A Philadelphia mother is outraged over receiving a $50 ticket and a parenting lecture by a police officer after her 2-year-old son peed on the sidewalk.
Caroline Robboy was out with her family on Sunday when her kids, ages 9 and 2, had to use the bathroom.
After being refused restroom access at a clothing store, 2-year-old Nathaniel, who is still being potty trained, couldn't hold it any longer. The boy took relief into his own hands and peed on a nearby lamp post.
NBC Philadelphia reports that Robboy tried to "redirect" her son to a grassy patch, but a police officer wrote her a ticket for public urination.
Robboy said that the officer then gave her a lecture on parenting, telling her that the ticket was "for her own protection" in case there was "a pervert watching [her] son."
Robboy maintains the situation was an accident, although the ticket does not acknowledge it. She plans to fight the fine.
This isn't the only potty training mishap to make national news recently. Last week, a Utah mother drew criticism for allowing her children to use their portable potty in the middle of a restaurant dining room.
But unlike that incident, this accident has been received with considerable sympathy. As news of the story spread, other parents shared in Robboy's outrage.
"I wouldn't encourage my son to [pee in public] except in an emergency, but there were plenty of times that we had no other choice than to go in a corner of a parking garage or at a park," CafeMom blogger Julie Ryan Evans wrote. "It happens."
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