So this was not one of my finest parenting moments. What makes it worse is that it happened in front of some good friends who recently witnessed another one of my “Mother of the Year” moments just a few months ago. I have to say, though, it was pretty funny…
While on vacation at my parents’ house, we were invited over to the home of some very close family friends, Nick and Tina. We’ve known Nick for over twenty-five years, and he recently visited us when vacationing in Alaska last summer. Nick and Tina invited us over for dessert and to give the kids Christmas presents.
Now, that day had been an especially rough one for LB – total tantrum city. In fact, he was so unbearable to deal with that my mom and I had all but decided that he was going to stay home with her. In the last hour or so before we were to leave he calmed down, and I changed my mind and decided to let him go. I think the last minute decision contributed to what happened after. LB is nearly potty trained, but I still usually make sure he uses the bathroom before we go anywhere, bring a potty seat and extra clothes, etc. For some reason, I didn’t do any of this before we left for Nick’s – I think because I wasn’t planning on taking him with us until the last minute.
So, the kids are having fun playing at Nick's, and suddenly I hear, “Mama, I have to go potty!!” I realize I don’t have the potty seat, but decide that we’ll figure it out when we get to the bathroom. However, the Boy Who Never Has Accidents didn’t tell me about his potty urges until he had already wet his pants. So here I was, away from home, with a wet kid, no clean clothes, no pull-up, and no potty seat. He wouldn’t go standing up into the potty, he wouldn’t let me hold him, and it was a mess, but I figured the worst was over, since his pants were soaked. Really, how much more could be in there?
We took everything off of him and Nick brought me a t-shirt of his, which I turned upside down and had LB step into it, with his legs through the arm holes. Then I gathered up the sides and safety pinned it so it would stay up. He looked absolutely ridiculous, but at least he wasn’t naked. Phew. We’re ok now, right??
Wrong. About 15 minutes later, I hear, “Mama, I have to go potty AGAIN!” LB was standing there with the t-shirt SOAKED!! What is the deal? This kid has been dry for months! Also, where was all this pee coming from? Off comes the t-shirt, and we head back to the bathroom, where I remember the trick another mom told me once where you can have the child sit backwards on the potty (it really only works for boys), and hold onto the back of the tank, and go into the potty. This worked, thank heavens, but then we had to borrow another t-shirt from Uncle Nick. This one was a little bigger, so I had to pin it over his shoulders like a toga. ;-)
Needless to say, never again will I leave the house without the potty seat, a change of clothes, and a pull-up, even if it’s just to the grocery store and back.
Nick was a good sport about this; no, a GREAT sport. When we saw him a week later for our New Year’s Eve party, I had a special present for him – a new t-shirt, which I had decorated with a homemade iron-on that said, “In the event of a potty emergency, this shirt may be used as pants.” We all had a good laugh! As a mother, it was either laugh or cry, really.
At the beginning of this story, I alluded to a previous poor parenting episode…when Nick and Tina came to visit last summer, we went to pick them up for dinner from their RV site, and after a ton of errands, I didn’t realize that LB had leaked through his pull-up. We ran home and Hubby grabbed a pair of pants out of LB’s drawer so we could change him on the way to the restaurant, not realizing they were a size or two too big (we had bought them to fit over LB’s cast when he broke his foot earlier in the summer). After dinner we went to walk around a local scenic point, and LB’s pants would not stay up. He would take two or three steps, and his pants would end up around his ankles. He’d yank them up, then they’d fall down again. I remember Nick and I laughing our heads off and humming, “Pants on the Ground,” though I was internally mortified that I had a) let my kid leak through his diaper and b) couldn’t dress him appropriately. The crowning moment was when he ran past a group of visiting Korean nuns with his pants down around his ankles.
Ironically, I babysat Nick’s kids for four years when I was in junior high and high school. I’m sure now he’s marveling that they survived my care!
Check out the pictures below. They are worth far more than a thousand words…especially once LB is old enough to bring girls home. J
1 comments:
Oh, my goodness, Susan! I think you did a marvelous job! I would've turned around, gathered the kids and would have made our visit so short it would've been miserable for all of us! You, at least, gave it your all and made lemonade out of your lemon!!! And, I totally get the 'laugh or cry' moments .... I have those too! It's nice to know I'm not the only one! :) You are a fabulous mother!! - and those kids are blessed to call you 'Mom'!!
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