Public Restrooms- Followup

So to follow up on my little survey...

I asked those questions because I had just read an article about when your child is old enough to use a public restroom on his/her own. My immediate reaction was that I would not be okay with it until at least 6 or 7. But my rationale about this at first thought was not about potentially dangerous strangers lurking but more about the germ fest & monitoring hand washing after bathroom use. Public bathrooms kind of skeeve me...

But I did consider safety in terms of who else might be in the bathroom at the same time as my 4-year-old. Although this particular article pointed out the fact that in terms of safety, if a child suffers abuse, it is usually at the hands of someone they know...not some stranger lurking in a bathroom. Well thanks, that's comforting...but statistically true.

HOWEVER...

At our local mall, there was apparently a particular bathroom in this mall that was designated for men trying to meet other men for random "activity". And a young man who was maybe 14? at the time either had someone approach him or expose themselves to him. And despite the fact that he was older, I remember seeing him on the news report & he was definitely upset about it. It absolutely made an impact on me.

This is not some urban legend...it really happened and this is within the past year or so. The details are sketchy in my mind but I think this happened while his dad and brother were waiting for him outside of the bathroom. Just like that... Maybe if I wasn't aware of this story, I would be okay with sending the kids into a bathroom solo at a younger age?

So while I won't be taking my 14 year old son into a ladies' room with me, I am definitely going to err on the cautious side of this one. Send the boys in together or with friends whenever possible (Liam has to potty train someday, right?)...make sure we have a game plan for when Mike is out with Chloe...use the family restroom setup whenever available. I don't want to be paranoid but I also don't want to be stupid. Thanks for the feedback on this one- it gave me ideas and options to consider :)

Also-briefly-I turned on the comment moderation for my blog due to some spam type things happening. It's annoying, I know, but the only solution I can come up with. At some point, I will test the waters & turn it off.