Tuesday, June 03, 2008

My New Mission

I now have a new mission! Jason and I usually don't take the kids out to eat at many restaurants. Time, money, atmosphere, the ages of our children and the quality of food are some of our reasons for eating at home most nights. (Now, I'm not trying to paint a dull picture here. We do eat out more than we ever have with the kids.) With our most resent travel to the Gulf Coast, I found us eating out at more restaurants than we usually do.

I don't know what it is about being out at a restaurant that makes my kids want to visit the restrooms. (I know that I am not alone in this. I am just speaking out for all of the mommies and daddies in the world.) What is with the fascination of seeing (and using) EVERY restroom? On any given trip to a restaurant, Jason and I will take one (if not all 3) kids to the restroom. This does not happen once, twice, three, or even four times, but FIVE times! Five trips is our record for the most trips to the restroom during ONE meal.

I'm not kidding here. The other day on our way home from the beach, we stopped off at McDonald's for some lunch. *If you don't care to read the "potty" details here, then just skip to the next paragraph.* I took Jackson to the restroom to change a dirty diaper. Jason stayed back with the twins. Upon my return, Jason took Joshua to go potty. When Joshua was done, Abby Kate insisted that she needed to go. (Of course, this is after we had already asked her to go when Jason was taking Joshua to the potty.) As soon Jason brought us our food, Abby Kate loudly exclaimed that she needed to poop. So off I went with her to the potty again. As soon as we got back and I started eating my food again, Joshua told us that he needed to poop too!!! That was 5 trips to the nasty McDonald's restroom for our one lousy meal!

It never fails! All of my kids are determined to use the potty (have a diaper changed) at least once! I've tried the "well you'll just have to wait" line and they only insist all the more LOUDLY begging me to take them. So, my new mission is to see if I can visit each restaurant restroom only two times in one meal (I'm trying to be realistic here).

If not that, then I guess that I will embrace the frequent trips to the potty. Who knows, maybe I can beat my previous 5 trips to the restroom with 6 trips!

4 comments:

Amy said...

mine are the same way, they usually go at the same time though so that's a help! while i was reading your post though, ryan came up to tell me he had to go potty...how ironic!! atleast we are at home. :)

Stacy said...

Our rule at home is that Lawson goes potty before a meal. Once he's seated he can't get back up. That's the rule at restaurants too. We RARELY go twice. We usually order then jon takes him. He's asked before and we just don't take him again. He can hold it for a whole movie when he wants to--we figure he can hold it for 20 minutes while we eat. He doesn't usually bug us once we tell him no, b/c if he kept bugging me, I for one WOULD take him back to the potty...and not just to pee, if you know what I mean! :)
I don't know...it works for us. Good luck in your mission to reduce your number of trips!

Stefanie said...

So I am not the only one!!! Trenton and Austin are the same way! Austin is getting better, but Trenton well he is 4. And I guess there is just something about those restaurant bathrooms. And they are always so SLOW.

Jess said...

There you go, that's the way to have a positive attitude! Just wait until Jackson is potty training! Then you may just hit your all time record high!
:)
Love,
Jess