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AIBU?

To be annoyed with cleaner in John Lewis?

195 replies

Tralalalaha · 03/01/2013 21:42

Went out with 21 month old DS in a back carrier to buy some new shoes in the sales. Got to JL and realised as I took him out to get his feet measured that he'd done a mahousive wee and was sopping from waist to knee (as indeed was my back). So nipped over to kids wear, bought some lovely trousers in the sale and sprinted into the changing room bit to sort him out. Both changing mats were in use by little teeny babies, the BF and bottle feeding rooms were in use and I didn't think anyone wanted to see a nappy change while feeding, but there's a big lobby bit so I thought for a quick whip and wipe, I'd just kneel on the floor and rest him on my bag.

I'll say now that DS never ever wees on me during nappy changes, so I was a bit surprised and horrified when he started peeing like a horse and grabbed a cloth out of my bag to put over his winky while jokingly saying 'naughty boy DS'. All of a sudden someone starts shouting at me, and I look over my shoulder (while mopping up DS and the floor) to see a cleaner looking pretty angry. She was shouting and saying why didn't I use one of the mats, so I said they were busy, then she said why didn't I use the table in the disabled loos. I hadn't spotted it to be honest, but wouldn't have taken up a disabled loo just to change a nappy anyway, then she told me I should have waited for a mat to be free. Leaving aside the fact that the little babies on those mats were still being changed when this was all over and I was leaving, poor DS was sopping wet and I didn't want to hang around with him in soggy clothing. I said as much, and then got a bit peppy and asked her if there were any of my other parenting choices she'd like to question and she stalked off muttering about mopping the floor and I finished up DS, wiped the floor with antibacterial wipes and left in a bit of a fricking snit actually.

So, AIBU to be peed off if you'll forgive the pun, or was she perfectly within her rights to be annoyed at the pee on the floor?

OP posts:
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gordyslovesheep · 03/01/2013 21:44

yabu

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ChaosTrulyReigns · 03/01/2013 21:44

Sorry, YABU, should have waited.

A few more moments wouldn't have made a differenve to you and your son.

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McNewPants2013 · 03/01/2013 21:45

As a cleaner i wouldn't but i work in a hospital with patients who don't know what they are doing and its not my job to clean urine.....but i do it as i don't want nurses messing around with my cleaning trolley.

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SauvignonBlanche · 03/01/2013 21:46

YWBU, I can see why she was pissed off.

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MrsRajeshKoothrappali · 03/01/2013 21:46

You should've waited for the mats.

Pee all over a tiled/lino floor is a slip hazzard and pee all over a carpet is minging.

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ChaosTrulyReigns · 03/01/2013 21:47

And I'm going to judgeplop some more, and I'm probably being totally ott, but naughty is a word that's just totalky unnecessary.

One of my few dislikes in life.

[bland]

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sausagesandwich34 · 03/01/2013 21:47

cleaners gereally aren't allowed to deal with bodily fluids so she wasn't being unreasonable

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McNewPants2013 · 03/01/2013 21:49

sausage, but part of the job is to clean toilets so bodily fluids are going to be there.

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gordyslovesheep · 03/01/2013 21:49

yes - he is not 'naughty' for weeing on the floor - you are for expecting someone else to clean it

if he was happy enough sopping wet in a back pack he could have waited a few moments more before getting changed

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millie30 · 03/01/2013 21:49

YABU, you could have waited for a mat or even taken DS into a cubicle surely?

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cinnamonnut · 03/01/2013 21:51

YABU but I do feel sympathetic for you too.

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ChaosTrulyReigns · 03/01/2013 21:51

Ach. Ignore me, I'm grunpy. I'm sorry.

Smile

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backwardpossom · 03/01/2013 21:52

Are you for real?

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JamieandtheMagiTorch · 03/01/2013 21:52

YABsooooooU

A the bit about parenting choices was just bollox, sorry.

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CockBollocks · 03/01/2013 21:52

YABU, however, she should not have shouted at you.

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Sirzy · 03/01/2013 21:53

YABU.

why didn't you just wait until the changing area was free? wasn't going to be any more than a couple of minutes

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gordyslovesheep · 03/01/2013 21:53

oh hang on ...you are NEW op - well welcome to MN Grin

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ThePigOfHappiness · 03/01/2013 21:53

Yabu. A few minutes more wasn't going to kill him. Someone falling in his wee on the other hand...

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wigglesrock · 03/01/2013 21:55

YABU - you should have waited/changed him in a cubicle and I speak as both a cleaner and as a Mum to 21 month old. I've changed nappies in a feeding room while someone's been feeding a baby. I don't think she was questioning your parenting choices, I think she was questioning your manners.

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LetsFaceTheMusicAndDance · 03/01/2013 21:55

YABU and a bit precious about him waiting in wet clothes. It's warm enough in JL for him not to take a chill.

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EllenParsons · 03/01/2013 21:55

YABVU. I can't believe you thought this was the right thing to do. Surely the sensible thing would have been to just wait. I see why the cleaner was annoyed and I would not have been impressed as a customer either tbh. Nappy changing out on the floor is just not on.

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Icelollycraving · 03/01/2013 21:56

Yabu for the nonsense about parenting choices but mainly for using the term winky.

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apostropheuse · 03/01/2013 21:56

Yes YABU. If he was that wet that he had managed to make his clothing so wet you had to totally change him then he could have waited another few minutes.

It seems a bit weird that he was wet "from waist to knee". Had you not changed him for hours? If you had then maybe you need to look at getting a different brand of nappy, or maybe a different size.

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CoolaYuleA · 03/01/2013 21:57

YWBU, you could have waited - what difference would it have made seeing as DS was already soaked?

Then you were rude to the person who would have to clean the floor.

It is totally reasonable to expect people to change their children in designated changing areas - and it sounds like there were plenty. So you had to wait - but so what?

The cleaner is the one who will have to clean your child's pee off the floor (a wipe with a cloth won't really cut it will it) so she has every right to be annoyed. Even if he hadn't peed whilst you were changing him by your own admission he was already soaked so not really pleasant to be changing him on the floor anyway.

You were wrong and you were rude. The cleaner had every right to be annoyed, you had NO right to be rude and should have waited for a changing mat....

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sausagesandwich34 · 03/01/2013 21:58

mcNewPants

cleaners in the shopping centers where I have worked use the toilet brush to clean the loo, wipe the seats and that's pretty much it

any 'major incidents' an outside crew are called in to deal with it

they are not allowed to deal with blocked toilets etc

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