Tuesday, August 24, 2004

Bathroom Time

Things they don’t tell you about motherhood would fill 20 books. But one thing other mothers should warn you about is ‘bathroom time’. You no longer get to go the bathroom by yourself. It’s amazing when you do get go by yourself… you don’t want to get out! With #1 Son, I always kept him near the bathroom so I could ‘keep an eye on him’. Strange things you will do with your first child when you become a stay at home mom. With the #2 Son, I had no interest in having him any where near the bathroom. As long as I could hear him if he screamed, I was happy. Now… I have #1 Son, #2 Son AND #1DogSon all joining into the ‘let’s follow mom into the bathroom’. Keep in mind, this is a tiny bathroom that one person can just fit into with a 2 year old, a 10 month year old, a 140 pound dog and Mom. Trying to get out is a feat because no one wants out but Mom and the rest just stay in the way.

Though, maybe all of this has helped #1 Son want to learn to go Potty. That’s right, about twice a day he wants to go to the bathroom and POTTY (insert PEEEEEE in place of Potty and you got the idea. We are trying to teach him the word Potty over Peee.). Usually right after Mom. BIG GRIN. Try maneuvering around all these children and put a training potty on the toilet, get #1 Son undressed and up on it without stepping on the other two. My dexterity level has increased 10 fold. Now the fun begins. If he does pee, then it means convincing him to get off the toilet. The only way this works is if you give him a piece of toilet paper to wipe his pe-nis and tell him he can then flush the toilet. Mind you, you have to give him the toilet paper AFTER he gets down. Otherwise we start the ‘More’ war. I’m sure the men reading this are going –huh? Toilet paper? Men don’t wipe, they shake. Ok, the only person he sees day after day pee’ing is Mom. Mom wipes. So #1 Son wants to wipe too.

My Husband asks the other day about this wipe business. He mentioned that I should teach him to shake it. I told him “no way, I don’t have a pe-nis and he learns from example. If he wanted #1 Son to shake it, then let #1 Son watch him pee.” Which I have to admit, he does let #1 Son watch him on the weekends since then. So watch out dads, you give up privacy too.

With all of this going on, I just keep waiting for the day that I can go the bathroom anytime I want and not have a huge crew following in!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

This brought back memories. My son, then 3, escorting me in to the bathroom as usual, wanted to know why I was peeing through my butt. I simply and causally explained that girls and boys were made differently. He responded, "I want to see". That was the end of shared bathroom time. Now that they are teenagers, yelling through the door seems to be the thing to do.