what is the strange attraction to public bathrooms?!

[artgirl]

Anyone else have a child that mysteriously has to use the bathroom anytime you are at a restaurant or store?
For the record, I HATE public bathrooms. For the most part I think they are gross. But my 4 y.o. daughter, I'm assuming, thinks they are a wonderful distraction from whatever we're doing and always insists she has to go potty. What do you do? I mean, what CAN you do? I have to take her, she may really have to go... but ARGH!!! In the middle of Target, when I'm carrying her baby brother, carting a huge carpet in a cart, after she went right before we left.............."mom, do they have a bathroom here?"
: :

When will she tire of visiting foreign bathrooms to break up the monotany of a family dinner??

[mackenziesmama]

HA!!!!!! I had to read the post when I saw the title!

My 4.5 year old ds is very, very fond of porta potties! If we even drive past one on a construction site or something, he automatically HAS to go. We've since figured out that he just wants to go inside, and doesn't really have to go, so we tell him no. (Mysteriously, he's never had an accident!)

I'm glad we're not the only family out there with a foreign bathroom loving kid!

Ha! I read your post to my dh and he laughed and said your dd and our ds must have been seperated at birth!

Thanks for sharing this!!

[Mirzam]

I have two that "have" to go the bathroom in every restaurant we ever eat at and they are 8 and 6, but have been doing this for years!

[lasciate]

I was like that as child, so my mom tells me. If it helps, I'm 28 now and don't do it anymore

[*violet*]

Yes! Yes! Yes! I have wondered if my child is the only one. Everywhere we go, and I mean everywhere, he has to go to the bathroom. It is so incredibly hard when I am alone with him and his 6 month old little brother to attempt to get in a public bathroom stall...and the worst is when he has to have me wipe him after pooping while I'm trying to handle the baby too. Aarrgh!!

[Monie]

My 9 year old still does this!

[Summerland]

my son does it too!!

[candipooh]

: thought it was just my daughter. She is 5. Her sisters are not as bad as she is. Ijust don't get it. Costco is the WORST. She demands to go. I have a very strong feeling that she really doesn't need to go, she just likes it there. But like you said, just in case she really does need to go you have to take her.

Actually, the last time I was in costco she almost forgot that she loves their restrooms. We were checking out at the check out counters and she glanced towards the bathrooms, it was like a lightbulb went off...'oh yah...bathrooms' "Hay mom, I need to go to the bathroom" as I took her hand to take her I muttered something to my dh along the lines of "what is it with this kid and her love of public restrooms" the guy checking us out started to laugh and said that his son was the same way, especially at costco.

[Yooper]

I have another public restroom conisseur here. It started when she was potty learned. It has slowed but we MUST visit the restroom at every new place. I have a phobia of public restroom germs and I swear the powers-that-be are playing some sort of joke on me. And that child can produce pee every single time. At home she will go for HOURS without needing to pee but when we are out she can do 1/4 cup every half hour if she needs to to get her fix.

[mightymoo]

My DD is'nt horrible (I mean she doesn't go in every store) but she has to go everytime we got to a restaurant, sometimes twice. I can't wait until DS starts potty learning so DH can have to take the child to the restroom just as soon as his food arrives!

I think one of the attractions for DD is those automatically flushing toilets and autosensor sinks - she asks if the toilets flush themselves EVERY time we go into a public restroom.

[jillmamma]

Another one here! His favorite time to demand to go potty is during church! Asking less than 5 minutes after he just went is a no. He also likes to go in restaurant bathrooms, store bathrooms, anywhere. Extra fun with his 12 month old sister and the 2 year old I babysit!: