Letting kids ahead of you in the bathroom line?

[Anonymous]

Didn’t your young daughter need to pee too, or were you alone with the baby?

If I was only changing a diaper, I would have let the one child go ahead. If the older child had to go too, too bad so sad. The little stranger could wait.

Regardless, the woman speaking was horribly rude, and no way would I have let a strange child in with me, I would have also taken the time to pee myself. That’s why they have other bathrooms.

[Anonymous]

Children's museums are hotbeds of bizarre sociopathic behavior. It's not anyone's fault. Use the law of war, where the rules of engagement are different in civilized times. You got out of there in one piece. Good job!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would let a kid doing the pee pee dance in ahead of me, even with a poop diaper. Poop diaper isn’t a crisis, what’s another few minutes?

If the kid isn’t doing the pee pee dance I might not let them ahead of me.

The problem was I dont' even know if she was or not. She hadn't been waiting in the bathroom line. I got the impression that she saw the door open from wherever she was playing and was like "oh, the bathroom" and ran up and grabbed the handle. But she definitely wasn't with her mom in line doing the pee dance. But part of me kind of thinKs- even if she were- my kid is also complaining, and we were here first, you know? But even so, if it were a pee dance situation I probably would have let her ahead of me even with my baby fussing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Didn’t your young daughter need to pee too, or were you alone with the baby?

If I was only changing a diaper, I would have let the one child go ahead. If the older child had to go too, too bad so sad. The little stranger could wait.

Regardless, the woman speaking was horribly rude, and no way would I have let a strange child in with me, I would have also taken the time to pee myself. That’s why they have other bathrooms.

My 4 year old did not have to pee so it was just the diaper. My main hurry was that my 4 year old was off playing and I hadn't laid eyes on him in 5-10min since the line was taking forever. (That, and my baby was crying from the diaper obviously)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Children's museums are hotbeds of bizarre sociopathic behavior. It's not anyone's fault. Use the law of war, where the rules of engagement are different in civilized times. You got out of there in one piece. Good job!

lol!

[Anonymous]

No, I wouldn't have let any random kid go first. My kid comes first. End of story. Also, I sure as hell would never invite some random kid into the washroom with me, no thank you. They can wait like everyone else.

[Anonymous]

I would had let the child go in before me.
I would not have allowed that child in the bathroom with me and would not have left my other child out of sight unattended.

[Anonymous]

I will usually let a little kid go ahead of me if they are in line behind me and really really have to go. In your case, she ran in from out of nowhere so I probably would’ve done the same as you except I would not have acknowledged the crazy women.

[Anonymous]

I would have let the girl go if I was changing a diaper. An extra minute is no big deal.

Different story if my young child had to go. My youngest is only 2 and not potty trained. I remember those days when my big kids were younger. Strangers let them cut when they did the pee pee dance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No, I wouldn't have let any random kid go first. My kid comes first. End of story. Also, I sure as hell would never invite some random kid into the washroom with me, no thank you. They can wait like everyone else.

In retrospect I'm a little concerned that I even did that (say the kid could come in if it were an emergency). I did think it was the crazy woman's own kid, but even worse that it WASN'T! I mean I'm obviously harmless (obviously to me, that is) but people in our society are too weird about that stuff sometimes. And if I'm being perfectly honest I didn't think the girl would really come in- I mainly wanted to open the door to let the crazy mom know that I could hear her loud and clear and make her feel uncomfortable. But I didn't mind the girl coming in, per say.

[Anonymous]

I can’t imagine a 3 year old running off to a public restroom and trying to go in alone. My kids would not have known the first thing about doing that or would have wanted to at age 3. All of the behavior from the kid and the adult with her was strange. Also those places are vile. I would not take an infant to one, but I guess you were going for the older one!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So- looking for the crowd's feedback here. I feel half guilty that I should have done something differently, and half annoyed at the rude b*tch.

Was at a children's museum today. In the one preschool-aged kids play area (which is enclosed- kids can't escape- but is moderately large, so you definitely can't see or hear them unless you're nearby), there is one bathroom that's a single "family" stall with a changing table, etc. Other restrooms are located pretty much on the other side of the museum. My 4 year old was playing and my 5 month old had a super dirty diaper. I went over to the bathroom but it was occupied so I waited outside the door. It took a good 7 full minutes before the mom and her kid came out of it (zero judgement on the amount of time they were in there- just giving context to how long I was waiting with the baby while my 4 year old was off playing, out of sight from me). The door opened and they started to emerge, and then a little girl (3? close to 4?) ran up in front of the line and grabbed the handle and said to no one in particular (I'm assuming her mom was nearby), "I'm going to the bathroom!"

What would you have done?

This is what I did- I paused and looked around, and luckily I heard a woman's voice call out "Evelyn! There's a line!" to which the little girl looked at me but kept walking in. I continued to stand there- didn't push her away or anything crazy, I would have just let her go if she'd kept walking in. I heard the voice call again more firmly for "Evelyn" to wait. The girl backed off, at which point I took the door handle, and as I walked in I smiled at her and said "don't worry we'll be quick". I then proceeded to start to change my fussing 5 month old's gigantic dirty diaper. The entire time, I can hear this woman outside of the door going to her mom friend "I cannot BELIEVE she just did that. I give her 30 seconds before I bang on that door and shame her." I did a double take in the bathroom- like, wait what? But kept (quickly) changing my kid. I actually had to pee also but I had already planned on waiting until later since I knew the little girl was waiting. I hear her repeat the same thing- about how i had 30 seconds before she was going to give me a piece of her mind or whatever. So I open the door (poop diaper in hand) and say- "so I can hear you? And if she needs to go really badly she can come in with us. But I need to finish up and get back to my older child." and the woman goes "YES, SHE DOES HAVE TO GO BADLY, THANK YOU" and the girl came into the bathroom with me. I felt a little uncomfortable but she was independent and i figured- whatever, I'm almost done, and if she has to go she has to go.

So I finish up and the girl is still in there so I walk out and hold the door a little bit and say to the woman "I'm finished, if you want to go in there with her now" and the woman looks at me and says in the same harsh tone "she isn't my kid". Ummmm, what???? You gave some random 3 or 4 year old permission to go into the bathroom with a stranger???? Not to mention how indignant that you were that I'd gone to the bathroom when she also walked up and had to go... but she wasn't even yours?? At this point the girls mom walks up, totally friendly, and is like "oh she's mine! I'm so sorry, and thank you!!" and i walked off and that was it.

So... I guess the TLR version is, was I totally out of line to not let this girl go ahead of me? Even though I'd been waiting for quite a while, my baby was fussing about his diaper, and my 4 year old was off on his own waiting for us? Is it an unspoken rule that I should always let kids go first?

Absolutely not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would had let the child go in before me.
I would not have allowed that child in the bathroom with me and would not have left my other child out of sight unattended.

Yeah, I had no idea it was going to take that long. I thought it was unoccupied, for starters, and when I noticed someone was in there I figured it wouldn't be much longer since I hadn't seen anyone go in in the past few minutes. The longer it took, I kept being like "well it's gotta be any minute now!"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No, I wouldn't have let any random kid go first. My kid comes first. End of story. Also, I sure as hell would never invite some random kid into the washroom with me, no thank you. They can wait like everyone else.

In retrospect I'm a little concerned that I even did that (say the kid could come in if it were an emergency). I did think it was the crazy woman's own kid, but even worse that it WASN'T! I mean I'm obviously harmless (obviously to me, that is) but people in our society are too weird about that stuff sometimes. And if I'm being perfectly honest I didn't think the girl would really come in- I mainly wanted to open the door to let the crazy mom know that I could hear her loud and clear and make her feel uncomfortable. But I didn't mind the girl coming in, per say.

Let the entire incident go, but take today as your opportunity to learn that it’s per se.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I can’t imagine a 3 year old running off to a public restroom and trying to go in alone. My kids would not have known the first thing about doing that or would have wanted to at age 3. All of the behavior from the kid and the adult with her was strange. Also those places are vile. I would not take an infant to one, but I guess you were going for the older one!

Yeah. Gotta love preschools/ daycares being closed at the end of August. We needed to get out and do something. And the girl might have been 4, not 3 (which makes it weird in my opinion that she coudln't hold it for a few minutes if she were as old as 4, but again, whatever, she clearly had to go if she was willing to come in with a stranger)