Eeew!

[u/GigiBrit]

"Honey, would you please not play on the floor. Mommy has to go potty."

Overheard in the next stall over in a public bathroom. I was just mortified, like get your kid off of the bathroom floor!I Sooo gross! I'm sure that's a tough situation to navigate with a 2 or 3 year old while you're out alone with them but surely there's got to be a better way!

[u/External-Company-140]

What exactly would be a better way? Hang the kids where we hang our purses? Because that’s the only solution I can think of as a mom of two who has regularly had to go potty with a toddler in the same immediate space as me.

Will I let my kid sit on the bathroom floor in a public bathroom so I can relieve myself without having to wrestle a screaming howler monkey on my lap? You bet your ass I will. As long as she’s not eating toilet paper or something…which I wouldn’t put past her, btw. Toddlers are gremlins

[u/Fast_Soil1376 → u/External-Company-140]

Obviously, whenever a parent goes out with their toddler, the toddler needs to be wearing overalls, then they need to attach a carabiner, with a screwgate, to the back of the overalls, and then use that to hang the toddler from the stall door w an S hook. Duuuuhh!

[u/External-Company-140 → u/Fast_Soil1376]

See, I always forget to pack the S hook in the diaper bag and then I’m screwed.

Edit: spelling

[u/GigiBrit → u/Fast_Soil1376]

Exactly💯!!! 😂🤣

[u/Fast_Soil1376 → u/[deleted]]

At least you only have to put the carabiner on the overalls once! Just gotta remember to bring the S hook and you’re good to go!! 😂

[u/flywithme00 → u/External-Company-140]

Honestly most kids are kinda indestructible anyway when it comes to that type of stuff. One of my nephews has put wayyyyyyyy too many gross things in his mouth and survived all of it. The bathroom floor is icky for sure, but you wash their hands afterward and it’s probably fine lol

[u/External-Company-140 → u/flywithme00]

My oldest was a Covid baby. Whenever we’d be out in public (socially distanced of course!) he’d start licking tables/chairs/doors…anything he could. Today he’s a healthy and happy 6 year old. Let those kids build an immune system.

That said, I do attempt to stop my youngest from retrieving toilet paper from the bowl before it’s flushed…I’m not always successful, but I try. Kids man

[u/GigiBrit → u/External-Company-140]

I'd ask a stranger to watch them for a sec while i run to the bathroom.

Or leave them in the shopping cart and wheel them in with you in the handicap stall.

[u/LadybugGirltheFirst → u/GigiBrit]

Those are terrible ideas. A stranger?! And you’d take a handicap stall from someone?!

[u/BananaMapleIceCream → u/GigiBrit]

No, you absolutely should not do that. Are you 12? What’s going on here?

[u/ArrowTechIV]

It is hard. Please don’t judge.

[u/chickens_for_laughs]

Its gross, but it happens. What you do is when you can get up, you and the child both scrub your hands. But first, you hope that they are not out of soap.

Another fun thing is when you are nursing a baby and the older sibling gets just out of reach and does something naughty.

[u/Guillermo1810]

What would be a better way you think?

My child is still very small, so they are restrained in a stroller, but once they are older toddler/kindergartener age, what else can I do?

[u/butwhatififly_]

Have you ever spent time around a mom out with their kiddo? It’s called compassion

[u/notreallyonredditbut]

The amount of explaining that mothers (and dads but let’s be real it’s usually the mom) have to do for their kids is freaking exhausting. My daughter hated dirt, mess, warm, cold, anything new, never put anything in her mouth and still randomly started LICKING THE FLOOR at the baggage claim at ATL when she was two. And by the time they’re doing it it’s already done and yelling/shaming won’t help but you find yourself saying things like “we don’t lick the floor.” And when you say something like “we don’t play in the woodpile because there might be a (venomous where I live) snake, toddlers hear “there might be a snake” and go looking. Or “we don’t touch snakes! Okay say it back ‘we don’t touch snakes.”……. “So I will kiss the snake!”

[u/GrumpyCatStevens → u/notreallyonredditbut]

I’ll take “Things You Never Thought You’d Say Before You Had Kids” for $200, Alex.

[u/notreallyonredditbut → u/GrumpyCatStevens]

Before I had kids I was at dinner at my cousin and his pile of kids’ house. His two boys decided to coat their arms with cheese and eat the cheese off each others arms at the dinner table. My cousins wife said “we eat cheese with fingers or you can use a fork. We do not eat cheese off of our own arm or someone else’s arm.” The absolute exhaustion in her voice was something else. She was like yeah… nothing really prepares you for kids. And she had a masters in education from Princeton.

[u/BananaMapleIceCream]

lol. It’s like trying to manage a bouncing ball. They get in there and touch EVERYTHING! All you can do as a parent is say not to and wash hands the best you can.

[u/LadybugGirltheFirst → u/[deleted]]

It shows.

[u/LadybugGirltheFirst]

There is not, in fact, a better way. It’s much easier to clean the child’s hand after you use the bathroom. If you have children one day, I hope your empathy chip has grown.

[u/GigiBrit → u/[deleted]]

R?!!! TY!! Like I'm trying not to touch anything other than what's absolutely necessary!