The Discovery of The Potty

Raising children has many milestones.  Rolling over, the first smile, giggling, crawling, the first tooth, and walking.  The list is endless, however, all will agree that the discovery of the potty is huge.  To be clear, I’m not saying the “use” of the potty, but rather, the “discovery” of the potty.  Sure, eventually all children will be potty trained in their own time, but it is their discovery of this magical device and their creative uses of it that make me smile.

We lived in a three level apartment complex.  With two young children, we chose a bottom level apartment to expedite the going in and out of everyday.  We were also the only family with children and we hoped to keep the pitter patter of little feet to ourselves.  Our neighbors above were very nice, and they loved and admired our two darling daughters.  I remember the afternoon when everyone’s plumbing backed up.  Both apartments directly above us could not use their toilets.  And sure enough, ours was not working either.   It was fairly obvious that the problem was something in this vertical array of three homes.  Discussion began of our calling a plumber, but was quickly thwarted by the fact that neither of us could afford a plumber.  This discussion was quickly back on the table as soon as someone needed to use the bathroom.  An agreement was made that depending upon what was found causing the obstruction… this would determine who was paying the bill.  Everyone agreed, including me, knowing that I certainly had not done anything to warrant a full scale three story blockage.  As we stood to see the plumber’s verdict, all eyes were upon me as he held up small plastic figurines of Grover, Big Bird, Bert and Ernie. Later, and $125 poorer, it was in fact, me that caused the blockage.  I had given birth to children.  Children who had “discovered” the potty. 

I am participating in a campaign for Bucks2Blog about plumbing repair and was compensated.  However, the views and opinions are my own.