Saturday, March 7, 2015

Pottying with a 3 year old...

Tommy claims that there is nothing more disgusting in this world than a men's public restroom. I find it hard to believe that it could be more dirty than the ladies' pubic restroom, but am afraid I'd get arrested if I tried to find out. So, what that means is when we are in public and Emi has to go to the bathroom- the ladies' restroom it is!

I'm getting better at taking her. No, she hasn't had any accidents. The skill I am learning more has to do with the things that she says and what she does when she is in there.

For example, it may seem wiser to use the handicap restroom as you may have more room for two of you in the stall, but I've learned this can also create a dilemma when the adult is sitting on the toilet midstream and the child opens the stall door. If you are in regular stall it is easy to remain seated and reach your arm out to shut the door. In the handicap stall, one must sit and pray nobody walks in while begging your child to shut the door.

Going back to lesson in my last post- honesty is the best policy. I learned heard about this one. Maybe the child will ask "Mommy, do you have to make yellow or go poopy?" And maybe the adult will think it is wise to ignore the child's question leading the child to ask again but in a louder voice "Mommy, are you making yellow or going poopy?" To save some embarrassment perhaps the child's mother will reply "I'm making yellow." But, as soon as the child learns that the parent is not making yellow and instead is going #2, the chid may scream in excitement "You're going poopy, good job!" And just maybe, that child will also want to give the adut extra encouragement to the parent (Afterall, the adult did lie to the child about having to go #2 anyway) and start chanting "push it out, push it out, all the way out!"

Maybe we one day we will have an uneventful trip to a public restroom, but in the meantime, she keeps it interesting.