Trips to the loos, now there’s a whole adventure in itself! When you’re out and about a trip to the toilets with four little ones is certainly a mission. And why is it that kids always seem to want to make it as hard work and complicated for you as possible? When we were away camping at the weekend a friend actually commented to me that I do get to know the toilets quite intimately anywhere we go, and that is a very true observation. It would help if they would all learn to go at the same time! But no, you just get back from taking one and another one decides that they want to go! I seem to spend my life trekking to and from various toilet facilities!!
In one instance, we had all been out for the day, and, on arriving back at the campsite Rob drove the car to the toilet block (our tent was a fair walk from the toilets – a walk that I was becoming increasingly familiar with!) so that everyone who needed to go could go! Abbie and her friend (who was travelling in our car) leapt out and dashed into the loos. Millie (who, when we had got back into the car from our day out had said that she needed a wee) was now adamant that she didn’t need to go. We tried our gentle powers of persuasion, but no amount of “Go on Mil, you said you needed to go, we’re right outside the toilets...” would convince her to budge out of the car. As she is now getting worked up and cross shouting “I DON’T NEED THE TOILET!” at the top of her voice, we decide to leave it, and we all head back over to the tent in the car (as I too, am getting steadily crosser, saying “You had better not want to go the minute we get back to the tent!”). Of course it is inevitable that two minutes after arriving back at the tent, Millie needs to go to the toilet and doesn’t want to go on her own! (I bet you saw that one coming, I certainly did!!) Fortunately for her Rob had more patience with her than me (in this instance!) and he duly made the trek back to the toilets! I’m ashamed to say that on this occasion, all I could do was hiss “We’ve just BEEN there! You SAID that you DIDN’T need to go!” at her through my teeth!!
Then there was the trip to the toilets in Stratford. Rob had gone back to the car to load the buggy and I had taken the four girls to the toilet (anyone else thinking ‘short straw’?) We get into the toilets, with tiny cubicles that you can hardly breathe in, and I just about manage to squeeze in with Hannah and get her on the toilet, Abbie is loitering in the cubicle doorway, she doesn’t want to go on in one on her own, she wants to go on this one after Hannah. I then realise that Millie and Georgia are no longer in the toilets, worried that they might try to head through the car park to find Rob, and they don’t even know where the car is parked I make the decision to leave Hannah sat on the toilet, shout “Stay there!” at Abbie and run out of the toilets in search of the missing two, sure enough I spot them ambling in the wrong direction, fortunately back along the path we came on and not across the car park. I run after them, acutely aware that I have left Hannah perched in a public toilet waiting for me to wipe her bottom. I retrieve the missing two, and under much protest they agree to come back with me (just while I rescue Hannah girls, please, then I’ll take you to the car!) And I get a number of bemused looks from the other toilet users as I burst back into the toilets, dragging two protesting children (Millie keeps saying, “but we will look for cars, Mummy!”) and return to my other children, one of whom is sat on the toilet with the door wide open shouting “wipe my bottom, Mummy!” Even the most straight forward things in life like going to the toilet can be made into a whole complicated task when you add a few kids into the equation.........
Then there was the trip to the toilets in Stratford. Rob had gone back to the car to load the buggy and I had taken the four girls to the toilet (anyone else thinking ‘short straw’?) We get into the toilets, with tiny cubicles that you can hardly breathe in, and I just about manage to squeeze in with Hannah and get her on the toilet, Abbie is loitering in the cubicle doorway, she doesn’t want to go on in one on her own, she wants to go on this one after Hannah. I then realise that Millie and Georgia are no longer in the toilets, worried that they might try to head through the car park to find Rob, and they don’t even know where the car is parked I make the decision to leave Hannah sat on the toilet, shout “Stay there!” at Abbie and run out of the toilets in search of the missing two, sure enough I spot them ambling in the wrong direction, fortunately back along the path we came on and not across the car park. I run after them, acutely aware that I have left Hannah perched in a public toilet waiting for me to wipe her bottom. I retrieve the missing two, and under much protest they agree to come back with me (just while I rescue Hannah girls, please, then I’ll take you to the car!) And I get a number of bemused looks from the other toilet users as I burst back into the toilets, dragging two protesting children (Millie keeps saying, “but we will look for cars, Mummy!”) and return to my other children, one of whom is sat on the toilet with the door wide open shouting “wipe my bottom, Mummy!” Even the most straight forward things in life like going to the toilet can be made into a whole complicated task when you add a few kids into the equation.........
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