[lnelson]

i was walking my dog this morning around 8:25 on 14th between 7th and 8th, when i walked by what at first looked like a father consoling his son, standing close behind him and sort of hugging/sheltering him (i'm guessing the kid was between 8-10, judging by size). but on quick closer inspection, i realized that he was actually sheltering his son from view while the kid peed into the road.

um, is there possibly a good explanation for this? more to the point, is there likely a good explanation? i'm of the fairer sex, so maybe this is a father-son coming-of-age thing i never learned about. ...?

[mr. met]

possible explanation: the kid really needed to piss and they didn't have time to go inside. well done, pops.

[sweet tea]

8-10 seems a little old for this (although maybe the kid is just tall), but in an "emergency", given the choice between wet pants and a little pee in the gutter, seems like the right decision was made.
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Bumping ancient threads with bot-like bullshit

[filmlover44]

I'm guessing that you do not have a son!
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Ok, now I'm crazy. Another goal achieved.

[arock75]

When nature calls you cannot let it go to voicemail

[gags2008]

Actually I was relieved - I thought you were gonna say some kind of molestation was taking place . . . blah!

[lnelson]

nope, i don't have kids. just a dog - who i curb. (much as this father was apparently doing...the kid was peeing into the street, not against a wall, as i have observed with less youthful, more drunk-looking al fresco micterators.)

but ew! you mean this is a potentially common occurrence with kids?

[gags2008]

I'm pretty sure kids pee almost as frequently as dogs . . . .

[mr. met]

i try to pee on the street at least once a week

[Jamzer]

[pitu]

[daver]

Anyone who says this is common for boys is full of it. I have four boys ages 6 through 14 and none of them have EVER peed in the street. And we walk all over the place for extended times. Which isn't to say that perhaps this particular child didn't have some sort of medical condition, or something. Just that it isn't _normal_ for boys. Good grief.
_________________
"It's only as boring as you make it."

You're making me want to poke my eyes out with a spoon. Stop that.

Bringing the term thin-skinned to a whole new level!

[LongTimeSloper]

^^Really? Never? none of your 4 boys? now that seems odd to me!

After a certain age, I wouldn't let my sons do this. A 10 year old or above is way too old IMO to be doing this (even if he was 8-my 7 year old holds it now). but, it is a pretty common occurrence in younger boys. you are not always in a spot where there is a bathroom to use and sometimes you have to go!

[Carmen]

^so it would be acceptable for a little girl to pop-a-squat and pee on the street as well?

[caseopele]

I was at work last summer with the door open, I have a good view of the tree in front of the bookstore. A woman stopped by the tree with a little girl 2 or 3 years old (I'm terrible with ages). The woman lifted the little girl's dress (no underwear) then held her up so she could pee in the tree well. This was on a sunny afternoon on 7th Ave, tons of people on the street.

A 2 or 3 year old being unable to control their bladder I can understand. But an 8-10 year old? Hopefully, it was just poor planning and there was nothing wrong with the kid.
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A man needs a little madness, or else he never dares cut the rope and be free. -Nikos Kazantzakis

[Carmen]

I dont think its ever acceptable to have kids pee on the street. My parents allowed us to pee on the side of the road every once in a BLUE moon if we were stuck in traffic and could NOT get off the highway, but even then that was frowned upon.

I don't care who's pee it is, I don't want to see or smell it on the street. Period. Especially somewhere like 7th ave- there are NO establishments someone could go into to use the restroom? Buy a coffee somewhere and let the kid use the restroom.

[gags2008]

The poor kid is probably traumatized . . .

[daver]

I saw a chick pee on the subway one night a couple weeks ago. #2 train (haha) Brooklyn bound from 72nd St. Damn, there is a public restroom at 42nd St. Her friends held a big coat out as a privacy barrier. She pissed right on the train, in front of the door leading to the next car. I changed cars at 42nd. Ew. They were all tore and beyond conversation.

It would never occur to my boys to pee in the street because I have never provided that to them as an option. Ever. It wouldn't even occur to them to ask. As far as accidents, when they were little (like four years old and less) I would make them go to the bathroom before we left, whether they needed to or not. It is amazing the number of times little guys who didn't have to go unleashed quite a torrent.

While out and about, I wouldn't let the little guys load up on four sodas or something. And I also, once again, made them use facilities when there was an opportunity. Now the smallest one is six, and he is capable of monitoring his own fluid intake. If he has to go, he'll have to hold it until we get to a restroom. He knows this. They all do.
_________________
"It's only as boring as you make it."

You're making me want to poke my eyes out with a spoon. Stop that.

Bringing the term thin-skinned to a whole new level!

[LongTimeSloper]

[LongTimeSloper]

[lnelson]

[Mamacita]

CURB YOUR CHILD!!!!

[jeffrey]

[sweet tea]

oh, come on. it's hardly reached epidemic proportions.

don't any of you remember being at an age when you weren't good at judging your bladder yet and you couldn't do a full utiana banda(sp?)? i do. i remember the last time i wet my pants (age 6) -- i was running to the door of the school because i'd finally been given permission to go inside to the bathroom. my hands were on the door handle. it was awful. (i assure you, no soda was involved, nor lengthy travel.) as an adult, there's no way i'd not have made it, but i wasn't an adult.

maybe i'm liberal on this issue too because i remember being a new teacher and telling a first grader who was 1 minute from being let out of class for the day that he could hold it. he couldn't. (and, it wasn't pee. poor kid. he was so unhappy and i felt so bad.)

yeah, a 10 year old isn't a first grader, but we don't know how old this kid was, only how tall.
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Bumping ancient threads with bot-like bullshit

[johnife]

When I stumble off the subway after a long ride home from a multiple-pint booze-up in Manhattan, I regard those dark empty outdoor parking lots on Schermerhorn as precious endangered species. The few that are still undeveloped are, on those occasions, all that stand between me and running the risk of an indecent exposure arrest. Maybe the kid had been on a bender at Union Hall.

[gags2008]

[mr. met]

i've peed on subway platforms many times, but never on the actual train

[daver]

[gags2008]

[macfoo]

i have allowed my kids to pee around PS. reasons, you ask? - 1) every dog on the block pees & poops on our sidewalk - is there that big a difference? 2) they are under 6 and sometimes they just gotta go. 3) sometimes the BR is locked or a store owner is a jerk that won't allow the use of a facility 4) you cannot let them pee in their pants when potty training - it can seriously backfire. 5) the bums in the park do it all the time. so my kids are bums sometimes - at least their bottoms are dry

[Carmen]

^you are comparing your children's behaviors to bums and animals. This doesn't seem a bit "off" to you?

[caseopele]

I have to say one thing about businesses not letting people use their bathroom. If they don't serve food, a business isn't required to have a public restroom. That means that it's the employee bathroom that people want to use. We used to let people use our bathroom but we ended up really regretting it. Cleaning any bathroom isn't much fun, try cleaning one where a stranger has seriously blown it up. And our bathroom is tiny, it barely fits 1 average sized person. So if a kid wants to use it, their parent can't go in with them. Kids don't usually have the best aim and don't always wash their hands. With our bathroom, at least I know who's been in there and what to expect when they come out.

Oh, and the bookstore next door has a bathroom and there's a starbucks on the next block.
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A man needs a little madness, or else he never dares cut the rope and be free. -Nikos Kazantzakis

[daver]

Gags- taking the heat ... of peeing in the street!

Haha.

I kill myself.

Well, not really.

I mean, it sounds like something you avoid and recognize is not a good thing. Yer an adult, do what yer gonna do, I suppose.

This honestly isn't an issue I'm particularly worked up about, nor will it be unless it reaches epidemic proportions.

Macfoo, I would assume that the situations you describe are "emergency" situations, and not something that happens on a daily or even often basis. I totally understand about the backfire thing, I've found you to be 100% correct on that. For those uninitiated in potty training, it goes something like this: once the kid figures out that he _can_ go in his pants, and it really isn't that horrible, he will continue to do it. We made that mistake on our first boy, never again.

As far as your reasoning, I find it pretty lacking. But like I said, this really isn't an issue that I am terribly concerned about.
_________________
"It's only as boring as you make it."

You're making me want to poke my eyes out with a spoon. Stop that.

Bringing the term thin-skinned to a whole new level!

[Carmen]

I feel like ESPECIALLY in PS there is always an establishment within a 5 minute walk that has a bathroom- there are places to eat and drink on EVERY block. And if they won't let you use the bathroom without buying something? BUY SOMETHING. This is the cost of having children- I dont think I should have to smell pee because you won't fork over $1.89 for a coffee somewhere.

[gags2008]

[mr. met]

yea, i pee off subway platforms only late at night when i'm drunk. same with street peeing.

[macfoo]

I have let my kids pee 'in public' 1 x for the girl and 3 or 4 times for the boy. We actually have a portable potty that we carry in the stroller. The 'bum' thing was a bit of a gag. I guess I found it sort of funny that the person who started the whole thread was a dog owner 'walking' Fido - who I can only presume pees all over the area every day. So I found it interesting that one who thinks nothing of allowing a pet to pee all over the place is taken aback by a young child urinating on the street [with adult supervision & yes, 8 is still pretty young]. We should all be thankful that it was a strange thing to see since it is not something you see every day. Just an emergency measure that some parents are willing to take. I happen to be one and know the risk is a $100 ticket and if I ever get one I'll know if was well deserved (but worth letting my kids feel comfortable).

[lnelson]

hey macfoo! i acknowledged in my original post that my dog pees on the street! the point of my post wasn't that it was gross, necessarily, to be peeing in the street...but it is rather surprising to bear witness to it. i was surprised. startled. a touch agog.

ps, ok, ok ok, i admit i thought it was gross. not because of the pee itself; i have nothing against human pee that i don't have against dog pee. more just the whole scene. gross but also slightly endearing, like that adam sandler movie, "big daddy." i guess because of the proximity of stores that DO serve food and ARE open at that hour, it struck me as the kind of slightly incompetent thing young dads are famous for doing, as immortalized/hyperbolized in the aforementioned sandler flick.

pps i would not have been nearly as surprised if the kid had been more the height of a 3 or 4 or even 6 year old. they're tiny. but who knows? maybe this kid is tall for his age and i was needlessly maligning him and/or his dad.

ppps wish i could pee on subway tracks from the platform! i think being able to do so is really influencing the perspectives of a lot of the dudes weighing in here. not to put too fine a point on it, one might say that bragging about their respective peeing exploits has become something of a - dare i say it? - pissing contest.

ahem.

[gags2008]

lnelson

Those of us in the "pro-piss" camp are gonna get you a statue for your foyer . . .



It is a replica of the famed Manekin Piss statue in Brussels, which celebrates the endearing image of a young boy urinating.

Why is there a statue to a boy pissing? IDK - but there is one legend I found online that offers an explanation.

"In the 14th century, Brussels was under siege by a foreign power. The city had held their ground for quite some time. The attackers had thought of a plan to place explosive charges at the city walls. A little boy named Juliaanske from Brussels happened to be spying on them as they were preparing. He urinated on the burning fuse and thus saved the city."

[lnelson]

OMG, gags, do you think my father-son team from this morning was saving Park Slope from some kind of explosive device, like your Brussels kid? They should get a medal! A statue, erected in the very spot were the peeing happened! A TICKER TAPE PARADE! (NYC needs more of those anyway.)

And hell, I'll take the statue if you'll pay to upgrade me to an apartment with a foyer....

[gags2008]

. . . . or maybe he just wants to be a fireman when he grows up . . .

[gags2008]

Well, no foyer . . . so maybe you'll accept the peeing boy liqour dispensor?



the peeing boy bottle opener



or the manekin piss ashtray?



Your call . . . there is no limit to the crap you can find on ebay.

[lnelson]

well, the bottle opener seems most practical because i can use it as an ashtray once i've imbibed the contents, and i can also pee in it if i aim real careful. but the ashtray does have a certain je ne sais quoi....

the liquor dispenser, on the other hand, is tres gauche. get some taste, for god's sake! who raised you?

wait, never mind. i know who raised you. someone who also indoctrinated you with the idea that street-peeing is OK!

[raw]

[gags2008]

The liquor dispenser is lame, no doubt . . . even I don't like it! The bottle opener has a certain appeal, stong, iconic . . . but maybe the ashtray kind of takes the prize, I dont know. Its very elegant AND it makes a statement . . .
"I piss on your cigarette!"

Tough call.