She left the restaurant because she "didn't want to cause a scene" but was perfectly fine with causing a scene with a 10 year old. Very selective in her scenes.

What a nut. I was in the bathroom the other day and a lady came in with a mentally handicapped adult male. I just smiled and went about my business, but my first thought was to wonder if anyone was going to make it a problem. Thankfully no one did. People have to work with what is available, so just be kind, it's not hard.

The OP proved that the child needs their parent when going to the bathroom because they are one of the weirdos that kids need to be worried about.

MASSIVE YTA!!! I took my sons in the restroom with me for a long time because I didn't want my children alone in a room with adults. If some crazy woman had yelled at my CHILD to get out of the restroom I would have come out swinging. Who the flock do you think you are?! If you are such a man-hater and so transphobic that you have to police the bathroom, then you have some serious Freudian issues to work out. You literally sexualized a 10yo child. Gross.

If you legitimately concerned that he was in the wrong bathroom you could, I dunno, ASK? "Young man, this is the ladies' restroom. Did you come in here by mistake? Are you waiting for someone?" The whole point of having a different standard for kids is 1) immediate need means regular rules might not apply, 2) they don't know better, 3) they need a chance to learn better. In any of those cases, YTA not just for yelling at the kid, but for IMMEDIATELY yelling at the KID.

Back in the 90's, while at uni, I used to go to the pub once a week with a small group of students plus a small group of teens from a local home - so they could have a bit of a teenage experience. We would drink shandy, play pool and get chips on the way home. So that's how I found myself on my knees in a male toilet (I'm female) trying to fix the zipper of a lad with down syndrome while he panicked when 2 large bicker guys came in. They took in the situation, and then took over helping, like actual adults. Lots of people are good, it's a shame people like the OP tend to be rather loud.

As one commenter said, this child may have been on the spectrum, or could be deaf or disabled in some other way. Ten years is still pretty vulnerable, IMO.

honestly, as long as the toilets are private stalls than who gives a f**k who's in there? you've got your privacy in the stall, just do your business and gtfo. we're all just there for exactly that, despite what some crazy people think, it's fairly unlikely that you're going to be assaulted in a public bathroom in a busy public place.

Not every place has a family restroom. This lady is seriously unhinged. Don't yell at other people's kids unless it's an emergency (like "hey get out of the road, cars can't see you!").

Just another loser brave enough to yell at a small child but turns into a coward when confronted by an adult...

Woman really wanted to yell, "get out NOW, or I'll call a republican!!"

Go ahead and yell at my son and direct him to do something contrary to what I told him to do to keep him safe. They'd be throwing ME out of the restaurant. People have lost their damn minds.

Major a*****e. Stay home. You are not prepared to be a healthy member of society.

People take themselves way too seriously.

What a f*****g c**t.

Yeah you were wrong.

AITA posts are kinda getting old in my opinion, but when it's a YTA one it's admittedly kinda entertaining haha

My dad used to take me in the men's bathroom with him. More traumatizing to me than to anyone else I think. I have distinct early memories of those filthy places. What else is a parent supposed to do? If you don't feel safe leaving your children outside, you bring them in the bathroom with you regardless of age or gender. Some kids don't listen at all, even at 10, and will not stay put outside the bathroom door. He might have wandered off as soon as his mother left him. We don't know. Only his mother does and it was her judgment to bring him into a bathroom than leave him unsupervised and that needs to be respected.

I do not think it would be wrong to ask politely - why are you in the ladies room? IF there was no one else in there. But if a stall is occupied and the person is not being a creep - then just go about your business with the stall door closed. ( Person might be assisting a disabled woman)

I know we are very lawsuit happy here in the US, but if that was my kid I would press suit against the woman for the trauma she caused my kid. What a terrible person

My parents separated when I was very young, so when dad took us swimming, I went with him to the men's changing room and it was never a problem. I didn't feel unsafe with all the men around and then didn't seem to care much about me. Well... until I was around 10-11 and hit puberty (I was an early bloomer) and had a child body but with breasts. I could tell it made grown f*****g men uncomfortable to have me there, so I started going alone to the women's even if I was a little scared to be there by myself. Never did worry, and still don't, about boys in there though. I might question it internally if the guy is like, twenty and seems capable to handle himself. But a body is a body and I don't know everything so as long as he minds his business and I mind mine, idgaf.

OP is a mentally challenged AH.

Wow. Where was she when they tried to teach her normal social interaction? In her private bathroom?

If my wife was there, that woman would be lucky to leave the bathroom walking under her own power. However, I'm pretty sure that the OP is a right-wing troll.

One time I entered the ladies room and a fully grown man was in front of the mirror finishing up. Due to me inadvertently entering men's rooms without thinking, I just smiled and let him know he was in the ladies room. I know he felt bad, nothing else, no escalation was required or necessary. OP has some sort of serious problem if she freaks out at a young kid being in a restroom with his mom.

This is what happens after years of meticulously cultivated paranoia about people using the "wrong" bathroom...

So much of this s**t could be solved in they build stalls to the floor and without a huge gap around the doors on stalls.

Up until a certain age, small children are ushered into whichever lavatory their parents go to. Period. A toddler or even slightly older child, should not, for many reasons, go alone. This OP needs meds, STAT.

Coming out of the ladies' at Walmart, I encountered a worried-looking young dad with his daughter. His choices? Send her into the ladies' by herself or take her into the men's. It was clear neither choice was acceptable to him. I told him the ladies' was empty, and that I would stand outside the door until they came out. When they did, I showed him where the 'family' rest room was for future reference. (At the time, it was halfway across the store from the regular rest rooms. From the dance his daughter was doing, I didn't think they'd make it.)

i must have been raised in a different generation, because at 10, i definitely knew better than to be in a womans bathroom. and at that time, i knew that for ages. so..... NTA, really.

Op is not an AH. OP had a reaction to the situation and decided that a child standing quietly in a bathroom was a legitimate reason to say something to them. They were totally justified in screaming at a helpless little child. A child who was likely just as uncomfortable as if OP had gotten up on the table, dropped trousers and squeezed out a steaming, corn filled dump onto their friends lunch plate and then mushed their friends face in it. op transcended AH. OP decided that being an AH was below them and they went for full on Raging Psycho Biatch. that kid is going to have flashbacks about that for the rest of his life and will always wonder if he did something wrong regardless of what anyone else will tell him. I wish OP a lifetime of constant acid reflux and the inability to tell the difference between when they have to fart and when they have to poo.