Do you take your young son to the ladies’ room when he has to tinkle? Does your husband take your young daughter to the men’s room when she has to go “NOW! Daddy!”
It’s a common problem among parents: knowing when a child is old enough to use gender-appropriate public restrooms.
The family bathroom, which offers extra unisexual space for parents and their children, is not found in every store and restaurant. Meaning, at some point, moms and dads have to decide if it is wiser to bring their son into the ladies’ room or their daughter into a men’s restroom, if they are solo with an opposite gender child.
Donovan O’Neil chose to do the latter, and it landed him in the headlines.
According to reports, the Maryland father claims a security guard accosted him after he took his 3-year-old and 1-year-old daughters to the men’s restroom at the Frederick County Department of Social Services.
“He banged on the (stall) door like he was a cop,” O’Neil told reporters. “He was just really inappropriate about it.”
What’s more, O’Neil says that when he and his daughters exited the bathroom stall the guard reprimanded him in front of a crowd.
As for the guard, he says he was just doing his job. The security worker maintains that he was responding to a complaint made by someone who had used the restroom while O’Neil was in the stall with his daughters.
Long story short, O’Neil wants an apology from the security guard, but the worker says he doesn’t plan to issue one.
Meanwhile, the father of two says his 3-year-old daughter has been so traumatized by the restroom incident that she now refuses to step foot in public bathrooms.
Frankly, I don’t see what all the fuss is about. After all, O’Neil had both children tucked away in a stall while his older daughter did her business. It isn’t as though he lined her up with the rest of the men at the urinals to pee. Furthermore, she THREE! As a mother of a daughter not much older than O’Neil’s I can safely say that the girl was probably more concerned about getting on a potty before she wet herself than she was in what other male patrons were doing in the restroom.
What do you make of the security guard’s reaction? What would you do if a child had to go to the bathroom, and the only one to take him/her was an opposite-gender parent?
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