Potty in my Purse: Adventures in the Real World
Miles is getting really close to toilet independence, if you count diapers for nap/bedtime and requested diapers for poop as close. Which I do!
But we were having a hard time when we were out and about because regular toilet seats are huge, gross, and public bathroom flushes are super loud (which terrifies the poor lad).
Enter: a potty in my purse. My friend gave me a really neat, collapsable, padded potty seat that fits over public (or, I guess, household) toilet seats so his little bottom is cushioned and properly supported. This seat has transformed our outings.
I keep it in my “purse” in a plastic grocery store bag, where I also stash his pants and undies if he has an accident. By purse, obviously I mean my Adidas press correspondent backpack from the 2006 Rugby World Cup.
I find it hilarious that this bag used to haul around my writerly supplies and now contains snacks, an epi-pen, Spiderman underpants, and a collapsable potty. I digress.
Before I actually had a potty-learning child, I never thought about how small people use public toilets so obviously ill-designed for them. Who thinks about small people and toilets? Since we’ve begun this initiative, I think about little else. I actually patronize businesses based on their bathroom facilities (accessible bathrooms for pregnant ladies are also essential in my daily routine).
If anyone was curious, the best bathrooms in Pittsburgh for toddlers and for pregnant ladies thus far include:
My Little Outback–actual Miles-sized toilets! (along with big ones)
The Toy Lending Library–step stools and mini seats that flip down from the lid for small bottoms, but fold up for big ones
So far, I haven’t found anywhere else with specifically awesome toilets, but I do appreciate the family bathrooms at Phipps, the Children’s Museum (which at least has step-stools, though why a children’s museum wouldn’t have small toilets boggles me a bit) and the Zoo, since all three of us can go in there together during family outings and I don’t have to worry about finagling a stroller in the handicap stall.
We were also pretty jazzed about the bathrooms when we visited Miles’ school, although we were hard-pressed to find adult-sized toilets there and it was challenging for my pregnant self to rise from the low toilets in the elementary school bathroom.
Corey has sort of been attempting to teach Miles the wonders of the urinal and standing-up-peeing. This has not been going well. Miles was really interested in touching the urinal cakes and without a stepstool, it’s just not practical for him to stand at one of these jobbies. I figure some solid time spent out of doors with older male friends will take care of this learning stage for me.
Lucky for us, this collapsable potty makes every bathroom stall appropriate for Miles (though there’s little we can do about the loud flushing sounds).
Where do you all find the best public bathrooms for potty learning??
Tags: potty learning, pregnant, toilet
March 12th, 2012 at 9:03 pm
At first I read the title a purse in the potty, so after that thinking about a potty seat in a purse doesn’t seem anywhere near as bad.
March 13th, 2012 at 8:11 am
Haha! Thus far, I have actually been pretty lucky about my possessions getting dropped or deliberately placed in the potty…
June 19th, 2012 at 1:55 pm
[...] him up higher because I’m wearing the baby. He doesn’t like to sit to pee anymore so my purse potty is no [...]