Top 10 Reasons a Public Restroom is Not Kid Friendly
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Visiting a public bathroom has never been my idea of fun. Now that I usually have two young kids in tow when I do visit the restroom, I have come to realize one thing. Clueless men and women without children are designing many of the public restrooms I frequent. This must be true as no mother in their right mind would equip bathrooms would certain features if they had young kids.
Top 10 Reasons A Public Bathroom is Not Kid Friendly
1. Stall doors with an actual door handle and an easy unlock feature. Turn the handle once and the door is instantly opened.
Try going to the bathroom with a 3 year old and an almost two year old. Invariably one of them (usually the youngest) will want to pull on the door handle which in turns opens the door. This is not good when I’m in midstream with my pants still down and a woman waiting on the other side. This just happened to me last week.
2. Stalls with very short partitions.
Do not give my kids any extra incentive to sneak a peek under the stall or even worse, try to escape while I’m indisposed and can’t chase after them.
3. Loud and overly sensitive automatic flushing systems
Don’t get me wrong. Anything that keeps my kids from touching that horrendous handle on the old style toilets is great. I like to flush those with my foot and it is comical to watch my oldest try to mimic this action. But there is no reason that the automatic flush needs to be freakishly loud or go off when they are still using the toilet and scare the bejesus out of them.
4. Sinks which are too high for a child to reach the water. (I don’t even mean the faucet handle, I mean the stream of water itself.)
5. Soap which is in an awkward position and hard to dispense.
6. No step stool for kids to stand on.
Because of number 4, 5 and 6 I am invariably lifting one of my kids up with one hand while trying to push the button for soap with the thumb of my free cupped hand and catch it just so I can give some to my kiddo. I then have to hold my kid over the sink while he slowly washes then takes forever to rinse his hands. Never fails that they he wants to touch the bubbles that have formed at the base of the sink and I’m stuck rinsing them yet again. While I’m busy with my oldest it is a prime opportunity for youngest to get into trouble.
7. Hand dryers are the only available option.
While I realize that this is meant to be earth friendly, try getting two squirmy kids to wait long enough under a dryer to actually dry their hands. (Not that I can blame them, these drive me nuts too.) Hand dryers are also scary for some kids. My three year old honestly asks to dry his hands on my pants. Hmm…I wonder where he got that idea from? Paper towels are quick and easy and I get to leave the bathroom with dry pants.
8. Hand dryers which are too high.
Even though my youngest enjoys having his hands under the dryer, unless I pick him up he is getting a full blown blast of hot air into his face. If it is automatic and only turns on when his hands are underneath it is constantly turning on and off as he isn’t consistently holding his hands in the proper spot.
9. Diaper changing station out in the open.
I love it when these are located within a stall. While you may have to wait until that stall becomes free, you get to change you child with a little privacy. Most other bathroom guests I would assume do not really enjoy looking at your child’s poop smeared butt. As a mom who is occasionally stuck doing this I hate the feeling of all eyes on me as I change my son’s diaper.
10. Swinging doors.
Seriously what are some people thinking? That is just a recipe for disaster with a young kid who is attracted like a magnet to a door that swings open. Either it knocks back into him or he gets whacked as someone is coming into the restroom. While I appreciate not having to touch a door handle and the nasty germs it collects, it definitely isn’t kid friendly.
Who passes and fails this test for me locally?
FAILS MISERABLY: McDonald’s
Ironically it is my local McDonald’s that was the inspiration for this post. While the bathrooms are very new and you would assume kid friendly, I am driven insane every time I’m forced to use them. My McDonald’s violates more than half of the complaints listed above.
PASSES AS THE MOST KID FRIENDLY BATHROOM I’VE ENCOUNTERED: Barnes & Noble.
They have a small step stool available along with paper towels easily in reach next to the sink. There is even a diaper changing station and diaper genie located in their handicap accessible stall. It is the only bathroom I’ve been in that included a step stool and now I find every bathroom that doesn’t have it lacking. Since we attend a weekly story time and use the bathroom with each visit, I certainly appreciate these small conveniences.
Now it is your chance to spill. Anything in particular drive you nuts when you visit a public restroom with kids?
i agree with every one of those points!!
trisha
Ikea by far has the BEST bathroom I’ve ever been in. Toys for the kids!
agreed!
I do not have little ones anymore.. so I guess I would only add that they never have enough TP in the stalls… and you don’t notice until it is too late.
I noticed that even at the fancy dept. stores, like Dillards?? have the changing table in the open, and usually right by the door!
Free show!
Totally agree! My son is 3 and still thinks it’s funny to try and open the door while I’m peeing. And when he’s not trying to escape, he’s definitely peeking under the stalls at unsuspecting neighbors.
Changing tables out in the open are bad, but it’s the worst when they’re right by the door so the first person someone sees when they enter the bathroom is your kids dirty butt as you hold her legs in the air to change diapers.
Absolutely agree, especially about the freakishly loud toilets scaring the crap (no pun intended) out of our kids. My son, who is 5, is a nervous wreck the whole time going, “Don’t flush it yet…kay? Don’t flush mom…wait till I’m ready…I need to cover my ears, kay?”
Agreed!!
How about a bathroom stall for little ones .. I mean my son has to go the restroom with me and he insists on “peeing like daddy” but the toilets are so high its a disaster waiting to happen! hahaha well at least stores that are aimed for families to shop at ya know!
Omg. Am I SO with you!!! Lauren’s (3 years old) CONSTANTLY trying to escape under the door, or open the door while I”m still in the middle of peeing. Yep. Fun times.
Agreed! Britney, we invented the “Robot Pee Pee”. I get my son to stand on my feet for added height. For this reason, I also have to avoid using the larger disabled stalls although they are more desirable because my son is less likely to touch surfaces. The toilets in them are just too high. And they open outwards, which makes it much easier for them to expose you (yes it has happened). Here’s an idea – how about streaming a kids cartoon in one stall. I would wait for it! And a kids bathroom would be appreciated, or at least just a urinal for little boys. And a low sink would be great, or at least just a stool. I’ve also found that giving my son something to hold helps him avoid touching anything in the cubicle.
I am OCD in bathrooms. My 3 year old is trained to not only stand still but not touch anything. We’ve had that down pat at 12 months LOL! I freak if anyone touches anything.
I always use the handicap stall. I’m sorry if that upsets people but Its hard enough that there is NO space. In there alone you can feel like when you stand up you kiss the door.
I can’t stand the automatics its usually when you go down to help them with their underwear. I taught Gavin to turn fast LOL
Bathrooms which don’t have a changing station at all! WHY?!
Our mall has a “lullaby lounge” which not only consists of a private area to comfortably nurse, but also, a changing area, and a bathroom with a real working toddler-size toilet and a toddler size sink as well.
Don’t forget having the garbage can at the furthest point from the changing table as possible.
Completely agree!!
Ikea has the best bathroom for kids.
Love it! Have you seen Kohl’s bathroom? Ours has a family bathroom, and inside there is a regualar toilet and a minature toilet. There is also a regular sink and a mini sink. I wish every place had a bathroom as kid friendly as kohls!
we always have issues too. A walmart close to us (just built like 6 months ago) in their family restroom has a little bitty potty just for the kiddos and a little bitty sink for them to use. This is great and the best part is it is ALWAYS extremely clean. I hope it continues to stay that way.
Also we visited the newly built Sam’s Club yesterday and their family restroom also offered the same thing which was great. Not if they all were like that and the malls are always the worse
just stumbled upon ur blog and am loving it! what a great, true and funny list! only mamas understand 🙂
I have to agree and disagree with the IKEA-bathroom-lovers. We spent several hours there today, with 2 trips to the bathroom – first was the family bathroom, a separate 2-room “suite” with a nursing chair, changing table, IKEA stepstool for the sink, – great, but no hooks anywhere to hang coats/diaper bags, and only an air dryer for hands. Second trip was the regular women’s bathroom (because the family room was in use), which didn’t have any stepstools for the sink and only the super-powerful Dyson hand dryers – I just told my son to wipe his hands on his pants. 🙁
I hate public bathrooms, period. Lol. I still wrestle with keeping my 15 year old daughter germ free in them. Ugh. She is as bad as a 5 year old. I have to tell her not to touch anything 10 times and don’t even get me started on her not using a seat protector. I know she doesn’t. I just know it. Then she comes home and puts her germy rear on my toilet seat. Eeeek. Okay, I’m a little crazier than the average mom when it comes to germs. It’s the OCD, seriously. But just eeeew to bathrooms that aren’t mine at home, period.
nice tips, but you missed how DIRTY and gross some are! ugh i’ve seen some horrible ones! the worst one had to be chucky cheese
Changing tables without working safety straps. Seriously, some of us actually do care about safety for our children. I’ve left post-it notes on so many saying “please fix it” and I’m sure they won’t be. Just like the tons of grocery carts without working safety straps. And we have twins; often I go to places with them by myself. I prefer to have working safety straps. I have no idea why this isn’t part of the health safety codes for restaurants or other venues to be forced to honor. That’s a child’s safety on the line: why don’t people care?
It’d be nice if there was an app that you could download to your phone where people could rate child-friendly bathrooms so if you’re on a road trip, you could log in and figure out which is the best one to not waste your time and frustration at.
Also, mamas with 2+ year old toddlers…seriously? Change your child standing up and save the ONE changing table in the (especially busy) bathrooms for those who actually have babies. This was especially frustrating when we had twin babies and had to wait in line after kids that were obviously way too old to be up on changing tables (people, these DO have weight limits?). We stopped using the changing table when our twins were 1. At that point, they could definitely stand well enough on their own that there really wasn’t a reason to keep doing the changing table. Respect a toddler’s need for independence and stop treating them like babies when they are well past the baby stage.
I often found it annoying when the changing table is in the handicapped stalled. Have you ever waited with twin toddlers while someone who is disabled actually is one of those stalls? I can tell it’s a) not fun b) not fun c) seriously annoying. I much prefer it to be outside the only handicapped bathroom stall. I could care less what other people think when I’m changing a poopy diaper on a child or two. The odds that I’m going to see the hyper-critical you-suck type of people who criticize every move you make is slim. My children come first, not the people around me. If they have a poopy diaper, it will be changed. Their skin is sensitive and I’m not ok with my children getting a red rash on their butt just because someone might be offended at seeing a poopy change. They can just go back home and use their own bathroom and stay out of the public arena for all I care if they’re going to be offended over a normal daily thing to do.
Oh and airports – why don’t you offer a diaper machine next to the changing table? I didn’t even think about this until we were majorly delayed for hours with our flight coming back to the USA from Spain. Another mama came up to me to get some diapers from me because she said she had run out with all of the flight delays and she was getting desperate. Thankfully, we had been potty training our twins. I only had my daughter with me and she was going on the potty the whole time so we weren’t going through diapers so I had some I could easily give up. And we were both shocked that AT LEAST airports should have diapers that you can buy this way…especially when there are massive delays. What do you expect parents of babies to do? I tend to carry enough diapers to last me a day or two but that’s a lot easier now that our twins are 2 and not babies. Do you know how many diapers we go through when they are babies? Do you really want us to carry that many on board with us and all the rest of our crap and slow down security lines even more?