Our main goal as a parents is to help mold our kids into contributing, responsible members of society with a good value system.
One necessary part of that is teaching them to notice when they need to use the restroom on their own.
Well, there has been numerous times where one of the kids insisted that they didn’t have to use the bathroom when we stopped traveling, only to announce that they needed to 15 minutes later.
As the old saying goes: “fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.”
Now we have mandatory bathroom time when traveling. However, it is still up to them what they choose to do in the time – #1 or #2.
“Shitcident”
Before I go on I should explain a term Kristi and I coined when we lived in Sarasota.
The term is “Shitcident. If you haven’t figured it out, it basically means “shit incident.” Yet it is far easier to say when you are in THAT predicament.
…Go ahead and say it out loud. It rolls off the tongue.
Mind you, at that time we had a new born and another we were potty training.
There was a period when shitcidents were a semi-common occurrence, and we needed a flawless way of communicating quickly so the other could spring to action, call for backup, whatever.
Much the same reason K-9s are trained with German commands that are unmistakable, or pilots use specific language to communicate with air traffic control.
More stories on that later…
The shitcident in the park
We pulled into the park and all went to the restroom.
Waited in line to get the right equipment, tickets and maps.
Arrived to our destination in the massive park and walked a half mile in knee deep sand only to have one of the kids (who will remain nameless) say they need to go #2.
“Why didn’t you go at the main entrance?”
“I don’t know. I forgot. I gotta go now.”
“We just got here AND you just went to the bathroom.”
Being the good parents we are: “Well, we are not waking all the way back, driving back to the park entrance, then waiting in line again at the main gate and paying again to get back in because your forgot.”
Their reply in desperation: “I think there was a bathroom back there.”
“No there wasn’t. I didn’t see one. Figure it out.”
Finally, after much hemming and hawing (and crouching) that child decided to dig a hole and go behind a cactus flower and a large bolder.
Before you freak out, they cleaned up after themselves. We didn’t pollute. Plus dogs poop in the park all the time.
But it was necessary for them to learn a valuable lesson. Choose to use the restroom when you have one available.
Turns out there was a restroom next to the parking lot we were in. Kristi and I didn’t see it.
Choose to use
“Choose to use” – that is our new family slogan. If there is a restroom available, you are going to use it whether you want to or not…