Monday, April 20, 2009

Dining In?

When you're the parent of a 4.5 year old and a potty-training 2-year
old, you don't eat out at restaurants. You eat at restrooms. I see the
ladies room of every establishment that we visit, often several times in
the course of one dinner. My husband spends an equal amount of time in
the mens room.

Trystan is, despite the odds associated with his bowel issues, potty
training. And doing a bang-up job of it. Wait, he's a boy...he does a
bang-up job of everything. Bang up, throw down, crash smash roar. The
joys of the Y-chromosome. But back to the subject of the potty.

My son could be tinkle-trained. I say "could" be because he doesn't
really like going potty at home. Just out in public. Maybe I should
install auto-flushers on our toilets at home. But out and about, he will
stay dry and ask to use the potty for hours at a time--usually right up
until he takes a nap or is strapped into his carseat for too long. He
even occasionally poops on the potty, though he frequently stops mid-way
and finishes later in his diaper. It remains to be seen whether that
behavior is normal toddlerism or if there are any secondary issues for
the doctors to ponder. He's not even 25 months yet, so he's way ahead
of the potty training curve, and it could be a year or more before we
have a good handle on whether he's got full control or is just stubborn.
Like his sister was.

In the mean time, I hope he can figure out the tinkle-thing. Seriously,
he should not need to pee every 15 minutes, should he? I suspect at
least half of the potty requests are caused by boredom, because when
you're 2 you really don't care to linger over drinks and discuss
politics. But he squeezes at least a few drops out every time (often
much more), so its hard to fault him for asking.

Maybe I should start a new restaurant rating service--based on the
comfort, cleanliness, and attractiveness of their restrooms. Goodness
knows I spend enough time there to notice those sorts of things.

2 comments:

Bethany said...

My grandmother rates restaurants by the cleanliness of their bathrooms. She has always said that there is a connection between the dedication to the cleanliness of bathrooms and the cleanliness of their kitchens. Who knows if she's right, but sounds good enough to me. So, you should know if your restaurant's kitchen is clean I guess, and at least that's something.

Amanda said...

When I tried to potty train my boy at a little over 2, I started him on the potty chair and figured I'd take him every 10 minutes to try again after going. He didn't make it 5 without wetting all over the floor (I'd put him in underwear hoping that would help) Needless to say, he wasn't completely trained until after 3 years old. So 15 minutes is good at his age according to my experience :)