As a mother of three, I feel like every time we go out in public I spend a great percentage of the time in the bathroom. No, I don’t mean for myself. It doesn’t matter that we make the kids try to go potty before we leave the house, or that they had just gone at the last store we were at. There is always at least one child that absolutely must go to the bathroom, and take their sweet time. Public pottying with children comes in stages:
Stage 1: Babies in diapers present an entire bathroom problem of their own. This is the stage when you realize that you frequent stores and restaurants that DO NOT have baby changing tables in the restroom.
Stage 2: Toddlers in Pullups are an interesting challenge. Sometimes they let you know they need to go to the bathroom, and you’re so excited that you don’t mind your steak is getting cold. Other times, they don’t tell you, and you are stuck trying to figure out how to get them changed when they refuse to lay down on a changing table that they barely fit on anyway.
Stage 3: Once fully potty trained, a young child is obligated to visit every single public restroom within throwing distance. Every. Single. One.
Stage 4: The widely-traveled tot decides they don’t want you coming in the stall with them anymore. This leaves you standing outside the stall and wondering just what the hell is going on in there that takes so long.
So new parents beware! Ditching the diapers is only a gateway into future bathroom hell.
photo courtesty of freedigitalphotos.net, by nuttakit
Ashley O'Melia, Author 
I just had this discussion the other day when we were discussing our grandchildren and their love of bathroom visits when in restaurants and shopping centres. And then we remembered our Tween who had to visit every toilet in every building we ever visited. Not sure what the attraction is but there must be a gene built into them at birth.
What I find so amusing about my kids being crazy about the bathroom, is that I was terrified of public restrooms when I was a kid! There was something about using a toilet that a stranger had been on that I just couldn’t stand. I’ve learned to get over it, of course. 🙂
I’m smiling reading this. Mine are teens now, but potty training was a HUGE challenge for the first one, and I do not miss those days at all! Now, of course, as I’m hitting menopause, I’m the one who’s rushing off to the loo at all hours.
Lol!