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Do you let your boys pee in the bushes?

To Pee or not to Pee…

I broke two of the most important rules when planning a bike ride. First, I didn’t make my three year old use the bathroom before we left. Second, I didn’t review the trail map for restroom facilities for our first ride on a trail. I thought we’d be OK since it was going to be a quick ten mile recon ride but a funny thing happens every time a parent embarks on a quick, spontaneous jaunt…

We were just over a mile into the ride when I heard the ubiquitous “Dad? Daaad? Daddy I have to go Pee!” Shortly thereafter we pulled up to a gazebo to find all the surrounding buildings were village utility facilities and locked up tight. My little guy was frantically helping search for a restroom – no luck.

Crestfallen, my son dropped his hands to his side and drooped his head and sadly mumbled “Daddy, I had an accident”. Talk about a shot to the chest! I felt terrible. I said “son, this is Daddy’s fault. I should have known better. Daddy should have known where the restrooms were before we left.”

Since I travel with a change of clothes for my son (always carry spares with a three year old) I had to change his shorts. Autopilot kicked in and I had him drop throw right there on the side of the trail. A young lady rode by giggling and shaking her head at the Daddy changing his little boy in public. I must have looked pretty pathetic with shorts in one hand, wet wipe in the other and my boy’s bare behind hanging out there for all to see. Had we kept going, there were restrooms a mile and a half up the trail…well live and learn.

Do you let your boys pee in the bushes?

A couple weeks later I found myself in a similar situation. This time we took all the precautions but we were on a section of trail that was five miles in either direction to the next restroom facilities. So we had that special moment between father and son where your boy pees outside for the first time. My son had a nervous giggle that cracks me up when I think about it. He said “Dad we’re not supposed to pee outside!” I assured my little guy he was OK as long as he was with Mom or Dad if he had to go in the bushes.

Our question to other Cycling Parents this month is; do you let your boys pee in the bushes or do you peddle like crazy to make it to a restroom?

  • Reece

    Urm, both sons ALWAYS pee in the bushes and always have. I never saw a problem with it as long as they were descrite and well hidden for I always went in them as well…in the 80s, if you were out in the middle of the bush with mates, you’d just go behind a tree and no one would care. I don’t even think its an issue…

  • Lori

    Let them urinate where ever the mood strikes them. It’s a luxury we don’t have as adults.

    -Lori from Palmyra, WI

  • Albert

    When he’s got to pee, he pees. That goes for my daughter too. I guess the most strange moments have been on our nightly jaunt and we are too far away from the house to go back, so we find a bush near the sidewalk. I always find myself silently praying that the homeowner doesn’t look outside at that moment

  • Andy

    When nature calls, the natural thing to do is answer, naturally, of course. That being said, and disregarding the obviously unaddressed issues of the other sex and the other waist matter, peeing outdoors has long been a ritual and custom for males of all cultures, and after all, we are plumbed for it. Taking advantage of our anatomically convenient discharge, however, is more complicated, and requires prudence and circumspection, or better a bit of discretion and due care. So, I say, if you can do it, and not offend anyone in the process, and depending on your flagrance(and or fragrance), and proximity, you just might, by all means, get your business done, and be on with it. Note bene: it’s safe to say, that if father and son can do this together, and not offend, the litmus test has been met, it’s a safe place to pee, which brings us to in a circle. Kids take their parents behaviors, and developed beliefs and values. So the answer to your question is really, do you? or should you? to which the answer will be: did your Dad?

  • Petros

    Heck yeah, let them go in the bushes!

  • Tony

    If it really isn’t practical to scramble towards the restroom, I let both my boys and girls pee in the bushes if we can be discreet and respectful of others. My wife grew up on a farm and worked in the field often. Running back to the house every time was simply unrealistic, and her parents encouraged a “pee-pee squat freely” policy.