Potty Training 101

During a recent walk down memory lane Les and I were reminiscing about the woes of potty training Caden. We'd taken much needed advice from many people being this was our first boy. We were told by some people to drop fruit loops into the toilet and to make a game of having him aim for them. It was also suggested to just let him go on a tree if he was outside playing since kids tend to wait until the last second to go and it's often too late. We were told that might help decrease the frequency of accidents during the training process and that he might think it was fun and less scary than being rushed to the toilet in a panic.

The yard thing worked really well at first, especially since the kids spent a lot of time out in the back yard when they were younger. He seemed to be catching on quickly, having fewer accidents and I had less wet laundry to do. However, it took us a while to “re-train” him and to teach him that whipping it out by the tree in the front yard or at the public park wasn’t really what we’d had in mind.

The potty training discussion brought to mind a story I’ve heard many times over the years about what my brother did shortly after he was potty trained, and I’d have to say I would gladly suffer the embarrassment of being the mom of the “tree peeing boy” over the mom of “insert brother’s incident here” any day.

So, as the story goes, my mom was in her late pregnancy with me. Her and my aunt had gone to do some shopping at Sears with my brother in tow, who was three-years-old at the time.

Does anyone remember when Sears had the display bathrooms all set up like real bathrooms way back when? They had real sinks, toilets and bathtubs and they were decorated to look just like a real bathroom. There were usually several of them set up in one section of the store and I remember being fascinated with them as a kid whenever we walked through them.

My mom and aunt were walking along shopping when they realized my brother had stopped and they turned around to look for him only to find him sitting down on one of those toilets with his pants down around his ankles going number two in the middle of Sears. My mom was so mortified and humiliated that just she kept on walking, leaving my poor aunt to go back and get him.

Don’t ask me whether there was toilet paper or if they ever told a store employee about the “clean up on aisle 9” because I don’t know. (Mom, care to fill in any missing details since you were actually there?)

I’m betting they headed straight to the car and got out of there as fast as they could and that some poor employee was not happy when he opened the lid and found that pleasant surprise.

Moral of the story: Boys will go anywhere when the urge hits them so always keep a hat and pair of dark sunglasses handy.