Changing in front of your child

[Crackedeggs]

Mine is almost 16. I still don't get to pee, poop, or change alone.

[Rosa]

My little boy takes about a million years in the bathroom, and when he was about 4 I got tired of hanging outside the stall waiting for him, so I send him in alone most of the places we go - I figure the Target bathroom probably has more security than the rest of the store combined, anyway. Most of the places we go (library, gym, coop) have individual bathrooms, not a big room with a row of stalls.

One time he was having a particularly time-consuming poop, so he peeked under the stall wall and asked the guy in there to come out and tell me it was going to be a while and I shouldn't worry. The poor man was so embarrassed!

[SquirrelySquirrel]

It's been asked about boys in the ladies room, but what about daughters in the mens room? When did you all put the kibosh on that?

I don't like for my 5 year-old to go in with her daddy anymore (and haven't for awhile), solely because of the urinals. It's easier for boys going in with moms because at least every toilet is private. I'm far from a prude, but I do not want my little girl seeing strange men pee, and I'm sure the men in there don't want that either.

[Daisy4]

The summer my eldest was nine years old, a nine-year-old boy in California was using a public men's room with his aunt, very responsibly, standing right at the door waiting for him and a man slit the boy's throat and killed him.

Now could that happen at any age? I suppose, but call me a helicopter mom or whatever, and this may sound crazy, but nothing like this was going to happen to any of my kids on my watch if I could do anything about it.

Their dad would take them to the men's room whenever he was with us on an outing, but basically, other women could just suck it if I had to take them into a ladies' room with me. The best thing ever in terms of this was the "family restroom" concept.

And the funny thing is, I don't remember anyone ever saying anything to me about it. *shrugs*

Wow, thats so sad!! I felt weird about peeing in front of my 8 year old nephew last summer. We were at a stadium and they had a family bathroom, the one with the sink and toilet in one room. I wasn't sure what to do with a kid his age so I took him and his sister into the family bathroom and all three of us peed. I wasn't sure if that was weird, but I didn't want to send him into the men's room alone. Now I know I made a good decision. How old was your son when you started letting him go alone in public?

Oh and FWIW, even though I'm not a parent, little boys in the ladies room don't bother me. I'm in a stall for goodness sake! I don't know why people would have a problem with it.

[EllieCee]

It's been asked about boys in the ladies room, but what about daughters in the mens room? When did you all put the kibosh on that?

Up until I was 7, my dad used to take me to the men's room with him. He didn't want me going by myself since I was so little, so whenever I had to pee, he'd walk in with me, tell me to just head straight for an empty stall, and he would stand outside until I was done. When he had to pee, I'd stand there and look at my feet, and he'd talk to me about something.

Going to the men's room was actually where I first saw what guy parts looked like. Granted, it wasn't really the nicest place to see it, but I saw what I did.

[Austin]

Wow, thats so sad!! I felt weird about peeing in front of my 8 year old nephew last summer. We were at a stadium and they had a family bathroom, the one with the sink and toilet in one room. I wasn't sure what to do with a kid his age so I took him and his sister into the family bathroom and all three of us peed. I wasn't sure if that was weird, but I didn't want to send him into the men's room alone. Now I know I made a good decision. How old was your son when you started letting him go alone in public?

Oh and FWIW, even though I'm not a parent, little boys in the ladies room don't bother me. I'm in a stall for goodness sake! I don't know why people would have a problem with it.

It wasn't so much that they had to be a certain age, but more situational. Some places we went had single restrooms, like the library, which obviously were fine with me right outside the door. The mall where we spent a lot time because they had so many neat activities for kids had a family restroom, as did the public swimming pool where we were members. Gas stations usually have single restrooms. It really just depended and I have always been a person (and a mother) who goes with her gut. If I felt uncomfortable for any reason, I listened to my gut. If people didn't like that, they were smart enough to keep their opinions to themselves because I really didn't care.

Fortunately, many/most of the places that would have been uncomfortable were places where my husband would normally be with us, like the state fair, amusement parks, stadiums, etc. I rarely braved those sorts of venues without him :D

I realize it's a bit different with girls on an outing with dad, but since we didn't have any girls, it as a scenario I never needed to consider. Peeing with girls is obviously more complicated. With boys, if you can find a discrete outdoor location, you can deal with it right there and then :D

[ladypuglover]

Mine is almost 16. I still don't get to pee, poop, or change alone.

Mine is 17 and will still barge in on us dressing or taking a shower to talk about what ever is life altering in a teen world. He will stand outside the "toilet room" in our bathroom holding us hostage talking about his teen agnst. Thankfully he has stopped tking showers with us when we moved as our new shower stall could only hold about one person at a time unlike our old one that could hod 4 people easy.

Same son as preschooler felt no qualms boutgetting into the shower with over night guests, or ridding his trike in the driveway wearing nothing but his snowboots(year round) and a great big smile. We had to keep a change of clothes at the kindergarten/elementry school 6 houses down as he would strip on his wy down, and he was only 3 years at the time. He was known as Admiral Streaker in our old hood. :shifty: he get it from his mother, been streaking inthis hood myself thanks to that kid since 1971. :oops:

[Austin]

Mine is 17 and will still barge in on us dressing or taking a shower to talk about what ever is life altering in a teen world. He will stand outside the "toilet room" in our bathroom holding us hostage talking about his teen agnst.

lol - that sounds like our house. I will often begin a shower, thinking I am all alone, only to be joined by one or another son talking to me through the frosted glass door about his day, his current angst, his current pet peeve, or how he's going to beat the piss out of one brother or another if that brother doesn't "chill".

Hey, at least our teenagers are still talking to us and you have to hand it to them: if they're looking for a captive audience, that's a pretty good choice of venues.

[latraviata]

Mine is almost 16. I still don't get to pee, poop, or change alone.

Mine is 32 and when he is telling me something it doesn't matter where I am, he is following me around to inform me about his interesting life, work, thoughts, because it is always of the utmost importance......

By the way he has his own place since he was 18.

[haveapicniclife]

I'm ruined for life. My mom walked around undressed in front of us, in front of friends, in front of guests. :? She was not exactly thin, let's put it that way. I was horrified when a friend would come over and my mom would be in the kitchen wearing a t-shirt and panties. I can't even describe how horrified, seriously HORRIFIED. Because of that, I was extremely modest up through high school. I would only wear turtleneck shirts, etc. I don't change in front of my kids, nor do I use the bathroom in front of people. She ruined me.

[library_youth]

Wow, I never realized how buttoned-down things were at my house growing up until reading all these stories. I've never seen my parents without clothes. As a kid my mom would make my sister or me turn around if we were in the room and she was about to change. I never even saw her in a bathing suit, as she staunchly refused to wear them. We had a pool and she only ever wore cutoff jeans and a t-shirt to swim in. We kids were allowed to wear suits, however.

Once she got mad at me when I stepped into the hallway in a full-body, opaque black slip to ask her a question, and my dad was down the hall and could see me. "Why are you running around in your underwear in front of your dad" were her exact words. She's also get annoyed with me for wearing pajamas around the house without a bathrobe. We weren't allowed to emerge from the bathroom anything but fully clothed after a shower. Bodies were something to hide, maybe even be ashamed of.

I have no idea why our family was this way. We weren't fundie, or even religious. Mom was just really uptight and it spread to the rest of us. Now that I'm married and it's just my husband and me things are definitely different; walking around the house in underwear (or nothing) is quite freeing. :)

[ladypuglover]

I saw my mother naked just about my whole life because even at 34 I had no qualms about barging in on her while she was on the potty, in the tub or dressing. Hmmm, maybe that is where my kiddos get it from? Nah, they are just stinkers. :lol: Anyway, I was raised not being ashamed of our bodies and they came in all shapes, clors and sizes, but all were wonderfully made. I only have 2 memories of seeing my dad naked though and I try very hard to forget them as the last one was when I was 10 and it was by accident.

Maybe because of our lax veiw of nudity being an issue it was harder for me to become modest. At ten I still wore cotton overalls playsuits without a shirt, or would think nothing of running around in the backyard with girlfriends playing in the sprinkler at either my house or theirs as everyone's dads seemed more concerned that we didn't get hurt than looking at our bodies.

Sexist dad Alert;

My dad put his foot down when my body started to change that I had to cover up my new breasts and bottom as he said I no longer had a little girl's body but was growing a body of a woman. That our bodies were too special to be shared with just any man but only by those we chose to see/share our bodies with. Even though I always thought my dad was an ass in a lot of things, I was pleased that he thought of me as special enough to want to protect. I think most dads feel that way towards their daughters.

[PBrooke]

I grew up in the South in the 80s and 90s, where short-shorts, swimsuits, and wearing boxers and t-shirts to bed (the girls) was the norm. I have many sisters, and to this day I have no problem changing in front of my mom or seeing them all without clothes. However, I was also raised by my stepfather, and except for one extremely embarrassing (for me) barging-in-on-the-bathroom incident when I was six or so, I never saw my stepfather naked. Makes sense; I can understand why he would want to be a little careful, "just to be safe." My family wasn't particularly paranoid about that sort of thing in other respects; for example, I'd usually be braless if I had pajamas on, and again, since it was a warm climate, my stepfather often wore just shorts. It was a little bit confusing for me, though, because until I was a teenager I wasn't *really* certain exactly what was going on with guys down there (technical drawings just aren't very helpful). I remember I had friends who had younger brothers and would have to bathe them or bathe with them, and I found that very strange and uncomfortable to think about. Now I sort of wish I'd grown up with a brother or two, because I think it's healthy to separate nudity from sexuality, and while I was good with the female bits, I was a little stunted in the male knowledge department.

[QueenNocturne]

I've always been fairly non-plussed about female nudity, mainly because I grew up in a house full of girls, save for my dad. When my younger sister and I were very little and my mom had to take us clothes shopping, we were all in the same dressing room mainly so she could keep an eye on us. Sis and I also took baths together when we were small enough to fit in the tub as it was more efficient.

However, it took me a little while to come to terms with male nudity as I had no brothers and my dad didn't feel comfortable getting totally naked in front of his kids.