Having carried and delivered two children, here's what I know: When a pregnant woman needs to pee, she needs to pee. So a recent case in which a store owner refused to let a woman who was seven months pregnant use the restroom flat out pisses me off (pun totally intended).
It happened in New Zealand when Jacki Breuer, an interior designer, was visiting an antiques store. According to stuff.co.nz, when she asked to use the restroom, she was told, "Ah, no". Ah, no? Jacki told the site, "I pointed out I am heavily pregnant and she again said: 'No, it is company policy'."
What kind of heartless person does that?
A person who wants a big fat dose of bad Karma I'd say. Breuer says she was so uncomfortable that she cried all the way home.
Being pregnant is not much fun when you are busting. I got stuck in the one-way system and roadworks. It was horrible. It was very unpleasant and upsetting.
I get stores not wanting to let random people use their restrooms. I find it rude no matter if a person is pregnant or not, but it's their business, their rules I suppose. But a pregnant woman is different, really different -- she has another growing human being pressing down on her bladder.
While it was an assistant who denied her access, the store's owners have no remorse. They say the policy is in place because they've had problems with theft and cleanliness. Co-owner Jane Finch said, "I am comfortable with the decision you have made." It doesn't say whether she's had children or not, but I'm glad she's comfortable, because a pregnant woman who has to pee is not.
While I don't think pregnant women should get a total carte blanche for the entire nine months, I don't think that offering them an occasional perk or making a small exception for them is too much to ask. Letting them use the restroom when they need to shouldn't even be a question.
Do you think stores should let pregnant women use restrooms even if they have a policy allowing others from doing so?
Image via Terry Johnston/Flickr
Ashley Is a Widow Who Stays Strong...
This Hot Dad Wants to Vacuum Your Rug
This Hot Dad Wants to Do Your Ironing
KStew Refuses to Shower
Comments 137
Who goes into an antique store to use a bathroom? Find a coffee shop or restaurant. Restaurants normally let you use the bathroom without buying anything and at a coffee shop you just buy a pastry for bathroom privileges.
i too agree with the store. It is a question of liability and the potential for theft (of store and personal property as mentioned by someone else above). This is the same reason a store with an employee only bathroom won't allow a mom/dad to take their potty training toddler to the bathroom. If a ladder or a bunch of boxes fell on the child, the store would be liable and it would put most small stores out of business.
I worked in retail for many years in stores with employee bathrooms and it was a terminatable offense to allow a customer to us the private bathroom. In addition to stock and personal belongings our safe was in the back room as well. Its unfortunate, but completely understandable.
And it's stories like this that make pregnant women look like a bunch of self-entitled bitches. Seriously, people, get OVER yourselves! Just because you're pregnant doesn't give you the right to just do whatever. Wait your turn in line, and if you have to go SOO bad, maybe you should have paid attention to your body and found a PUBLIC restroom before you got to the point that you're about to pee your pants.
I'm so tired of all these stories that make us women look like a bunch of crybabies. Come on, ladies! We are strong enough to carry on the human race inside our bodies, but we're going to whine about people not treating us special. Well, that's not the attitude I want my daughter to have! WE are STRONG and don't need special privileges, PERIOD.
40wks pregnant with my 4th child and desperate I asked to use a bathrm at a store. They told me "No."
@Becky Root... so YOU chose to ignore the fact that you might be incapable of bar-hopping when you were pregnant, YOU chose to stay when you got nauseous, but then you get ticked off when that bartender wouldn't put her job on the line to serve you? How did SHE know you were pregnant? How was SHE supposed to know that you weren't an undercover cop trying to see if she'd comply with the law? But you were pregnant so the rest of the world should bend to accomodate you? Ridiculous.
This situation is ridiculous. If you know you're gonna have to pee - and when you're pregnant, you know it's going to happen - you set your schedule of errands around it. Include a gas-station stop, or a stop at a fast-food joint or coffee shop. Unless you live waaaaaaay out in the country, there's no excuse for pitching a fit over a store not letting you use the bathroom, when you can go next door to Starbucks.
People have become so heartless toward pregnant women I don't really understand why. Sometimes you don't know until you have to go babies move and press down on your bladder when you are not expecting it. It seems to bother so many commenters that someone would even dare suggest a pregnant woman get any deferential treatment but I don't see the harm in showing a little compassion or kindness.
Wow butterflyfreak you really seem like a very angry hateful person. To call a pregnant woman a "self entitled bitch" just because she needs to use the restroom and was upset when she was denied is a bit over the top.
Butterflyfreak did not call pregnant women "self-entitled bitches," she said this and other stories like it made pregnant women LOOK LIKE that.