Can’t he just go into a stall next to you? Or does he not want to go into the ladies with you at all?
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It isn’t easy raising kids today. I think you did a very good thing today. What the hell was Sam’s mom thinking. Has she ever seen the news!!!
.-= Deborah Pucci´s last blog ..HOME FROM VACATION =-.

Man that’s a toughie! I have two girls and will hopefully never have to face that problem. (Yeah, I know, some help I am).

Also I don’t know of any good housekeepers in Atlanta, but if you move to Milton I do.

Wow. Life would be so much easier if I were like Sam’s mom. It would save me a lot of time an energy to not have to watch my kids. Maybe I could even leave them in the car and go in to do errands. Yep, it would be awesome. Until the kids got kidnapped. or hurt. or someone called the police. and then it wouldnt be so awesome.

about the bathroom thing-my boys are 5 & 6 and they sometimes go in the men’s room. I send both boys in together and i stand outside the door.

but one option is to send him in and have him check to see if it’s empty…if its not, wait till the possible creep leaves.
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seriously, sam’s mom is totally insane! I can’t even believe it! Not only the leaving your kid alone at a B&N but leaving him alone with his name on his back so a kidnapper can be like, “hey Sam, your mom told me to take you outside… she’s waiting for you in her car…” I mean, what an idiot.

HI! first time commenter here, but reader for months now—I have a 17 yr old and a 19 yr old, and while I can’t remember exactly how I handled this, I can tell you that you I recently read something about this very same thing on another blog.

And no, I can’t tell you whose blog that is/was because I’m in the midst of swiss cheese brain aka perimenopause.

One of the key things I took away from this blog post though, is that even if you stand right outside the bathroom door, that will not be enough of some pervert is in there, and does a show and tell type thing–which is almost as perverse as actual touching. It really got me thinking, I would not have thought of this angle.

Also, if you ever see Sam again, and he’s “home alone” or at B&N alone, you can take his little hand, and walk him to an info booth, and have the employee announce that there’s a lost parent.

Get this woman on guard. She’s a nutjob, and she should be shaken, hard, or at least, shaken up a bit. She might lose her kid one day, and we might be reading about it in the paper!

Okay, I’m laughing because I didn’t even notice that she left him there alone – I was laughing at the “GO POTTY.” Who shouts “mommy’s going to go potty”!? IN PUBLIC. Like, around other adults. Is that just me? Otherwise, you’re doing great with the whole bodyguard strategy. I’d keep that up. Yup!

I’m pretty sure at one point I was told that if any strangers did something weird or scared me, I was to scream in a really big voice. Besides that, I think my parents and babysitters relied on the notion that if there were other people in there, they would stop something.

At the Target we go to, there’s a pharmacy with a single-person bathroom next to the waiting area.

I didn’t know it was there for a few years, until I had triplets, of course. It’s so much easier to corral in a locked room than a tiny stall.
.-= loren´s last blog ..Get me away from her =-.

Recently saw a article on this exact thing in Dear Abby so you might google to see if you can read her archives. Basically though I would attempt to go places that have the family bathrooms. If that’s not possible then I would send him in and make him keep talking to you as he is in there going potty..the second he stops talkin..he get’s walked in on. Otherwise I did once ask a man that worked at a local store to go into the bathroom and see if anyone was in there before I sent my step son in. Call me over protective..but I’d hate to have to kill someone myself because they touched one of my kids…I’m just saying. Oh and by the way…I think that woman who left her kid unattended should be smacked senseless..oh wait she already had no sense..ok she should be smacked anyways.

I have the same issue with my daughter, except it’s started earlier because men’s public washrooms are so nasty.

In fact, when we were going to visit my parents at the beginning of the month, I considered taking VIA (post-strike discount + free kid = mega deal) but decided not to solely because I couldn’t take her to the bathroom on the train.

Sending my children in to a public bathroom is one of the things that makes me the most uncomfortable as a parent. I was just starting to think that maybe I could allow Julia to use bathrooms on her own if we were at the pool or at a restaurant and then I read about a 10 year old girl who was raped in the bathroom at her community pool (in the states somewhere, I think Cali). And that scared the fuck out of me.

I read through these comments pretty carefully, because I have wondered what I will do with Oliver when he gets to the point where it’s not cool to use the ladies bathroom. I like the idea of having him sing to you from inside the bathroom. I’m also in favour of walking right in to the men’s bathroom and checking it out first before he uses it. Seriously. I have no shame. I don’t give a fuck if it bothers people…I only care about my kid being safe.

I don’t have kids but I think the reader who made the suggestion about having Josh sing to you the whole time he’s in there is a great one. Good luck with the cleaning lady search!

I used to be in charge of the kid’s department at a B&N, and let me tell you – EVERY DAY there was a “Sam’s Mom” or dad or both that considered it a day-care. I always tried to stop them before they left and tell them, hey, I’m very busy and not a babysitter – you need to supervise your children. More often than not I was ignored or told ‘they’ll be fine.’ And inevitably, the kid was either a bully or a destructive force of nature. Employees can only do so much before “Sam’s Mom” threatens to sue, so if other customers were willing to step in and report an unattended child, it sure made our job easier!
As for the bathroom, one thing I’ve seen friends do was ask a store employee to accompany their child or verify that the restroom was empty for them. Might be easier, if your son doesn’t like the singing idea.

My 4 year old refuses to go into the women’s restroom with me anymore. His dad and grandpa introduced him to the magic of urinals and he was hooked. But he’s only four!! I let him go in the men’s room but reiterate the no talking to strangers rule and I count the seconds until he emerges.

The pervs aren’t in the rest rooms at Target, everyone knows they go to Wal-Mart.

Why would some woman leave her kid ALONE in a public place? Like Sir Topham Hat is going to protect her some if someone comes along to try and kidnap him?

My oldest nephew is 8 and my mom just took him and my 7 year old nephew to a Cubs game. They both won’t go in the ladies’ room. She had to send them into the bathroom ALONE at Wrigley Field with a bunch of drunk guys. Thankfully there was a man there with his grandson that said he’d keep an eye on them.

I think you tell them to scream bloody murder if anything strange happens. And to just be quick, pee and get out!

I am *almost* as bad with math as Patricia Heaton. But unlike Sam’s mom, I’m a little more… careful and attentive.

I’m also glad I don’t have a boy, because this bathroom thing would freak me out too.
.-= agentninety9´s last blog ..A mother is a mother is a mother… =-.

Kids should come with catheters. (And I probably shouldn’t be allowed to breed.) (Nor should the woman in B&N.)

We used to drive to MD once a month to visit my mother, and we often had to stop at the Maryland House on I-95 for a potty break. My son HATED that he had to go into the ladies’ room with me. But he was 7 when we started making the trip and no way in hell was he going into the mens’ room while I was in the ladies room! That kid could be gone before I knew it!

I remember this when my guy was around 7 and am going through it even bigger now at 10 he is riding his bike or walking alone to his pals’ houses. I think what you did was absolutely the only thing. I stood outside, sometimes I even stuck my foot in the door so I could talk to him (this, of course, depends on the location of the urinals). But, before any of this, we had “the talk”. I didn’t go into detail about what could happen but went over the basics on safety, trusting your gut, your body is your own, etc.

Major, major transition time here. The world is a scary place but, for the most part I believe, people are good.

Good luck!

First, I can’t believe anyone would leave a child that small to play there. When Parker was 5, I didn’t sit *right* with him while I played with Thomas, but I was always within line of sight of him.

Payton is 8 and I’ve let him go in the bathroom alone for a while now, though I do just like you and stand right at the door.

I have a seven-year-old boy who won’t go in the ladies room anymore either. When he goes in I yell “Is anyone else in there?” He answers yes or no. If he says yes, I yell back, “Don’t talk to them” Many men have given me weird looks when they leave the bathroom, but a few have laughed. I could care less how freaky I look to strangers.

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