At the park, where does your LO pee?

[T-man's Mama]

Would you trek several minutes across a park to use the (inevitably) disgusting little bathroom? Or just find a nearby tree and try to be inconspicuous?

I've always taken the latter approach. But now that my LO is going on 19 months, I'm thinking I should start practicing more discretion and just go find the bathroom. (And maybe you all will say I should have been doing this all along, meh).

He just pees so quickly and easily outdoors by a tree, while bathrooms are hit-and-miss -- he often resists using public toilets even when he obviously needs to go. Not to mention it's smelly and uncomfortable for us both as I try to balance him so as to not touch anything/everything, while he (naturally) tries to do exactly that.

I always have an emergency BBP in the trunk also, but then you ar still talking about trekking back to the parking lot, only to then have to dump the pee somewhere -- hmm, by the tree?? See what I mean? Admittedly I am a lazy EC'er, but please share what YOU do in these situations.

[dogretro]

Potette Plus! http://www.amazon.com/Kalencom-2-in-...6685439&sr=8-1

Seriously, I wish I had invented this thing! DD1 has been full-on potty training since June (I know, wtf?) & the potette has been the best potty, hands down. Absolutely no need to ever dump anything out. If you are at the park, you can set it in the grass w/ no liner if you want, or the liners can hold multiple pees before needing to be tossed (and the don't smell bad, either). We keep ours in the car at all times. We have a hatchback, so it is quite easy to have dd1 take a potty break while I get dd2 out of the car. I will also bet that you can use a plastic shopping bag w/ a cloth diaper or pad in it as a liner.

If you are at the park & you can take your son to a semi-secluded area, I really do not see any big deal in having him pee on the grass. Wild animals pee there all the time! When the choices are use the public restroom, pee his pants, or pee on that tree way over there, the third option does not even register as gross.

[yamilee21]

In the bathroom, or if the bathroom is unacceptable and the car is close enough, in the potty we keep in the car. Even though animals urinate and defecate freely in the park, it happens to be illegal for people to do so where I live, and I prefer to avoid misdemeanor charges whenever possible.

[riboflavin]

My DS goes by a tree out of other people's view if the restroom is not close enough.

[T-man's Mama]

Originally Posted by dogretro

Potette Plus! http://www.amazon.com/Kalencom-2-in-...6685439&sr=8-1

Seriously, I wish I had invented this thing! DD1 has been full-on potty training since June (I know, wtf?) & the potette has been the best potty, hands down. Absolutely no need to ever dump anything out. If you are at the park, you can set it in the grass w/ no liner if you want, or the liners can hold multiple pees before needing to be tossed (and the don't smell bad, either). We keep ours in the car at all times. We have a hatchback, so it is quite easy to have dd1 take a potty break while I get dd2 out of the car. I will also bet that you can use a plastic shopping bag w/ a cloth diaper or pad in it as a liner.

If you are at the park & you can take your son to a semi-secluded area, I really do not see any big deal in having him pee on the grass. Wild animals pee there all the time! When the choices are use the public restroom, pee his pants, or pee on that tree way over there, the third option does not even register as gross.

Great suggestion -- never heard of that before! Thanks!

[T-man's Mama]

Originally Posted by yamilee21

In the bathroom, or if the bathroom is unacceptable and the car is close enough, in the potty we keep in the car. Even though animals urinate and defecate freely in the park, it happens to be illegal for people to do so where I live, and I prefer to avoid misdemeanor charges whenever possible.

Yikes! This never even crossed my mind.

[revolting]

We use a BBLP and then if it's pee, we dump it by a tree. To be honest, I don't even bother trying to potty my son discreetly - it's more important to me that I can keep an eye on big sis!

[heatherr30]

There is no bathroom near my park, and I see other moms letting their toddlers pee in inconspicuous areas. I do the same in an emergency. If there was a bathroom, I would probably use it, and plan ahead accordingly if I knew it was going to take a few minutes to get there.

[emmaegbert]

when my son was little- and even still sometimes- we let him pee in the bushes. In the playground in our apt complex at the time, there were some sort of "official" pee bushes that all the kids used.

DD, currently 17m, she WILL NOT pee on the ground, in the gutter, etc. Also we moved to NYC. I got a potette plus and its great! I just use old grocery bags with a folded up paper towel. Have considered making a reusable liner and using prefolds but at the moment we don't even have our own apartment so that is just not a priority.

[clovergirl]

We would do tree pees, though outside the actual playground. Heck, we still do that sometimes, as the park we frequent only has a portapotty (with the exception of June-August) and sometimes it's just too gross to use! We do keep a Baby Bjorn little potty still in the car for emergencies, but it's just so much easier for my son to just pee standing up. The girls however, are a different story!

[Heidi74]

He discreetly pees in a paper cup (I just unzip his pants and lower them a little bit, and his back is turned to others), and then I pour the pee down a drain, over the fence, or on a tree, depending on the location. The used cup goes in the garbage, and noone's the wiser.

This trick obviously wouldn't work for girls, but for boys it really comes in handy.