TEACHING CHILDREN TO GO TO THE BATHROOM OUTSIDE

Getting your children to put their poop and pee in the potty as opposed to their pants is only the first step in toilet training. Another important aspect is teaching them to do it in the great outdoors where there are no toilets and that's what this video is about.

CHANGING ALL THOSE DIAPERS WOULD BE A PRIVILEGE

Though I do not agree with most of what feminism says or the LGBT agenda, this post points to something important. Men have a desire to care for children, including changing diapers, just as women do. The degree of feeling surrounding it as compared to a woman is debatable, but it is in men nonetheless.

Growing up, the predominate feeling was that all men or boys who wanted to babysit, go into ECE or otherwise care for children were pedophiles. This article shows that, though we have largely gotten past this thinking, it still persists to a great extent in our society.

Fortunately, there was one notable woman who was an exception to this thinking whom I had in my life as a child. I had one babysitter who had a son who was a little stubborn to toilet train and a baby daughter who came along during the time when her mother was sitting my sister and me. She would tell me about her son's toilet training struggles when I asked about them and she let me help with changing her daughter, throwing away the old diaper and getting a new one.

Thank you, woman whose name I of course won't mention here. Helping make your daughter dry and comfortable again was a true privilege.

I HOPE THEY'RE DISCRETE ABOUT IT

One important component of toilet training is learning to go when there's no toilet around. This is something the writer of this post seems to have mastered and I'm glad she taught her daughter as well.

WHEN ROLES ARE REVERSED

A couple articles about that time in your life when you become the parent to your parents.

First, a woman recounts visiting, and changing, her mother.

Second, a woman truly makes a sacrifice to ensure her mom has the best brand of pull on adult diaper for her needs.

EARLY POTTY TRAINING ELIMINATION COMMUNICATION

This video is great, from an information standpoint as well as in other ways. Her frankness and openness, especially as a Christian girl, is quite refreshing.

She has a lot of other stuff, both on Youtube and other parts of the web that's worth looking at so check that out, too.

CHANGING POOPY DIAPERS IN THE NAME OF JESUS

This post hits it right on the head. The greatest thing for a person is not to be made much of, but to make much of others and, more importantly, God.

POTTY TALK IN CHRISTIAN MEDIA

First, let me preface this by telling you I didn’t grow up in the church.

However, the Christians (and unbelievers, but they don’t concern this post) I grew up around were rather prudish about everything that happened below the waist, and that included going to the bathroom. I also found this attitude in the Baptist church in which I wasted 14 years, from age 17 to 31 (although of course time is never truly wasted when one is in the Lord.) That’s why I find it noteworthy when ever there is a candid mention of diapering, toilet training or going to the bathroom in Christian media, music and literature being included in the term media. Below are the mentions I have encountered which I find noteworthy. Quotations are not exact as I’m doing this from memory and it’s obviously more trouble than good to find all the books, articles, etc.

In the children’s fiction series of books about Teddy Jo, Teddy Jo’s brother, Paul, has a problem with wetting his pants. I have never found going to the bathroom to feature at any kind of length in any other Christian fiction I have read.

In Ethel Barrett’s book, “Will The Real Phoney Please Stand Up”, she has a line that goes something like, “There you were with your stomach full and your diaper dry.”

I heard an interview with Shelly Lewben a couple years ago in which she said, “My first job for the Lord was changing poopy diapers.” This stuck with me not only because of Lewben’s candor but because she recognized that whatever we do, even changing a baby’s diaper, we do it to God’s service.

Around the same time I heard an interview with Cindy Bultema, a woman who’d written a book called “Red Hot Faith.” She mentioned that, at one time, she had three children in diapers. Again, it stuck out to me because it wasn’t something I’d heard Christian women bring up before.

A local Christian singer has a song about winter in which her young daughter says, “Mom, I have to pee.” After getting her snowsuit on. I remember an incident with some so-called Christian playmates of mine where a girl used the word “pee” and the others reacted to it as if she’d said a swear word.

An article from ten years ago about Christian youth organizations playing fast and loose with statistics compared the sloppy analysis to “saying that in ten years all children born this year will be wearing diapers because right now they all wear diapers.”

In one of his books, Frank Viola has a chapter on discipling new believers. He mentions one of the metaphorical tasks of bringing up baby Christians is to “change the diapers.”

Of course, the most famous example is probably the pants wetting story, which is used as an analogy about humility, service to others, or something. For those unfamiliar with this story, here goes:

A girl, ostensibly 10 years old, is going to a friend’s house after school to play. She has to use the bathroom before she leaves school but doesn’t because she figures she can make it to her friend’s house and use the bathroom there. As she and her friend continue on their journey, the girl’s need increases until, by the time they reach the friend’s house, the girl is desperate. To her horror, the door to the friend’s house is locked and the friend forgot her key at school. The two girls repair to the backyard where the friend proceeds to turn on the hose so they can play in the water on a nice warm day. The sight of the water gushing forth from the hose causes the girl to loose control and empty the full contents of her bladder into her pants. Noticing, the friend sprays the girl’s crotch with the hose, then sprays her crotch with the hose. When the friend’s father gets home, he believes both girls have merely gotten wet because of the water.

Though I admire the candour of this story, too, I do have a couple problems with this tale.

First, what about the smell? Spraying the friend might explain the wetness but you would still be able to smell the pee.

Second, what about the friend? Mightn’t she have made the same mistake as well, thinking she could go once she got in the house and not realizing she left her key until she reached her front door? Even if she went before she left school, might the friend not have to go again between the time she left school and the time the father returned from work?

Of notable exception to this up-tightness about bodily functions is the UK. I have been reading a lot more Christian literature from Britain in recent years and there seem to be more frequent mentions of things like changing diapers and the potty.