Need tips - how to handle kids while I go to the bathroom

I honestly usually just dont go the bathroom when I am out with the kids and dont have the stroller (I have determined that I can HOLD it a VERY long time if need be), but there are a few times when I really have to use a public restroom. What do you with the kids when you are peeing?? I usually bring them into the stall with me, and I am not a germaphobe, but I can't stand that they are touching the garbage can, the toilet handle, the floor, the toilet lid - basically anything in there they touch!! Any tips on what to do with them, or how to handle them when you have to go to the bathroom in a public restroom? Or, do I have to just suck it up and let them touch whatever is in the stall with me just so that I can pee??

 

If they have pockets, tell them to reach into their pockets and tell you what they have found. If they find "nothing" make it a game until you "see" something (obviously pretending). I do make sure to get a handicap stall (if it's not a busy bathroom) so there is plenty of room. I give them hundreds of reminders "don't touch anything...don't touch...don't touch..." I feel bad if it annoys others but I get wicked creeped out. :bad: The times this didn't work for me when they were that age, I just sucked it up and loaded them up with hand sanitizer when we walked out. The only way for them to learn is by doing. :good:

 

Michelle, I like your idea of the pocket game! I just tell the kids not to touch things repeatedly and then wash their hands and put some hand sanitizer on the hands too when I am done.

 

I like Michelle's idea as well. :good: I just keep reminding my kids to not touch anything and how icky everything is. :good: Wash, wash and wash some more afterwards. :bad: It does get better as they get older.

 

If the pocket game doesn't work, you just have to suck it up. Which is awful and germy and creeps me out too. But after a year of trying to figure out something else, I can't think of a way to get my kids not to touch everything. It only gets worse when they're potty trained and you have to go into the bathroom on a regular basis with them. For what it's worth, my girls have been potty trained and using public bathrooms for six months and they haven't gotten sick once. So apparently washing hands and wrists immediately in the public bathroom sink (with lots of soap!) works. And... I read somewhere that bathrooms are actually less dirty/germy than many other things we touch while out in public, like shopping cart handles and doorknobs. Bathrooms are cleaned so frequently that many of the germs get washed away.

 

I wouldn't worry about it and wash their hands afterwards (or just use those wipes that disinfect hands). But again, there's no way I'm going alone with them without the stroller yet

 

When they had to come in with me, I just washed their hands when I washed mine.

 

I bring them in the stall with me and keep reminding them not to touch anything. It is better now that they are older, but when they were younger I had to say "don't touch anything" constantly. Then afterward we all just wash our hands really really well.

 

I think if they are staying in the stall with you while you go (and not trying, for instance, to slither out under the door, open the door and swing from it, etc.), then you're doing pretty well. Just wash their hands really well when you're done.

 

LOL, yep. That pretty much covers my perspective.

 

I AM a bit germaphobic and avoid public restrooms like the plague, but now that the kiddos are potty trained and have made me see more public restrooms than ever, I've thrown my hands up in the air and accepted it. Same goes for when they come in the stall with me when I have to go. I try to tell them about the 'germ bugs' on the toilets, pad trash cans, etc, but they don't really get that yet. It totally grosses me out when they do touch anything in there, but what can you do. I do wash their hands really well afterwards, use hand sanitizer, and hope they don't catch anything. Of course they do seem to always get a cold the day after we go to Costco...
My favorite part is all the interesting comments they make while we're in the stall...and the looks I get when we come out...

 

My rule was always that they had to touch the wall, both hands. I picked the wall. Then a good hand washing, and we were good to go.

Now that they're 4 and 5, we all go potty in our own stall (if we're alone in the restroom, which we usually are)

The worst for me is packing three kids in a port-a-potty. I don't think you can get much worse than that. I had kids stacked up everywhere!! And I didn't let them touch anything. Not the walls, not the floor, nothing. It makes me cringe just thinking about it. And I've had to do that more than once. So gross! :bad:

 

I normally give them each something to hold (ie. one gets my bag, one gets a jacket), and ask that they hold the item for me with both hands, and keep it off the floor. That normally keeps them busy for the few seconds it takes me to pee. Of course, it can result in one bag and one jacket getting dropped all over the bathroom floor...

 

What about them finding parts of their body? Like a simon says type deal? I know my kids like to find their....nose. Find their...toes, etc. Make it a game-keeping their hands off of everything else!

I rarely use the bathroom in public, and when I've had them with me, they've been in a stroller. However, with having their sister-that's not really possible anymore. But I would most likely hold it until I got home.

 

I always joke that moms end up with bladder control issues not because of pregnancy or birth but because they can hold it for so long that their bladders are all stretched out! I amaze my self with how long I can go, which probably isn't good.

We all use one stall and I have them go first and hope that by the time I am done they are just finishing getting their clothes back in order. Then we all wash (which adds at least another 10 minutes to the whole ordeal.)

 

i also wash their hands afterwards.... i let them pull on the toilet paper, which keeps them engaged for a bit. i try to use as much of the pulled stuff as possible (so as not to waste) but it's honestly more important for me to keep their hands on something clean--for as long as i can--than to worry aobut wasting a tiny bit of tp!