I believe at one time or another most parents come across this very same
problem in public rest rooms. When my girls were very little my now
ex would take them in with him only AFTER he checked to be sure there
was no one in the rest room. If there was he would wait. He also kept
a small note that he could attach on the door if necessary to say
'father taking daughter to the bathroom please wait 5 minutes for us to
complete her task.' He never ran into a problem using his little note.
He had a few men holler into the bathroom to see if it was 'safe' for
them to enter. But seems from what I was told everyone was respectful.
Since I didn't have any sons I can only relate to when I would take
friend's boys with me on an outing. Younger children would come in with
me to the ladies room. When the boys got to be around 8-9, I would wait
outside the door of the men room. If they weren't out in short order I
would yell in to them to see what was going on... if I didn't like the
response or I couldn't hear him I would not hesitate to yell out "MOTHER
COMING IN NOW!" In this day and age when you want to be able to give
our sons and daughters a bit of freedom it is so difficult. Close doors
never stopped me. And if another adult couldn't understand the needs of
the children to bad.
juliasb
TwinMom wrote:
OK, so to make this a bit OT, I was away this weekend at a quilting retreat
(Had a GREAT TIME btw!) and the following item came up between DH & I. We
have a 3yo DD and twin 7yo DS and our DD had to use the public restroom at
McD's. DH took her into the men's room, which I found really gross, not only
because the men's rooms are, generally, filthy, but I don't want her exposed
(no pun intended) to strangers using the facilities. I felt he should be
taking her into the women's rooms, whenever a single use or family restroom
is not available. She is not old enough to go unattended and, after all, I
take the boys, now 7, into the women's with me. A lengthy discussion has
ensued, so I'm seeking the opinions of follow females, as many as possible,
on the following issues:
1) How do you feel about a father accompanying his very young daughter into
the women's restroom to use the facilities? Would you feel threatened or
offended, or would you understand the situation?
2) If you, or your family has experienced this problem with dads/daughters,
how did you address it?
3) Not important, but I am starting to get "looks" at having my little boys
in the facilities with me. Do any of you take offense at boy children, say
under 10, in the woman's restroom with their mothers?
No flames please, I'm just trying to get a cross section of opinions from
various ages, w/ and w/o children, etc.
TIA
Lorraine in Los Alamos
--
Conductor of the Squish-mobile
....come and journey with me...
from darkness into New Life
http://globnet.com/~flair/