“NO, MOMMY!” My preschooler had dug in his heels and was refusing to budge. “I can’t go in there!”
We’d just pulled off the turnpike into a gas station/convenience store because I desperately had to pee. And the “there” into which I was trying unsuccessfully to coax (okay, drag) my son was the Women’s Room. Though, shifting from foot to foot, with thighs clenched tight is hardly what you’d call negotiating from a position of strength.
“Maaaah-meeee –” my boy protested, exasperated.
“What is it?!?” I demanded, trying to tug him forward and vowing that I’d be more diligent about doing my daily Kegel exercises from now on.
“I can’t go in there,” he protested, eyeing me as if I were quite possibly the densest adult he’d encountered in all of his four-plus world-weary years. “I’M. A. BOY!”
Argh!!! Just when you think you’d cleared every possible hurdle in the particular parenting endurance test known as Potty Training, you run smack into yet another wholly unforeseen obstacle: the preschooler’s stark understanding of gender identity as it pertains to the loo. Which is to say, boys go in the Boys Room — not in the Girls Room.
To read more, please click here and follow me over to HealthBistro at Lifescript where I’m guest blogging today and the second Friday of every month about my late-in-life parenting adventures.
And what about you? Has your kid ever refused to accompany you into the gender-appropriate bathroom? Please leave a comment after the post and tell me all about it.
And while you’re at Lifescript, take a look around. You’ll find tons of great health info for women there.
photo credit: DSGpro
It’s a working mom’s cliché, being envious of the nanny. But really … can you blame me? Not only is my nanny younger and thinner and a bit more ballsy, but she actually she gets paid to drive my car, swim in my pool and play Candy Land all day with my kid. Where can I get a job like that? 
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