As most of you know we live out in the country and by this I mean way out in the country. Yes, we do have a small little town about 10 miles from us where I often go to get milk and a few other necessities. Shopping in this small town is very expensive so we only do it if we have to. You are probably thinking, "10 miles out that's not all that far." But, in my defense we are 85.6 miles from the nearest Walmart and Target and to me that seems to be "way out in the country". Side note: I do love living out here it just makes for some interesting memories at times.
Now onto the story of bathroom time...
Yesterday, as Josiah woke up I got out of bed and began to get ready for our day in Aberdeen. Aberdeen is the town that the closest Walmart and Target exist in. At 8:45am I had the van packed and Josiah in his car seat and was ready to get on the road. It is always very important for me to get on the road at this time (or close to) because this is about the time Josiah takes his morning nap and when I go to Aberdeen for the day I plan our driving time around the time that Josiah is napping. This means I leave during his morning nap and return during his afternoon nap. At times this makes for a very rushed in and out of each store I need to get to which also makes it not a lot of fun but I get by.
Anyway, back to 8:45am. I climbed in the drivers seat ready to take off and realized I hadn't used my last bathroom trip yet, so I unbuckled my seat belt and ran back in the house to use the bathroom and then got back in the the van and on the road we were. What most people don't understand is that this bathroom time before I leave is my last chance to use the bathroom until I return to our house many hours later. Why? Let me tell you. Not all bathrooms are family friendly. None of this stuff ever occurred to me before having a child but now it becomes a frustration of every trip. The difficulty with the bathrooms is that Josiah is no longer in his infant car seat but is also not able to stand by himself. This would be easy to fix my bathroom struggles if I either had someone else with me or if they had the changing tables in the bathroom stall. Unfortunately for me I usually have neither. So, how does one undo their belt, unbutton, unzip, and pull their pants down all while holding a baby in a small little enclosed space? It gets even harder too when you have already started or finished your shopping in one store and now have all of your purchases with you, which in my case is a full cart load every time since it is such a drive to get to these stores. There have been a few times I have had to do all of this while holding Josiah because of a bathroom emergency that I just couldn't wait another 1 1/2 to use our bathroom at home. Yesterday as we left Aberdeen at 2:00pm sharp (perfect timing for his afternoon nap) I had to use the bathroom but thought I could try and hold it until I made it back home. Just to clear things up right away I did make it home to the bathroom but as we pulled into the drive way I unbuckled my seat belt, parked the van and proceeded to run into the house leaving Josiah and everything else while I used the bathroom.
I'm not sure but I feel like this can't be good for my bladder to be doing this all the time and to be honest since having Josiah my bladder is weaker than ever which makes for a lot of interesting trips to Aberdeen. Any idea's on how to solve this bathroom time problem?
3 comments:
Fun-ny! And, obviously, I can relate, even though we're about five miles closer to Wal-Mart than you! ;) And, like you, totally did not realize all the bathroom "issues" until having a child. It gets more fun, and more cramped in the stall, when there are two children - and just wait till one of them is potty training! I have taken the cart, with no merchandise in it, into the bathroom on one or two occasions. Possible at Shop-ko, not sure about Target or Wal-Mart, though I'm pretty sure Target's bathroom would accomodate such a manuever. And really, who's going to mess with a small-child-toting mother who really needs to pee? I think it was in an airport where I recently saw a little seat attached to the stall wall that you could strap a child into while you did your business. Perhaps we need to petition the Aberdeen stores for such devices.
Hey hey hey! You still have dudes reading this blog! Funny though :-)
I know this is an old post and you don't know me (I am a friend of Heidi's from HS) but I had to tell you that I can definitely sympathize! My town has about 30,000 people so when I need to do any "real" shopping (for clothes or craft supplies or such), I head to a city about an hour away. So it gets awkward to go to the bathroom with my 10 month old.
I do a couple of things. I often make lunch or coffee with a friend a part of my day, and go to the bathroom while the friend is watching my baby for a couple minutes. (Not that I go to lunch with my friend just for this purpose!) Otherwise, I plop my little boy in his stroller and take him into a craft store I know of that has a nice, large clean, one-person bathroom. Alternately, I do the same in larger wheel-chair stalls if I am nowhere near that store.
You are probably past this stage now...but just wanted to share :-).
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