<p>I remember this dilema well… In this situation I used to bring him in the restroom and tell him to wait just INSIDE the door. Unless they are “peeping” or otherwise misbehaving, most woman in a stalled restroom would understand completely. I used to keep little box cars in my purse for these occasions, and I learned to be very fast in the restroom!</p>
<p>when I say “yell” I mean saying it REALLLY LOUDLY and to STOP LOOKING AT ME</p>
<p>If it was a child with a disability, and he doesn’t understand boundaries, if people justt let it go, without coming acrss as angry or upset, then the mother will make excuses, and someday, maybe he will look o touch the wrong person or will be allowed to do inappropriate things because it “takes longer”</p>
<p>would we not “yell” if he was in danger</p>
<p>and if he DID have a disabilty, I would expect the mother to be in constant verbal communication with him for HIS safety</p>
<p>Hey hon, mom will be out in the minute…</p>
<p>I don’t have as much of an issue with public bathrooms where moms bring their sons in(they should be taught not to peek). I have a real issue when moms bring 5+ year old boys into public dressing room. I do understand about relunctance of leaving a boy of that age outside by himslef, but I think we deserve to have some privacy.</p>
<p>I think I would have said “EXCUSE ME!” to startle the kid. On the other side of things, I did get to the point where I started letting my boys go into the men’s room alone, maybe age 6 or so. I told them that I would be waiting outside the door and that if anyone approached them, they should yell and I would come right in no matter who was in there/what was going on. And I would have! ;)</p>
<p>At our YMCA there is an age limit for opposite-sex kids entering the dressing rooms- I don’t know what it is, but it’s pretty young (I want to say 5). I don’t know what I’d do about huge places like Wet and Wild, though, where you almost have to go into a dressing/shower room at some point, if I were a single mom. That would be kind of scary to let a 7 or 8 year old go into alone. Never had that experience- we always just walked out of the places in our suits with cover-ups, air-dried, sat on towels in the car/bus, and changed at home.</p>
<p>At our Y it is 5 and there is a sign letting people know that children over that age need to use the gender appropriate locker room. I agree with those who said the parent should have been told. I would not address the child directly. My rule is always that when you are dealing with a child under 10, you speak to the parent, not directly to the child.<br>
And obviously, there are strategies parents can use for solving this dilemma and still feeling their child is safe. I travelled a lot without my husband when my kids were young and figured out some ways to deal with my son having to use a restroom without infringing on others privacy.</p>
<p>I agree that this is not an issue of young boys in the ladies room, but more the case of the behavior of this particular boy. I’ve seen boys up to that age in the ladies room all the time for many years now (major east coast cities) and nobody seems offended. Usually, the kids are well behaved and off to the side. Many parents feel it is unacceptable to leave an 8 year old alone and unsupervised in a public place, even for a few minutes. I know I wouldn’t have done that.</p>
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<p>We do not know what the mother would have done. No one is saying they wouldn’t say anything, but you have to recognize the fact that there are a variety of disabilities that cause children to behave in ways that aren’t developmentally appropriate. That doesn’t mean you can’t make the parent aware of the behavior, but it does mean the child may not understand a random person addressing them. You cannot always just make a child with say, an austistic spectrum disorder “just understand.” Their parent is probably well aware that their behavior might anger or upset people, in fact they probably deal with that on a daily basis.</p>
<p>‘Many parents feel it is unacceptable to leave an 8 year old alone and unsupervised in a public place’</p>
<p>I agree…don’t forget, he’d be in charge of his 5 yo brother. I would say something like - “Hey hon, this is private in here.”</p>
<p>I don’t remember the age at which my son first went into the men’s room alone, but it must have been when he was five or so, because I <em>do</em> remember him stopping dead at the door and saying “that says ‘women’ and that says ‘men’… I can’t go in there.” </p>
<p>As for the child in question, I agree with the person who said they’d speak very loudly and very firmly to the child. I did exactly that with the child who put her head UNDER THE DOOR a few weeks ago. </p>
<p>There seems to be a rather strong interest in bodily functions that little boys show at around 7 or 8. I’ve had boys that age watch my dog in complete fascination as she pees; they’d have their heads two inches away if I didn’t stop them!</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.thnt.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070925/NEWS01/709250382/1001[/url]”>http://www.thnt.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070925/NEWS01/709250382/1001</a></p>
<p>Dayton man admits guilt in child sex</p>
<p>MIDDLESEX COUNTY — A 27-year-old Dayton man pleaded guilty Monday to the sexual assault in April of a 7-year-old boy in a men’s room at Macy’s in Brunswick Square Mall in East Brunswick, authorities said.</p>
<p>Charles Waldron is expected to be sentenced to 13 years in prison at a hearing scheduled for Dec. 17, said Nicole Albert, assistant Middlesex County prosecutor. Waldron will have to serve at least 85 percent of his sentence, or about 11 years with credit for time served, before becoming eligible for parole, she said.</p>
<p>He will also be placed on the Megan’s Law list of sexual offenders and, once released, receive parole supervision for life.</p>
<p>He pleaded guilty in Superior Court, New Brunswick, before Judge Dennis Nieves to first-degree aggravated sexual assault and fourth-degree child endangerment for possession of child pornography uncovered during a search of his Ridge Road apartment.</p>
<p>Waldron was arrested at the department store shortly after the attack, which occurred at about 8:30 p.m. on April 20.</p>
<p>Waldron touched the boy’s genitals while he was standing at the urinal and then performed oral sex on the child, Albert said.</p>
<p>The boy’s mother was standing outside the men’s room waiting for her son. The assault happened quickly, Albert said.</p>
<p>“This is every parent’s worst nightmare,” Albert said, calling the incident “chilling.”</p>
<p>The boy managed to tell his mother about the assault as they were leaving the store. She quickly alerted store security staff, who called police.</p>
<p>Waldron was captured near the men’s room. The child identified him, Albert said.</p>
<p>Waldron remains in custody at the Middlesex County Adult Correction Center in North Brunswick.</p>