I thought of this question while I was brushing my teeth, and figured I'd post this poll before I have to dash off to class.

A guy is at a public place with his *very* young daughter (barely older than a baby) and she has to go to the bathroom but her mother is somewhere else at the moment. The girl won't/can't go alone, which means he has to go with her. Which bathroom do they enter?

Interesting question... I've worried about it from my perspective, with my son. When he was younger, he'd go into the women's room with me, but not too long ago he announced he could use the men's room all by himself.

And then some places have either a separate "family" bathroom, or has single-occupancy restrooms so it really doesn't matter which you choose, as long as you lock the door behind you.

PJ

No brainer, she'd go with me to the MEN's room.

Until they are COMPLETELY potty trained, it really is not an option to send a child of the opposite gender of the parent into their own bathroom.

And, for some, it is unacceptable for men to go into the ladies room...though one time in our church I did do so with baby Trinity.

I had forgotten to stock her diaper bag sufficiently and I knew that the church had everything you needed in the Ladies room. Besides, the changing table was RIGHT next to the door, making it impossible for a woman/girl to walk in without being able to see me changing my darling daughter's diaper.

We also have an open door policy at the church. If you are in the restroom with a child, even your own, the door must be blocked open. So, I had the door blocked open at the time as well.

James

Whoops, just noticed ALL of Pam's responce...

True, if the Ladies room is a single occupancy with a lock, then that is totally acceptable.

Hi,

When I was a little girl and I was with my dad alone, he use to take me to store or restaurant and ask a female employee of the place to take me in the ladies restroom and he will wait for us out side the door.

MAF

It really depends on the age of the child. With the proliferation of perverts the child would have to be 7 or 8 before I would allow them to go alone. Then I would be holding the door open so I could hear if something was wrong.

For your particular case it would depend on how big the bathroom and where the urnials were. If there were stalls that he could get to without the child being exposed to men at urnials then I guess he could take her to the mens room. If not then I would have him knock on the womens room door and announce his coming in with his daughter. Then he should enlist a woman's aid in making sure that anyone coming knows that he is there. I would not trust my child to a stranger no matter who there are you just don't know what they will do.

Thank goodness for "Family Restrooms" now being popular.

I had a similar problem with my 5 year old cousin a while ago.

She, little angel that she is, absolutely refused to use the MENs room, and she had to go potty. After trying and failing to negotiate with her for a while I thought that was it, we were at a standstill, we were deadlocked. We'd be staring each other down until she peed her pants in public and I'd be forever known as the guy who made his baby cousin pee her pants in the shopping mall.

I was caught in a battle of wills with a 5 year old, and I lost. As it turns out, her will is much stronger than mine, who would have thought? - or in Aussie-speak 'whodathunk?'

She grabbed my hand, turned on her heel, marched through the door to the ladies room and very loudly informed everyone to cover up because "(her) cousin is coming in, he's a boy, and if you don't like it you can go because (she) has to go potty NOW!"

David

I really like you 5 year old cousin. She has a strong will and the world better watch out.

Are you sure she isn't reading the stories on this site and using Lois as a roll model.

If there's a story lurking on here somewhere that features a c/o with The Wiggles and/or Elmo, I wouldn't put it past her

She sounds like a cool little girl!