Big thread on parkslopeparents recently about the permissibility of children peeing in the park. There are those who said, “Uh-uh, no way, under no circumstances,” and those who said, “A-Ok, peeing outside is fun,” and those who thought it was tolerable in cases of potty training emergencies.
I fall staunchly in the last category. Do I want to watch a kid drop trou and piss in the middle of a picnic area while I’m eating a sandwich? No. But I don’t blink an eye if I catch sight of a toddler or preschooler peeing behind a bush or next to a tree off the beaten path. I’m constantly dodging piles of dog shit on the sidewalks here and I think if I have to do that, then I’m entitled to let my not-fully-potty-trained-child relieve himself near a tree rather than wet his pants when he’s somewhere far from a bathroom/
But the thread did remind me of one time, a month or two ago, when I was in my local playground with Seconda.
We’d recently come back from a trip to Tennessee, where the backyard is literally a forest, and where Sec made a habit of letting herself out through the doggie door and peeing outside, just like the doggies.
I discovered she was doing this one day because she came up to me and said, “Mommy, I did pee-pee!”
I said, “That’s great honey, did you use the potty?”
And she said, “No, I went out to the woods.”
“Oh, OK,” I said, “But where are your panties?”
“As a matter of fact,” she replied, “they are in the woods and they are all wet.”
When we came back to
“Sec!” I yelled, “What are you DOING?”
“I’m peeing in the woods,” she replied.
It was an honest mistake. Could’ve happened to anyone.
Where do you stand on the pee-in-the-park debate -- sometimes, always or maybe? Have you allowed your little one some license when it comes to emergencies?
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