Have you ever brought your seven-year-old son into a public women’s restroom and allowed him to crawl around on the floor?
If that were to happen, would you then let your seven-year-old son crawl into the women’s restroom stalls occupied by total strangers? If you answered “OMG NO! NEVER!!” and “OMG! NOOO! WTF?” then, same.
But unfortunately, not all parents share our philosophy and one unlucky Costco shopper recently found that out the hard way.
TikTok user Sydney (@stfusydney7) shared a wild story about this happening to her the last time she visited the restroom at the popular big box store. Her justified rant is currently sitting at 400k views on the app, with over 2000 comments, almost all WTF-ing right along with Sydney.
Picture this… you’re just minding your own business, finally getting sixty seconds to yourself after enjoying a fountain Coke and a jumbo Kirkland hot dog. You sit down to tinkle and suddenly, a child’s head pops under your stall door. Now two seven-year-old eyeballs are staring up at you while you’re trying to pee in peace.
Uhh, hello?
That’s a biohazard zone. You don’t let your child’s face near it! That alone would have sent most people into a level-5 meltdown. But wait. It gets worse!
Sydney immediately starts calling out, “Is this anybody’s child?” That was polite, if you ask me. I would’ve been calling out, “Whose kid is this and why haven’t you taught them boundaries?” loud enough for them to hear all the way back by the raspberry rugelach in the bakery.
Just then, the child disappears from Sydney’s stall and begins venturing into other stranger’s stalls.
Now there are multiple strangers wanting to know who this feral little peeping Tom belongs to.
You best believe I would’ve flushed, yanked up my yoga pants, and marched right out of that stall ready to give Mama Crawly McCrawlerson the kind of death stare that could peel paint off the Costco ceiling.
Because listen, I came to Costco for a 72 pack of paper towels, not for a surprise game of peek-a-boo while I’m on the toilet.
Sydney finishes and exits the stall.
That’s when she notices the child has also been busy splashing sink water everywhere, as well as slinging hand soap and wet paper towels all around the bathroom with wild abandon. Costco bathrooms already smell like regret and bleach. We don’t need an out-of-control kid turning it into a Slip ’N Slide.
Just then, Peeping Mom strolls out of HER stall all casual and unbothered, like her child wasn’t just reenacting Mission Impossible: Bathroom Edition while she sat there and did nothing to stop it.
Another spied-on shopper comes out of her stall just as furious as Sydney and the village came together to tell Peeping Mom that she AND her kid were out of line.
When confronted, the mother tells Sydney and the other privacy-violated woman that it was fine.
“He’s not doing anything bad,” the mother said.
He crawled into their stalls which is literally the definition of bad in a public restroom. I don’t care if he wasn’t lighting off fireworks or selling contraband gummy bears in there, you can’t just brush that off like it’s no big deal. That’s not quirky. That’s not “kids being kids.” That’s next level nightmare fuel.
The icing on the cake was when the child’s mother got in Sydney’s face while screaming “Don’t tell me how to parent my child!” to which our heroine replied, “Don’t make ME parent YOUR child!”
So no, Sydney, you weren’t wrong.
You were far too nice. Because I, personally, would’ve escorted that woman and her little bathroom bandit straight to the customer service counter and asked if Costco had a policy for refunding bad parenting.
