"How many cares one loses when one decides not to be something, but to be someone."
-- Coco Chanel

Sunday, April 11, 2010

When you were single, did you ever think Peeing would be a topic of conversation with your friends?

This is the question: Can a parent get arrested  if their child is peeing in a public park?  Does it count as indecent exposure if the bare butt in question belongs to a two year old?  

Potty training...no one ever said it was going to be easy.  

Let me start at the beginning.  After receiving unsolicited advice from a complete stranger, (just why this woman decided to stop me in the middle of my ice cream cone when my daughter was only a year old to tell me this, I will never know...maybe it goes back to the theory that everyone in my Mom's generation swear that we were all potty trained by the time we were only one.),  I went to the toy store and bought a bath dolly as directed. 

Up until this moment, my wee one would sit on her potty seat to read a book, wear her potty seat cushion on her head or stuff her "babies" in the hole, but the actual peeing in the potty seat was still on the back burner.  After getting this bath dolly, I have to admit, things did get better.  My wee one would take a bath with "Bubbles"  who would fill up with water and after the bath we would sit Bubbles on the potty and squeeze her tummy to make her pee.  Soon my daughter got the idea and the potty training officially started.  After that, other than the middle of the night wake up to "Mommy,  Pee-Pee!", the rest was down hill.  Or so I thought.

At 22 months she began to wear big girl panties.  Which brings me to the fun part.  Every day we take our 3.5 mile walk and go to the park.  After this hour walk, my daughter inevitably has to pee.  So being the supportive Mommy I am, not to mention the desire to not go back to the use of diapers, I would find a big tree at the park in a discreet area and whip down her panties and hold her up so she could pee in nature the same way our ancestors did.  This, she mastered in no time.  Unfortunately, instead of this being used for only emergency pee-pee needs, this became something that my daughter actually looked forward to.  On more than one occasion she has run over to a tree and stripped naked before I could get my fortysomething legs to catch up with her.  Okay, so a bit embarrassing, but I can look at the strangers at the park and smile and tell them that she is only two so it is cute, right?

Until last week when we did our normal walk, our normal request to pee pee, me whipping down her pants and instead of the tinkle that I normally hear hitting the grass, I heard a THUD.  Oh sh*t.  Now THAT is not cute.  Thank goodness I did have a baggie with me in the stroller and just like any good dog owner, I did the poop-n-scoop.  So this is a my next question...can a person get arrested if their child defecates in a public park?  If so, I am going to start saving my bail money now.  

2 comments:

  1. Wow FortySomething Mom,
    Being the anal researcher I am, I found the Califoria Pee-nal code for you.
    S
    ec. 46-319. - Urinating or defecating in public.

    No person shall urinate or defecate on private property in an area exposed to public view or on any public property, including but not limited to streets, sidewalks, alleys, parks or other public places, except in a public restroom.

    Looks like you and your wee-wee one are in a pile of doo doo. Best to make her hold it in the future.

    Signed,

    Peeing on a tree is not for me or my family in Tacoma

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  2. That is sooooo funny! I thought I had gone through it all but that is a new one for the books!! I do see why this might be a "butting" problem considering the joy and freedom felt by the offender contrasting to the panic and legal issues effecting mom. Please keep us informed of the outcome.

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