Yesterday, over my lunch hour, I ran some quick errands with the boys before dropping them off at the movie with their cousins. One of our last stops was Barnes and Noble where I decided that I needed to use the restroom. Within the last year or so I've relaxed about having to be with the boys at all time in busy public places. So instead of making them wait for me inside the ladies room, I asked them to just wait outside the door by the drinking fountain.

Except yesterday Wyatt also had to use the restroom. He asked if he could use the boys and I gave the okay but only if Henry went with him, which I've let them do in Fred Meyer a few times. Henry didn't want to be his brother's bathroom chaperon so in a quick panic of what's-the-safest-choice, I made Wyatt come with me and left Henry by the drinking fountain.

As the restroom door closed I immediately realized the complete lack of reasoning behind my decision. I had safely kept Wyatt away from all the creepers just waiting around in the Barnes and Noble men's room but I'd left Henry all alone by the drinking fountain directly next to the men's room and with every other stranger in the entire store! If my original goal was to keep them safe by relying on the buddy system, I'd just royally fucked that up and exposed Henry to more nonexistent danger than I was comfortable with!

But really, I was just trying to make it up to Henry after another bathroom incident that happened a week before. Henry and I had a little movie date and after the show let out we both needed to stop by the toilets. It's important to know that we only go to movies at the cheap seats. Now I know this is completely irrational but for some reason the restrooms at the cheap seats seem even creepier than the restrooms at the big full-price movies. So of course I made Henry use the women's restroom with me, which was initially no big deal until Henry exited his stall.

In the few short moments that Henry and I had been in the restroom a wave of girls looking to be his age had descended on the row of oval mirrors directly opposite the stalls! Henry and I proceeded to have a very awkward dance of him wanting to get out, me wanting to help get him out but only after he washed his hands, and me not wanting to let him loose in the lobby while I washed my hands because we were at the cheap seats! It was a cluster, to say the very least.

So what is a mother to do? Are they ready to enter the men's room? Alone? And at any location? I just don't know.



PS: Stephen has not requested that I share this additional bit of information but he would probably like everyone to know that I bought that worthless little toilet in June, did nothing with it after that first afternoon, and then he potty trained the boys without my assistance over the course of about two weeks in December/January. He also thought it was poor judgment to let them piss in the living room even if they were just practicing. I don't know whether I agree with him on that one but he can teach a kid how to pee in a pot and I'll give him that!