OMG... There's Poop on the Floor!

It takes a seasoned parent to even read this, because anyone else would most likely just roll their eyes (or gag) and move on. Unfortunately, poop on the floor actually does happen from time to time... especially during those early "experimental" stages of potty training! I'm actually curious to know how many lucky parents manage to get through this developmental milestone WITHOUT a mis-allocated poo turning up outside the boundaries of toilet or potty? It's almost a rite of passage!

The first time I came across one of these piles occurred in our playroom where I had placed the potty chair while training my older son. The shock, mortification, and guilt I felt stemmed from the fact that I had no idea this was a normal and common occurrence among young potty trainees, and I thought I must have done something terribly wrong to warrent this defecation disaster! By the time it happened with his younger brother a few years later (outside on the porch, of all places!), I was sensitized by enough hair-raising potty training experiences that I shrugged it off like an ill-fitting pamper.

Fortunately the full-blown 'poo pile' happened only once with each of my boys. I'm talking about the 'I have control over this bodily function and I choose to go on the floor not the potty' type of pile. Of course there were other poo skirmishes throughout the potty training process, but those were mostly contained to bathrooms and underwear. Pooping on the floor is a learning experience for children who are contemplating and experimenting with using the potty. Sometimes learning what to do is facilitated by learning what NOT to do! There is a great little children's book called Once Upon a Potty by Alona Frankel (she writes a version for boys and one for girls) that depicts a small child having an accident on the floor right next to the potty. It's one of the things I love about this book - it normalizes many of the uncomfortable truths about potty training, like body parts, sitting forever on the potty without results, regression, and poop on the floor!

Anyway, if it happens to you, don't panic... just have your child help put the offending pile where it belongs and let him or her know that they've ALMOST got it, next time in the potty please!!!