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.