As a mother who spends countless hours each year at soccer practices and games, I’m still amazed at how all of these child-focused activities take place in areas where there is no access to restrooms. At the occasional park where there IS a restroom, I’m terribly suspicious of it. I dread it every time, the child who needs to use the restroom (but who naturally waited to tell me until it was already a crisis) in the middle of a game. Yes, this is one of those silly things that makes me stress, especially with 5 daughters.
Imagine my surprise at my son’s soccer games, to see a port-a-potty standing next to the entrance of the locked up school.
The Honey Bucket label made me laugh, so I had to take a picture.
It’s also a memory because my four year old insisted he didn’t need to use it when we left the game for our hour plus drive home. A quarter of a mile down the road, however, he needed it. We turned around to drive back, and naturally he didn’t make it. Oh, the joys of little boys.
I both love and hate these Honey Buckets. When there’s an emergency, they are most helpful. I have my children use them. But as for me, I can’t stand them. Simply can’t. Even as a child I had this horrible aversion to them. I remember going camping with my family and using the bathroom at home just before we drove away. I would then walk to the car thinking, “I won’t need to go again until we get home.” And I didn’t. Ever. Still don’t.
I remember camping with my husband and children when I was 8 months pregnant. When I had to climb out of the tent in the dead of night and find my way to the outhouse without my contacts in I almost got in the car instead to drive away. (What was I thinking, agreeing to camp in the first place?) There’s nothing like knowing the only option is an outhouse to cure me of the need to go at all. They’re something that I can’t stand the sight of, and yet feel relived to spot.
How would I ever have survived a life without indoor plumbing?
I guess I would have made it just fine, not knowing any other option.
And for the record, I never thought I’d see a beautiful picture featuring port-a-potties, until my sister posted a rainbow on her blog a few weeks ago. Proof positive that beauty lies hidden in unlikely places. Check it out!
And that sums up my random thoughts on a random subject. Yes, I know. Totally random. Oh well.
HH
