Public Toilets Are The Devil

The worst invention within the past 50 years or so just has to be the automatic flushing toilet. What was so wrong with using your leg to kick the handle?

It’s particularly vexing now that I have a four year old. For the past two years, my daughter has been potty trained. She’ll get up, stop what she’s doing, and announce to everyone, “I have to go potty now!” At least that’s the way it went at home.

If we’re out at Walmart or spending a quiet afternoon at the library or otherwise not within the comfort of our own home? Forget about it. She’s not going. We went in the public bathroom for the first time two years ago and the woman in the stall next to us flushed her toilet and nearly sent my daughter up the wall in fright. Ever since then, going to the bathroom in public has been a traumatic experience for her.

So she doesn’t do it.

At all.

Ever.

I tried in vain to get her to use the bathroom in public. I started off by asking nicely. I’d tell her, “This is what big girls do.” I’d demonstrate how to go. That didn’t work.

I moved to bribing. I brought candy. “Look, if you go on the potty, you can have these Skittles! You love Skittles!” Still a no-go.

I started begging. “Please go. I promise it won’t flush and scare you. Please?” I put Post-its on the motion sensor so it wouldn’t flush while she was on it. If she ever sat on it. I put three and four layers of toilet paper on the seat to make her feel more comfortable. I even brought her potty seat from home and kept it in a drawstring backpack that I took everywhere we went. People, we were quickly approaching a Code Four situation.

So how did I finally get her to go? Read the full post over at WhatToExpect.com, where I’m one of the mom bloggers in their Word of Mom project. Check us out!