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Notes -
When is it acceptable to pee on the side of the road?
I've got 4 small kids (3 boys + 1 girl; only the girls is in diapers). We do a 2 hour road trip down to the grandparents about every other weekend. We always make them go to the bathroom before we leave, but we still have pee emergencies pretty much every trip.
For us, peeing on the side of the freeway is basically a must. If we try to find a proper bathroom, that's easily a 20+ minute detour. Driving to the bathroom is maybe 5 minutes, but then wrangling the problematic kid(s) is much more difficult in a dirty garage bathroom than on the side of the road. (I can't count the number of times I've had a kid wipe their junk on a public restroom toilet and then I have to do a serious disinfection...)
So my policy for side-of-road peeing is:
It has to be safe to stop.
There shouldn't be pedestrians around that can see us. (So this means no peeing on non-freeway type streets, and certain sections of freeway are also off limits.)
There has to be "nature" to pee on. Some amount of grass/dirt is okay, but a tree is best. If we're on the stretch of the I5 in Irvine, where there's concrete everywhere, we won't stop. (This is partly related to pts 1+2.)
I realized on this week's roadtrip that I've never seen another car parked with the kids out peeing. Am I breaking some sort of major taboo here?
I'm also not sure what I'll do once the girl isn't wearing diapers, and whether I'll allow / force her to pee on the side of the road.
Off of a rural lightly travel highway, exercises the ultimate freedom of living in a state of nature.
On a freeway, especially in heavy traffic I'd probably go for a large capacity wide mouth bottle. The large capacity is critical. You do not want to be at 90% full trying to cut off the stream. The main advantage, in addition to discretion, is you can possibly avoid having to exit and reenter traffic that way.
I have no experience trying it with kids, but it seems just unpleasant enough that they might heed your warning to limit fluid intake before the next 2 hour road trip. Not so unpleasant that it just seems mean.
For girls past training potty age, a fancy funnel might be an option? It can also be useful for nasty public bathrooms or when popping a squat is not a desirable option. e.g. peeing in the woods in the extreme cold. There are disposable versions that are basically cardboard with a plastic or wax coating. We keep a couple in the car for emergencies. My impression is that a reusable one called the "Shewee" is generally viewed favorably.
If you want a fancy bottle, "portable urinals" are surprisingly cheap. Some include an attachable funnel adapter. If you don't want to have to deal with dumping and rinsing a container at your destination, you can also buy pouches with absorbent gel. They seal when you are done with them and can be thrown discreetly into most ordinary trash.
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