I should have been prepared...I know better. I'm a veteran mother with a 5-year-old daughter, 3-year-old son, and newborn at home. But, it seems, the older my children get and as our family grows I become less and less prepared.
Case in point, a recent trip I took to Target with my son and newborn daughter. My son had thrown up in the middle of the night but had seemed fine that morning so we went shopping for some odds and ends we needed at home. He had been doing such a great job potty training lately that he had been wearing undies when we were out and about for the past couple of months.
While meandering through the store my son requested to ride in the basket of the cart which should have been my first clue as to what was going to happen. As we are strolling through the toddler section looking for a sweater that he might be able to wear for Christmas, a woman approaches me and says, "Something's leaking from your cart." I look over and see what looks like chocolate malt splattering on the floor under my cart. I'm thinking, "That's funny. All I have in my cart is batteries and my son."
Horror grips me as I move to my son and realize that it is in fact not a chocolate malt but his bowels that have created the puddle on the floor. I freeze and am in panic as I look at him and the mess he has made. The woman says with a smile, "Good luck with that." I do think she was sincere and I did appreciate her bringing the mess to my attention but I wanted to smack her for not offering to find someone to help me clean it up.
So there I stand, in an embarrassed stupor trying to decide what to do. I don't want to leave this puddle of poop in the middle of the floor while I try to find someone to clean it up. I didn't want to drive my cart through the mess and I certainly wasn't going to leave my toddler and newborn in the cart all by themselves. Luckily an employee was nearby that I could holler to for help.
"Um, I'm sorry but my son had an accident." She came over expecting maybe a dropped container of food or maybe wet pants but I could see a little shock cross her face as she eyed the brown puddle on the floor. "Why don't you go get your son cleaned up?"
Thank you! At least I only had to face one person with my complete and utter embarrassment. I hurried my son into the bathroom to try to clean him up. The whole time he's saying things such as, "I pooped. I made a mess. I got poopy on the toilet. Why you throwing my undies away?" as he's touching the femine waste can, toilet seat, and every other disgusting surface in the stall. "Don't touch that. Stand still. Let me clean your butt," were all loud whispers coming out of my mouth. I'm sure anyone else who was in the bathroom got quite an earful.
Luckily the poop came straight up his back and very little got on his pants but I had no pull-up or extra undies in the bag for him. So I pulled out one of my newborn's diapers and cranked that thing around him. Of course it only covered the necessary parts and was about to pop off his butt but it was going to have to do until we got home.
What happened to that first time mother who had a diaper bag stuffed full of a billion diapers, two extra outfits and enough wet wipes to sanitize a whole public restroom? Well, five years later you have a veteran mother who crams as little as possible into a purse so she can free up her hands to comfort a newborn, drag a screaming toddler out of the store if needed while pushing a cart full of groceries. As my children and family have grown, I seem to have lost a little of my type A, super prepared self...which probably isn't so bad until I get caught by a poop spot in the middle of Target.
So lessons, from the day: 1) When your child asks to sit down when they usually can't sit still, ask them if they need to go to the bathroom. 2) Even though your child seems to be potty trained, always bring back up undies (duh!). 3) When your child throws up the night before, chances are he may still have a tummy ache the next day and in the least, put a pull-up on him, and you might want to stay home and sit him on a rubber pad all day. 4) And of course, be nice to employees anywhere you take your child...you never know what they've had to clean up that day :)
