When Should Boys Be Allowed to Use Public Restrooms Alone?

There are many things MOBs (moms of boys) know all about: the art of distracting a young son in the women's dressing room while we discreetly try on clothing, the importance of expending pent-up boy energy before going inside a restaurant, and challenges of getting a boy to pee inside the toilet of a women's restroom.

But what happens when bringing your son into the women's restroom begins to feel … weird?

Around the time Boy Wonder began protesting his admittance inside the ladies' restroom, I began getting what I perceived to be "looks" from fellow ladies saying, "Hey lady, your kid is too old to be in here." Perhaps we was, but at 8 and 9 years old, was my son really too old to occupy a stall in a women's public restroom? Personally, I don't think anything of a young boy with a female guardian in a public restroom. I mean, what's there to see? A tampon machine? If we're all just behind stalls searching for purse hooks and flushing the toilets with our feet, what's the big deal?

But Boy Wonder thought it was a very big deal, which is why he was granted what I considered to be premature bathroom independence at age 9.

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I worried, like every mother, about my son's personal safety while using a public restroom alone. I'd stand outside the door, innocuously press my ear to the bathroom wall while nervously watching males of all ages exit the restroom in eager anticipation of my son. What a roller coaster of emotions all on account of pee, my God!

Now, at age 11, I'm finally comfortable with Boy Wonder using public restrooms in department stores and restaurants, but admittedly still insist on bathroom supervision when it comes to answering nature's call in public parks, rest stops, or crowded stadiums.

Perhaps we could all just relax a little when it comes to accompanied boys in women's restrooms as age has little, if nothing, to do with situational safety.

When should boys use public restrooms alone?

-By Lori Garcia

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