You Be the Parent, Potty Training Edition

After an arduous morning at home, you have persuaded your children to get in the stroller and go to the playground.  Minutes after you arrive, your underpants-wearing three year old announces that he has to pee.  There are no restrooms on site.

The playground is a 5-minute walk from your house and is abutted by public woods.  

Do you:

A) Pile everyone back into the stroller and double time it home;

B) Escort your son to a nearby tree (@ 50 feet away from the playground) and encourage him to drop trou;

C) Whip out the portable potty you always have on hand for such an occasion; or

D) Knock on the door of the house closest to the playground that is inhabited by a mother who seemed nice the one time you met her previously.

As always, I eagerly await your reply.

Comments

[VHMPrincess]

B - as long as it is far enough away from the playground that others won't wander into it - and preferably sort of out of sight of everyone - at least shielded by the stroller and the other child.

[Lisa]

Dude, B! /mother of two boys

[victoria]

B- totally, making sure to be out of the line of sight of the playground, and not on a walking path or something.

[rosie]

c is what i do with my potty-training daughter in the city.

[snickollet]

Totally B. My daughter pees at the park all the time. We're not even particularly discreet about it, we just make sure we're well outside the active play area of the park.

[melissa]

C...and my portable potty is usually a almost empty snapple bottle...

[plangirl]

Totally B! The joy of a penis. Not sure I would do that with a little girl if I had to bare all for her, but with the boy, we have made many trips into the woods. We always make sure we are off the path and have some privacy and then we let it fly. I think he now holds it until we go to park so he can pee in the great outdoors.

[Mrs. Sprinkles]

B--I'm not coordinated enough to remember a potty.

[DD]

B.

Isn't that why they plant trees and shrubs in parks?

[Andrea]

We pee behind the tree. Discreetly and hielded from view as much as possible of course.

My son is famous for needing to poop the minute we get to the (bathroomless) park, and there's no way he can keep it in until he gets home. It used to be he couldn't wait at all, and he'd have an accident. I'd whip out the fresh pair of underpants I'd (with luck) brought along and through the whole disgusting poopy pair away.

Now he gets a minute of impending poop warning, and we rush for a plastic bag to poop into and the wipes I have stashed in the car. Still gross, but it's progress. I just have to remember to stock the car or stroller with emergency supplies.

I apologize to anyone who's had to witness any of that; I'll be the first in line to chip in if the neighborhood association ever decides to build a bathroom.

[caramama]

I would want to do C, but there is no way I'd remember a portable potty.

In reality, I would totally do B.

I also like D as an option. Good excuse to make friends.

[Tertia]

Pee behind the tree all the way!

[Summer]

B. Pee on a tree! I always figured that anywhere it was appropriate to let my dog pee, my son could pee.

Unfortunately, I let him pee outside so often -- we did EC, so he was "pottying" from 3 months on -- it took a while to teach him that it's preferable to use a bathroom when one is available. Caught him peeing in our front yard several times... charming.

[Erin]

B!

[rayne]

b, b, b.

[Jennifer]

B. Isn't that the upside to boys?

And dude, you have a portable potty? Am I supposed to know about such a thing?????

[cat, galloping]

B, particularly if there were no witnesses.

[cat, galloping]

(that's one of the best parts about HAVING a boy!)

[cat, galloping]

oh yes, but beware that he may want to do it all the time after that. once we let gatito pee on the side of the road in the bronx and he was begging to do it (nay, insisting he needed to do it) every time we were in the car or outside for months.

[Amy]

C & B. I have a girl so the tree concept doesn't work for her. We tried that once while we were out hiking and the experience traumatized all of us - leading to the purchase of the aforementioned portable potty which goes nearly everywhere with me these days. I do try to be discreet with it, though.

[swampy]

B all the way. Think of learning to pee outside as a life skill kids need. My 3 yo daughter has finally mastered it. Also the art of peeing behind a strategically opened car door onto a grass or dirt parking lot.

[Amy]

Totally B in this case. If I had a car I would whip out C but since you walked there - B all the way. When we just had our oldest child we never carried a portable potty with us. When we started potty training our twins, we traveled with a potty in our van. The Bjorn one piece potty was a life saver for us on many occasions!

[Amywest]

C - With two girls, we always have a portable, foldable potty in a carry bag with us and we have used it as discretely as possible quite a few times.

[perceval]

B, even though I have a girl. being able to pee out of doors is a valuable skill imho

[Emmie (Better Make It A Double)]

B! (tho this is Minnesota, and we do have a potty with a lid in the back of the station wagon for colder months. Nothing to do with modesty, to be perfectly honest) My kids have had the stomach flu exactly ONCE thanks to my relaxed mothering genius....

[Emmie (Better Make It A Double)]

Oh - and after catching them peeing through FUNNELS and trying to stem an AMUSING habit of one boy flipping down the lid while the other is peeing, I am damned tempted to send them outside while we are actually home. My bathroom stinks like a urinal half the time - the other night I did my daily evening wipe-down to stem the stink, and it didn't work. Cleaned the underside of the toilet, still no improvement. The WALLS. I had to clean the WALLS.
God help me.

[Lee]

Totally B.

I think the ability to drop trou like this makes up for the fact that boys are (generally speaking) a bigger pain to potty train.

[Jo-Ann]

Mom of 2 boys

B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B

[Erin]

B--it's very convenient having a boy. The only danger is when they really enjoy it and then want to go outside to pee even when they're at home!

[Heather]

I'd do B if you can go out of plain sight. C is what we used to do for our daughter when she was that age.

[kris]

b for sure.

[caro]

B, even with a girl. Peeing in the great outdoors is an important life skill.

[taquita/toni]

B. Heck that was part of potty training at our house. He particularly liked peeing off the porch. It is good to be a country girl. lol

[Kate]

B! I shlepped one of the tiny Baby Bjorn potties around with me all last summer when Miss M was 3 (she still cannot squat and pee without getting everything wet); next summer when AM is 3 it will be, "Here's a nice tree. Pee on it." Or, at least I hope so. I really want him to be out of diapers by next summer.

[Kira]

B.
'Tis one of the benefits to potty training. I mean, learning to control such things is a major drag and an interruption of play, BUT! You get to pee on trees. Dude.

[toni]

I would totally do B. Although I just recently bought some of these and am looking forward to trying them out. It's a little "box" potty that's totally disposable and biodegradable. And it's small enough to go in a small purse or diaper bag.
http://www.pottyflip.com/Frame_eng.htm

[Heidi]

B. We do it all the time and call it "peeing on the grass." Once my son has expressed a need to pee, he would never make it to any of the other options. I'd do almost anything to avoid the wet pants.

[Jessica]

Not only have I done B with my own daughter, but I had one of her friends do it too while baby sitting. I told them to pretend they were dogs, which was funny at the time. But then I forgot to tell her mother what had transpired, and it didn't translate that well when her three year-old told her at the dinner table!

[jenny]

B. B. B!

[jenny]

p.s. how is this even a question?

[midlife mommy]

Tree, of course -- isn't that one of the benefits of having boys? We do have a portable potty in each car, but we don't take it to the playground.