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Mum who refuses to allow seven-year-old son into men’s toilets alone sparks debate
Would you allow your young son into the gents unaccompanied?
A mum has sparked a debate after saying that she refuses to allow her son to enter the men’s toilets on his own.
Mothers and fathers are judged daily for their parenting styles to keep their children safe, but every effort goes into keeping their young ones away from potential dangers and harm. The unnamed woman shared that she will not let her seven-year-old son go into the gents unaccompanied and instead, she prefers to take him into the ladies with her.
Writing on the website Mumsnet, she told others that she doesn’t want him to ‘see grown men using urinals’ and is worried about him being approached by ‘someone dodgy’.
She will only let him use one public toilet by himself because she knows there’s ‘never anyone about’, as she wrote: “I’m sure this has been discussed before. When we’re out and my boy needs the toilet, I make him come into the Ladies with me.
“Problem is, he’s starting to complain about it and wants to go in the gents on his own. I have let him do this in one particular place where there’s never anyone about, so I knew he wouldn’t encounter anyone at the urinals.”
“I’m always honest with him but I don’t quite know how to explain why I’m not letting him do this anywhere else, like at the swimming pool/gym toilets,” she added.
Without realising, the mum kicked-off a huge debate online with some branding her concerns as ‘paranoia’. One commenter asked: “At what point will you allow him to go to the gents? A special outing on his 18th birthday?”
Another commented to say that it’s unlikely her son would come across any kind of ‘dodgy’ people in the toilets, writing: “I don’t think most men’s toilets are full of predators who hang out there all day waiting to pounce on a kid.”
Replying to some of the criticisms, the mum who shared the post said that it will eventually be his decision to go into the men’s, adding: “At some point he just won’t agree to go in the ladies, hopefully by then he’ll be ready to handle any bad situations.”
However, others agreed with the mum’s concerns and could see where she was coming from, with one parent offering their personal experience, saying: “My anxieties about public loos with my just 9-year-old when he goes in alone are often about losing him — I’m thinking of the busy motorway service stations we stop at pretty often.
“I’ve let him go alone there once with strict instructions of where to meet me (me and my daughter had to use the loo as well).
“He took ages and I got in such a panic, I was imagining someone abducting him, it was so busy anyone could be lost in a crowd, just horrible…
“Most public loos are fine I think and he uses them alone no problem, but I really wish they’d have more family loos in busy/big places.”
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You can now get a cheese Easter egg to celebrate ‘Cheester’ properly
Call off the hunt…they’re back!
From the brand Butler’s Farmhouse Cheeses, these epic alternative Easter eggs come in two flavours: cheddar and blue cheese — sounds pungent!
Sold in a box to look exactly like their chocolatey Easter egg counterparts, you won’t feel odd opting for a cheesy seasonal delight rather than the accepted chocolate kind.
Displayed in the box, it looks as though you’ll have an awkward fully-round egg-shaped block of the creamy stuff, making it hard to slice. You actually get half an egg, so the back of it is flat and ready to be sliced lay down on a cheeseboard.
Weighing 120g, the Easter egg halves are made with the very best Butlers cheeses — their traditional Farmhouse Cheddar and their gold award-winning blue cheese, Blacksticks Blue.
At first glance they may look solid, but the cheeses have been blended to make a softer cheese consistency, so they’re easy to chop a chunk out of. The website says: “We’ve done it again and made something truly egg-cellent, the combination of award winning Farmhouse British Cheese and an Easter egg.
“Delicious and versatile, this half egg will make a sensational centrepiece for your cheeseboard, a gift for the cheese lover, or simply spread on a hot cross bun!
“Perfect for a savoury and cheesy gift this Easter and the perfect surprise for your children’s Easter egg hunt, or on the Easter Sunday cheeseboard. Available on their own, or as a letterbox gift complete with crackers and chutney!”
You can purchase Butlers Cheeseter eggs online at Amazon where the cheddar and the blue cheese versions cost £9.99 each, and can be delivered straight to your door.
The cheesy eggs also come in letterbox style packages accompanied with a chutney and crackers to complete your cheeseboard.
Cheese Easter eggs have actually been about for a little while now, but they’re still few and far between in supermarkets. Marks and Spencer had ‘Cheester’ covered a couple of years back when it sold some from Barber’s Farmhouse Cheddar. They came in an actual egg box and the eggs were filled with a ‘yolk’ of 18-month matured Red Leicester — innovative or what?!
If you or someone you know is a cheese lover, you know what to get them this Easter…a big cheesy egg.
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Five planets to be visible in UK night sky this month in rare celestial event
Let’s hope for a clear sky!
Stargazers are in for a spectacular treat later this month as five planets of the solar system will be visible from Earth as part of a rare celestial event.
On March 28th, Jupiter, Mercury, Uranus, Mars and Venus are expected to appear to line up together in a small section of the sky shortly after sunset. While it’s not unusual to see two or three planets aligned, to see five is more uncommon — it happened last year, as well as in both 2020 and 2016 prior to that.
Two of the brighter planets — Mercury and Jupiter — will be noticeable near the horizon, while Venus is expected to shine higher in the sky. Although a pair of binoculars may be needed to be able to see Uranus, Mars should be visible to the naked eye, in the alignment near to the first quarter of the moon.
Last year, stargazers in the northern hemisphere had the amazing opportunity to gaze at Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn all at once.
To easily identify the planets this month, the educational astronomy app Star Walk recommends using the app Sky Tonight — which can be pointed at the night sky to give a live display of what is going on.
The planets are expected to be aligned in a 50-degree sky sector, which means that they will appear closer together from Earth in a small area above. This visual phenomenon differs from an astronomical alignment, which refers to when planets come together simultaneously on the same side of the sun.
Beth Biller, of the University of Edinburgh, told The MailOnline that some planets would be much easier to see than others, saying: “Venus and Jupiter are both very bright and easy to pick out and you may have already seen them close together over the past few weeks.
“Mars is a bit fainter, but still easily observed with the naked eye. Mercury starts getting tricky — you need to be at a dark site with a clear view of the horizon if you want to see Mercury. Uranus is the faintest and hardest to see – you’ll need binoculars or a telescope to see Uranus.”
Skywatchers don’t need to worry if they miss out on the spectacle, as Star Walk said a number of other planetary alignments will take place this year. Less than a month later Mercury, Uranus, Venus and Mars are expected to align once again in a 35-degree sky sector.
Then on April 24th, a 40-degree sector will take place seeing Mars, Venus, Uranus and Mercury gathering together — with even more planetary alignments happening throughout the summer.
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