“POOP IN POTTY!” my 2-year-old son shouts, in reply to my question, “Where does poop go?” This summer we start the adventure of potty training, and I am trying to get us in the right frame of mind. My son is ready to make this step toward being a big boy; he can pull his pants up and down, he tells me when he needs a new diaper, and lately he has been pulling a disappearing act when he poops.
His big sister gives him daily peps talks about using the potty. Recently, she found a leftover, unused princess pull-up from her own potty training days, and desperately wants him to use it. With all of this said about the excitement my children are showing for potty training time, I am still dragging my feet, unable to get excited about advancing into a world of no diapers.
My daughter was relatively easy to train, even though she was determined to pee like a boy. The stand up method of peeing fascinated her. Oftentimes I would turn around to find her with her pants at her ankles, trying to arch her mid area toward a tree. This, of course, only ended in wet underwear and a new outfit. Needless to say, my bathroom floor was cleaned daily! This phase of peeing standing up ended when I started following her into the bathroom to ensure that she sat on the potty.
After 4 months of potty training, I was confident in my daughter’s ability to control her urinary urges. One winter day, we arranged to meet friends at an indoor play area with a rather large twisting and turning play scape. After a rough morning, all I could think about was drinking a cup of tea and chatting with friends.
Upon arrival, my sweet girl claimed she needed to go pee. Since we had only just arrived, I told her to go play, sure she couldn’t be serious. A few minutes later, I heard her cries from the top of the play scape. I climbed my way up the twisting and turning tubes and found my daughter standing in a puddle of pee with wet pants. My first thought was “WHYYYYY MEEE!?!” and my second, that we needed to leave IMMEDIATELY! I made my way down the tube with my daughter following me at a turtle’s pace. I stood at the opening of the tunnel, loudly urging my child to hurry up. It was then, when I felt the first drop on my head, that I realized the pee had also followed me down. Cleaning up the mess was a task too huge for my flustered self to manage. I just wanted to get out of there – better yet, I wanted the floor to open up and swallow me whole! I heard my voice squeak as I again asked my daughter to hurry up, the pee continuing to drip. I dressed my son and belted him into his car seat – the dripping pee, relentless. I started to yell for my daughter to move it, while I quickly got myself ready to leave. Still the pee kept coming; how much could a 2-year-old bladder hold? My friends began to clean up the mess, but there was no end in sight to the now constant stream of pee. Thankfully, my daughter appeared, I dressed her and ran! My last glimpse of the play scape was of kids running through dripping pee as they climbed in and out of the tube.
This horrifying event has been hard to live down, and is often brought up by my friends. I learned an important lesson that day – in fact, it is the #1 rule in potty training: When the potty trainee says she needs to pee, QUICKLY find a bathroom!
Potty training my son will force me back into a life of unknowns and possible major embarrassment. Maybe that is one of the reasons why I am content with just asking, “Where does Poop Go?”