if I can slightly hijack the thread, what do you do in the reverse situation? When you have to go and have young, but not young enough, children of the opposite gender with you? (Personally, I always found mall bathrooms the spookiest - inevitably long walks down an empty corridor with niches to disappear in. I’m going to leave my kids there?
Have you ever been around a 6 year old little boy? He does it to be funny…he does it to show his displeasure at being forced to go in the ladies room with his mom.
He is most certainly not screwed up or strange.
And to clarify…I don’t mean I make him go into the stall with me when I need to use the restroom. I make him go into the ladies room WITH me when he needs to use the restroom…I don’t let him go into the men’s room alone.
He hides his eyes walking to the stall.
Okay…paranoid. Is it just me, or does this sound kind of frightening? A “device” to go in? No liquids after you leave home? Don’t give in? Um…call me old-fashioned, but I think that relieving your bladder is more than a reward, it’s a right. Maybe it’s because I have a really tiny bladder, but I just find this post kind of disturbing, that’s all.
My 6 year old son averts his eyes too. He’s just discovered the idea of modesty, and doesn’t want to take the chance he’ll see anything he would be weirded out by.
My 3 year old has no modesty yet and will often come out of the stall with his pants and underware off. He can get dressed by himself, he just sees to pressing need to.
I’d say use some common sense. As someone pointed out, somtimes rest-rooms are packed with dads, uncles and grandpas. Nobody’s gonna mess with your kid in that situation…No rational human (certainly not I) is going to be silent while some other kid is being mis-treated. And it’s not like you can rape/murder/molest or kidnap a kid covertly in a packed restroom.
Seriously, do you think he’s more likely to be raped/murdered/kidnapped/molested/etc in a restroom, or killed in the car-ride home from said restroom.
You don’t refuse to take him for drives, do you? No, you put the safety equipment on…you’re taking necessary, but not ridiculously stifiling precautions. Do that in this case, too.
But yeah, if the restroom is deserted, creepy, gives you a bad vibe, whatever…Don’t let him. Trust those mommy instincts…but don’t make them the only way you conduct your life, or you’ll end up with a tiny woody allen.
JMO,
Steve
This is why I’m glad places are starting to put in inter-sex family restrooms. I’ve seen quite a few lately, mostly in malls and such. Hopefully they become more common!
My son is 10, and insists on using the mens public tolets. I wait outside and if he has been taking too long I am not beyond asking a total stranger who is going in if they could let me know if they can see him in there. I never had a man say no, they are always more than happy to look. Usually he is playing with the blasted airdriers, while I stand outside fretting. If there is a disabled toilet available I make him use that, he has Asperger’s Syndrome, so I don’t feel its wrong, and he is happy enough to go there.