A mum has been left livid after McDonalds' staff refused to let her "desperate" four-year-old daughter use the toilet.
Staff at the restaurant chain in Plymouth allegedly turned them away, as the upstairs toilets was in a sectioned off area at the time - despite her daughter asking so badly to use the loo, reports Plymouth Live.
The mum, who requested to remain anonymous, said she took her little one to the fast food chain for a breakfast as a treat. However, their mother-daughter bonding day was turned upside down.
She said her morning turned into one neither of them would forget.
Staff were "rude" to her, she claims, after her daughter almost wet herself after 'desperately' needing to use the restaurant's loo.
The mum said that when her daughter tried to use the toilets upstairs, they were called back down by a member of staff.
She added that while she was talking to the McDonald's staff member to sort the issue out, her daughter was 'bobbing up and down' saying 'my wee is going to come out, I can feel it coming out.'
She also said it felt like they were being "told off" for wanting to use the toilets located upstairs. After talking with a staff member, they let the girl use the bathroom upstairs but the mum was left feeling angry with the situation and the way her and her daughter were spoken to.
The Plymouth mum said: "We had breakfast at McDonalds as a special treat, because Friday is my day off with her, and we sat downstairs because upstairs wasn't open. We had merely finished our food when my daughter said she needed to use the toilet. And being a four-year-old, when they say they need a toilet, you need to find a toilet fairly quick- there's no hanging on.
"There was only a disabled toilet accessible downstairs, and my daughter started to go upstairs, there was a barrier in the way but other people had gone upstairs and she usually uses the toilets that are upstairs.
"Then this staff member called us back down, she was quite rude, and said we weren't allowed up there and to use the disabled toilet. I replied that someone was using that toilet and she needed to use the toilet desperately.
"I wouldn't have thought to use a disabled toilet, because we are not disabled, and it almost feels wrong. There was someone in there at the time and there were a lot of customers, so one toilet to the ratio of customers didn't seem enough."
"There was an awkward pause and my daughter was bobbing up and down and was saying 'my wee is coming out, I feel it coming out' and I said to the staff member that I would rather just use the toilet upstairs because I didn't want my four-year-old to wet herself.
"The staff member sighed and said that she would speak to a manager and at this point my daughter was getting really upset. The staff member then said 'fine, you can use upstairs." She added: "I felt like I was being told off."
She continued: "It really wound me up and my poor daughter fortunately made it to the toilet on time but it's just the way they treated her. It’s not fair- she is a child. We were paying customers, it's not like we just walked in off the street.
"We just left, and we would have another drink because we had the whole day off. In the moment I felt told off to even dare to go upstairs. If she had wet herself, she would have felt mortified. To have that happen was a bit rubbish over something so small.”
A spokesperson for McDonald's said that the restaurants pride themselves on providing a "welcoming environment”. Responding to the claim on this occasion, they said there was a member of staff on hand to "quickly advise" the mum and daughter of customer toilets despite the first floor being closed and that the request was immediately okayed.
The spokesperson also confirmed they had checked CCTV and they said that the request to use the upstairs toilets was "okayed immediately" after the mum and daughter approached the staff member.
