Peeing in the Trunk

Monday, November 1, 2010

After what I saw in the Target parking lot yesterday, I'm wondering if I missed something in the potty training books or if this is a new trend in getting little ones out of diapers. 

As I was walking to my car, I noticed a little girl sitting in the back of a really big SUV. She was reading a book. The woman I'm assuming was her mother was unloading her cart into the other side of the trunk. I did a doubletake because the little girl wasn't sitting back there just because, she was on the potty.
Huh?

I don't remember any of the books telling me I had to tote a potty with me everywhere I went. Even if they did, I'm not sure I would have. Those little potties are horrid! They're hard to clean, they absorb the pee smell and emptying them out was never easy. It was hard enough dealing with them in my bathroom, let alone having one sloshing all over the trunk of my car. *dry heaves*

This chair is sold all over online. I guess I am really out of the loop.
I get that public bathrooms are gross. I remember hearing someone giggle after I told Tyler to please try to keep his boy parts from touching the toilet rim. And having to hold them under the arms while they poop so they don't fall in is a pain.* In my opinion, the choice between having my kid pee in my trunk or going back into the store is a no brainer. It seems much easier than having to dispose of a bag of pee after a day of errands.

Am I alone in this? Is having a literal porta potty the new way to do things? Did you have one? Would you?

*The folding potty seat with handles was a lifesaver!!

12 comments:

  1. I have seen this too and I think it is ridiculous. I'm not a fan of those potties to start with--I have the same reaction as you. My kids had the potty seat that fits on the regular potty--I was all about the flushing!

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  2. Potty training was traumatic for me and I would have been happy for J. to squat in the middle of Target if she'd been willing to use the little travel potty I got her.

    But she wouldn't. Not even once. Not even when desperate. She also wouldn't get near potty seats. It was either the diaper or the grown-up toilet. So for a long time it was the diaper.

    But when it wasn't anymore, I was really happy I'd never had to clean one of those travelers. Not even once. :)

    And yes, it does skeeve me out a bit to see kids pooping in the back of SUVs. :)

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  3. After having to pull over in a neighborhood to let my daughter pee on a strip of grass (she was 3 and was going to pee in her carseat if I didn't get her OUT OF THE CAR), I considered getting one of these! I opted not to, but I can see how it would come in handy for some situations. Though a real potty would still out rank a portable one- the whole Target parking lot thing is ridiculous.

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  4. Gross. I think it just trains them to only pee on these little toilets. My son never used one of those plastic potties. He always used the adult toilet.

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  5. I hate those darn little toilets. I never got the girls one. I want everything that comes out of their bodies FLUSHED down a real toilet.

    I think what you saw is the product of an "anal" mother.

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  6. alright, I'm embarrassed to say that I toted a potty with us when I was potty training my twins.

    I only did it for about a week, and I think we only used it (maybe) twice? But it was a god send! One of my twins would hold it. He would hold it for 8 hours. He couldn't muster up a pee when we were in the bathrooms. And once he decided he needed to go...he needed to go RIGHT NOW. There was no getting him back to a bathroom.

    Yes, it was weird carrying a pot around. It was a PIA. But PTing 2 at a time, you figure it out!

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  7. @Sam - Maybe I just needed a bigger SUV. :D

    @Laurel - MAYBE if we were going on a long car trip I'd have considered it.

    @AngryJulie - With a boy, I can only imagine how many times he'd miss or spray before he sat all the way down and then my car would smell like stale, baked pee.

    @SanDiegoMomma - snicker

    @Rhea - Training twins would be a little different. I'll give you a hall pass on that. :D

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  8. I don't much care how people see to their kid's potty training - never having had to do this for a kid, I am not sure what I might have resorted to so I can't throw stones - I do suspect I would have ended up going with what was easiest, no matter how lofty were my starting standards. I am wondering, though, exactly what you think your son will pick up if his boy parts touched the edge of a public toilet. I am sure you are far too enlightened to believe that people pick up STDs from toilet seats, so...? I agree it is not esthetically pleasing, but, really what harm? There is mounting evidence that asthma and allergies are partially increased, if not caused, by hyper-cleanliness and lack of a healthy degree of exposure to the germs in the everyday environment. I do know that I have been able to live in other parts of the world with no ill effects where there was much lower concern with hygiene in local cooking/bathrooms/everything-else. With the supersensitivity to dirty toilet seats, I am curious when I find there seems to be equal distaste in Americans for finding themselves in cultures which use the far more hygienic squat toilets.

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  9. Words cannot even describe what I think of those things. I really wasn't even a big fan of the mini-potty things for potty training. I cannot see myself ever using something like this, it seems awkward and WAY too much extra work. "having to dispose of a bag of pee after a day of errands" Hilarious! and also...yuck LOL

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  10. @David - No, I wasn't worried about STD's. I had a hard enough time dealing with my own son's bodily fluids. I didn't want to see him dropping his boy parts into some other person's leftovers on the toilet seat. Eewww! :D

    @Lua - All kids should be born knowing how to use the adult toilet. :D

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  11. I'm cracking up. I REFUSE to get one of the "travel potties" even tho I have two toddlers. I even just pulled into an in n out burger last week on my way to a blogger even b/c the two year old announced she HAD to go. I feel that I will have have earned some award or something once we get through this time WITHOUT one of those travel potties, heh.

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  12. I came across this blog while searching for "travel potty". When I had a boy I never used potty chairs, but now with my 2 yr old daughter we use it a lot. We are in week one of training, she goes every 10 minutes. If I'm taking my son to school and she has to pee, I'm not pulling over and telling her to pee on a tree (like i did with my son). When we're at home she can either use a big toilet or her potty seat- it's up to her.

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