That moment when you're at the pub, and the mum next to you pulls out a potty...

Okay, picture this. You’re out for dinner at the pub. At a table near you, there’s a group of friends, one with a young boy.

During the meal, the boy needs to go to the toilet, so his mum, naturally…

Sets up the potty and lets the child do his business there.

A Mumsnet user calling herself Todayistuesday had exactly that experience just a few days ago.

“Last night, having a meal at seven in a nice pub and a parent got their child to use the potty by their table,” she posted. “This isn't normal, is it?!”

Todayistuesday went on to say that the mother had a liner inside the potty, so after the boy had finished his business, she tied the bag and went away to dispose of it.

“I thought about saying something to the staff or the people themselves,” she added. “To be honest, I'm not sure I would have changed their behaviour anyway. If you're so oblivious/entitled/socially inept, you'll go ahead anyway.

“To make matters worse, the boy really did look old enough to be able to get to a toilet.”

Surprisingly, quite a few other users of the UK parenting website said they had witnessed something similar.

“A mother at the next table sat in the cafe, got out a potty and let her child take a poop right there next to my latte,” one wrote. “I'm sure there's a reasonable excuse, I just can't find it.”

“That happened to me in a café,” another remembered. “She was at least three, wandering round with a naked bottom. I was shocked. Nothing I ever did with my four.”

“A woman at our toddler group did that once, and then just pushed the potty full of poo under the table until she'd finished her coffee and cake,” a third added. “Someone did make a comment about hygiene/the risks of it being knocked over by crawling infants, etc, but she just blithely waved off their concerns.”

Another saw something similar happen in a sports club bar. The steward told the parents it wasn’t acceptable, and asked them not to do it again.

“Both parents looked round them in shock, asking if anybody heard what the steward had said to them. They were actually shocked, and thought they were in the right, and that other customers should be stepping up and supporting them against the nasty steward.”

Plenty of Mumsnet users said they took a potty with them when they were toilet training their child. They said they would use it inside public toilets, at a park, or behind their car, hidden from view.

When my children were young, I sometimes took a potty with me on car trips, in case of emergency. I remember whipping it out on the Hay Plain once, when there were no public toilets for miles around.

But in the middle of a pub? Surrounded by people who have paid for an enjoyable dining experience? When the mum is going to bag the poo and take it to the toilets anyway? Urgghh….

Would you pull out a potty at the local pub?