# Mamas, don't follow your babies into the men's room **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [August 13, 2009, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mamas-dont-follow-your-babies-into-the-mens-room/506294 "2009-08-13T15:32:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2009, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mamas-dont-follow-your-babies-into-the-mens-room/506294/61 "2009-08-13T21:13:57Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > I ran into one of these hyper-protective mommies one time at a restaurant, pacing up and down in front of the men’s room door. I could tell she wanted to stop me from going in but didn’t have the nerve. Instead, as I walked in she shouted “Mommie’s right here, Bobby!!!”. Boy, that put me off my game, I can tell you. :rolleyes: I was tempted to reply (in my deepest basso profundo) “That’s OK ma’am, we’ll take good care of him.” I’m glad I didn’t though, because she probably would have come charging in to protect her nestling. The problem with reading stories like these is that now I’m almost hoping to run into this situation. _Mommy_: My son is in there. _Me_: …If you insist, I won’t piss on him. ---
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2009, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mamas-dont-follow-your-babies-into-the-mens-room/506294/62 "2009-08-13T21:19:48Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > Heh: if you tried showing up at our school with a password that the kid recognized, you’d be laughed off the grounds. Our school has a strict teacher-notification policy: if you don’t send a note to the teacher or call the school secretary to signal a change in how the kid will get home, the school will send the kid home in the regular way. Period. Ditto. And honestly, that whole “password” thing is really an artifact of the 1980s, when parents were being told to take a skrillion ridiculous precautions to protect against their kids being snatched up by strangers. I know people keep saying that this sort of thing is only getting worse, but in my experience it’s really not. In our neighborhood, kids are running around unsupervised all the time, riding their bikes all over the place, skateboarding up the sidewalks, doing Diet Coke/Mentos experiments in the cul-de-sac (that was exciting), etc. Nobody except the kindergarten parents walks their kids to the bus stop. And so forth. ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2009, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mamas-dont-follow-your-babies-into-the-mens-room/506294/63 "2009-08-13T22:02:08Z")
> [@SmashTheState](#): > > I am a huge fan of Robert Mapplethorpe. _Cincinnati_ is a huge fan of Robert Mapplethorpe! ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2009, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mamas-dont-follow-your-babies-into-the-mens-room/506294/64 "2009-08-13T22:05:29Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > Men get in and out. They have a job to do and they do it. They’re not there to socialize. I’m hearing this in a stern voice, like the one that used to do military recruiting ads. “You can really get it together in the Army. Today’s Army wants to join YOU. And you recruits, better know that bathroom time will be strictly regulated. There’s no messing about in _this_ man’s army.” ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2009, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mamas-dont-follow-your-babies-into-the-mens-room/506294/65 "2009-08-13T22:11:17Z")
Should just have unisex bathrooms. I’m a guy so I don’t care ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2009, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mamas-dont-follow-your-babies-into-the-mens-room/506294/66 "2009-08-13T22:17:19Z")
> [@Shot\_From\_Guns](#): > > I don’t know about you guys, but I am incredibly impressed by the efficiency of our child molestors here in the good ol’ U.S. of A. Maybe if more Americans took some direction from these hard-working pedophiles, we could keep more jobs in the country. That’s because molesters are in the private sector. If government started to run the molesting business, this would take forever. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2009, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mamas-dont-follow-your-babies-into-the-mens-room/506294/67 "2009-08-13T22:24:23Z")
> [@Green\_Bean](#): > > Now that you mention it, guys like **SmashTheState** are the reason I don’t want to let my kid hang out in Penn Station alone. Not because he’s a kidnapper or child molestor, but because I’d probably come out of the bathroom to find him haranguing my 7-year-old about sexism, Robert Mapplethorpe, and the Ottawa Panhandler’s Union. I never let my kids go into the bathrooms in Penn Station in New York, but they had signs above them saying “Abandon Hope, all ye who enter here”. I was scared of those bathrooms. But I did learn in this thread that women’s restrooms are dirtier than men’s, which I never would have expected. I know that the amount of toilet paper my wife uses each time is enough to show up on Google Earth. but I assumed it all went into the pot. Hurrah for the Dope! Fighting ignorance yet again. ---
**Author:** ![Raygun99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Raygun99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raygun99)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2009, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mamas-dont-follow-your-babies-into-the-mens-room/506294/68 "2009-08-13T22:28:43Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > That’s because molesters are in the private sector. If government started to run the molesting business, this would take forever. On the bright side, by the time they got around to molesting them, they’d be of legal age. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2009, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mamas-dont-follow-your-babies-into-the-mens-room/506294/69 "2009-08-13T22:33:54Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > Men get in and out. They have a job to do and they do it. They’re not there to socialize. Are you talking about going to the bathroom or having sex? ---
**Author:** ![Risha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/5fc32e/32.png) [@Risha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Risha)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2009, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mamas-dont-follow-your-babies-into-the-mens-room/506294/70 "2009-08-13T22:34:04Z")
Hey, no dissing Mapplethorpe! I, like most people, only knew him as the pervert photographer from the news, until I randomly picked up a book of his work at an art library I worked at. Dude is BRILLIANT. ---
**Author:** ![Ruken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f475e1/32.png) [@Ruken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruken)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2009, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mamas-dont-follow-your-babies-into-the-mens-room/506294/71 "2009-08-13T22:39:38Z")
How many children have been molested by strangers in a public bathroom? Ever? ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2009, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mamas-dont-follow-your-babies-into-the-mens-room/506294/72 "2009-08-13T22:42:17Z")
> [@Ruken](#): > > How many children have been molested by strangers in a public bathroom? Ever? Probably not many as they all take time to cut and dye the kid’s hair first. Obviously, we need to look out for hairdressers. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![supergoose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@supergoose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/supergoose)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2009, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mamas-dont-follow-your-babies-into-the-mens-room/506294/73 "2009-08-13T22:48:48Z")
> [@cwthree](#): > > I understand not wanting to send him into the restroom alone (sort of), but he’s 7 - why do you need to see what he’s “doing” in the stall? I could understand if he were a little kid who might need help using the toilet, but wouldn’t it be sufficient to stand outside the stall and give him some breathing room? Maybe to make sure he’s not making a mess, playing with the hand dryer (as someone mentioned upthread) and preventing other people from using it, just generally being a nuisance/getting in the way/being a peeping tom? ---
**Author:** ![maplekiwi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a4c791/32.png) [@maplekiwi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/maplekiwi)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2009, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mamas-dont-follow-your-babies-into-the-mens-room/506294/74 "2009-08-13T22:55:05Z")
> [@Raygun99](#): > > On the bright side, by the time they got around to molesting them, they’d be of legal age. :D:D:D This thread has given me a few good chuckles! But on a more serious note, one of my nephews was accosted in public toilets here (New Zealand) when he was a pre schooler - as was another older nephew waiting outside his school for his chronically late dad. So it does happen. Another poster mentioned about family rooms. They do have them here. I think they are mainly for mothers needing to change nappies or who have several children, but theres no reason why other parents couldn’t use them. & I went to Dunedin on holiday last year - & some of the toilets were like a blast from the past. Ceramic tiles on the walls, immaculately clean, little sitting rooms outside. & in a little office (an office! :p) would be a fearsome elderly cleaner doing her knitting & keeping a close eye on everything. 😃 The only time I remember taking my son into public toilets with me was when we went to public swimming pools. (I must have at other times, but its gone out of my mind) But I do remember when he was old enough to go in by himself. (also at the pools) I was outside pacing alright - but I wasn’t worrying! I was thinking "What the _ **fuck** _ is he doing in there!) He was a dreamy kid, always off in his own world. Usually I would wait till I was sure he was the only one in there & haul him out or I’d ask some guy going in to tell the little blonde boy in there to get a move on as his Mum was getting cross. I couldn’t go sit down to wait for him since I didn’t want him to decide to jump back in the pool. & I’ve cleaned toilets (a special high in my working life:rolleyes:)In order the worst is primary (elementary)school boys by miles, followed by high school boys. adult males, high school girls. Elementary school girls & adult women were no problem at all. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2009, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mamas-dont-follow-your-babies-into-the-mens-room/506294/75 "2009-08-13T23:16:40Z")
This thread reminds me of a sign I saw at a tourist attraction in Northern Ireland last weekend. It said something like “In line with our child protection policy we ask that visitors refrain from taking photographs that include other people’s children in them”. I’d never seen a sign like it before. ---
**Author:** ![Mtgman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5a626/32.png) [@Mtgman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mtgman)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2009, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mamas-dont-follow-your-babies-into-the-mens-room/506294/76 "2009-08-13T23:27:06Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > The problem with reading stories like these is that now I’m almost hoping to run into this situation. > > _Mommy_: My son is in there. > _Me_: …If you insist, I won’t piss on him. So how many different ways could you blow this person’s mind?(Really offensive additions in parentheses) “I’ve been cleaning out my attic, do you think he’s old enough to enjoy lawn darts? They’re in my car.”(Poking through the sheet metal of the trunk) “Thanks, I didn’t want to share a bathroom with a walking bag of germs anyway.”(Bad enough to have to share the store with self-centered bitches like you) “Well, it’s about time he had male role model.”(With a penis instead of just a mustache) “Aren’t you supposed to be in the housewares section?”(And do you need help fulfilling the “pregnant” requirement?) “If you’re still here when I get back I’ll know you’re just desperate to talk to a guy.”(Cause I’m gonna be in there a while hoping you go away) “How do I know he’s your kid and you’re not just waiting to snatch him?”(Cause that happened to me once. I still remember Mary Kay fondly) “Are you going to come in and wipe his butt when he’s done?”(I may need a hand too) Enjoy, Steven ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2009, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mamas-dont-follow-your-babies-into-the-mens-room/506294/77 "2009-08-13T23:39:17Z")
> [@Zebra](#): > > Are you talking about going to the bathroom or having sex? Either or. Men go to men’s rooms for both reason, but either way, they’re all business. No time for chit chat. ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2009, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mamas-dont-follow-your-babies-into-the-mens-room/506294/78 "2009-08-13T23:54:57Z")
Doesn’t she understand it’s already too late? Pedo-rays permeate every corner of the molestosphere, passing neutrino-like right through Brinks home secuirty and ADT alarm systems, penetrating the very womb and _corrupting the unborn._ . ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2009, 7:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mamas-dont-follow-your-babies-into-the-mens-room/506294/79 "2009-08-14T07:10:52Z")
> [@Ferret\_Herder](#): > > Very young, sure, but you get the problem of the older ones starting to peep into the cracks in the stalls to see the other women. They’re probably just being curious or obnoxious, but speaking from experience, it’s still unpleasant. I am not very modest about my body, but back when I was still using tampons, I did NOT want some little boy peering through the crack, or sliding under the stall door or wall, and watching me remove one and put a fresh one in. ---
**Author:** ![shiftless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9c0ed/32.png) [@shiftless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shiftless)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2009, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mamas-dont-follow-your-babies-into-the-mens-room/506294/80 "2009-08-14T14:41:32Z")
> [@Lute Skywatcher](#): > > You haven’t seen the men’s rooms here. Not only are there toilet paper ass-gaskets but we also have someone hanging strips of toilet paper from the stall walls, presumably to keep anyone from peeking between the cracks. I hate to hijack but I just saw this for the first time yesterday! I couldn’t figure out how a strip of TP got caught on the door until I left. Then it became obvious that it was hung there to block the slight crack between the door and frame. What was going on in that stall? Nevermind, I don’t want to know. I am picturing Big Bird building a nest of TP before he can take a dump. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mamas-dont-follow-your-babies-into-the-mens-room/506294.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mamas-dont-follow-your-babies-into-the-mens-room/506294.md?page=5)