When You Gotta Go

Keira and I went for a bike ride the other morning.  It was intended as my morning exercise.  Doug was home so he could keep the boys while Keira and I rode a while on the trail.  After about 3.5 miles, Keira hollered up to me that she had to go.  I said, "Go where?" to which she replied, "you know ... goooooooo!"  


"Oh.  Okay, so go!"


She was like, "Eeeeuuuuwww!  No way!  Not right here!  We need to go back and see if Trish is home."  Trish is a friend of ours from church who lives just off the trail.  She told me if I ever need to use the facilities or get a drink or anything, just come on up.


Now I'm not one to show up unannounced asking to use someone's bathroom even though she offered, so we opted to go home.  Even with all my coaxing and convincing, watching to make sure no one was coming, she couldn't pee out there in the woods.


Really?  Sometimes I question that she's even my daughter.  :)


You see, I grew up on a 57-acre farm.  We would leave the house in the morning and my mom wouldn't see us the rest of the day unless we got hungry.  If you had to pee, you just went.  Wherever you were ... in the barn, out in a field, wherever.  Yeah, even the girls.  It was no big deal.


Then when I was a teenager, I used to go to beer parties (this was back in my previous life - before Christ came into my life and saved me from myself - although I didn't drink beer - don't like it, usually  just pop).  Anyway, sometimes the parties were out in the woods somewhere.  No bathrooms were there.  No Port-a-Potties.  If you had to go, you just went.  Behind a car or a tree or wherever.


So we cut our bike ride short and came home so she could pee in a bathroom.  With toilet paper.  And privacy. 


Geez!


Then last night I took the kids up to our church so they could ride their bikes.  We have a gravel driveway and live on a very busy main road, so they can't really ride much here.  Since our church is just up the road about 1/4 mile, we go there.  After we were there a while, she told me we needed to go home.  When I inquired as to why, she told me once again that she had to pee.


Once again, I told her to go ahead and go.  She told me that the church was locked.  


Ugh!  Here we go again!


There's a trail through a field behind the church that is very private.  In fact, we've been walking the trail looking for milkweed to feed our monarch caterpillars.  It is like milkweed heaven back there!  More milkweed than we've found anywhere else.  And, yes, we've also found a few caterpillars which are now living in our newly purchased butterfly house.


Anyway, I told her to go back the trail and pee.  No one was going to see her.  The boys wouldn't bother her.  Alex was swinging and Nick was riding his bike.  She looked at me funny, ran to the car to get a tissue, and ran back the trail.


Success!  She peed outside!  She even threw the tissue away in the nearest trash receptacle. :)  She came walking out of the trail a little embarrassed but feeling much more comfortable.


The boys couldn't understand what the big deal was.  They pee outside all the time.  So I had to explain that it is easier for boys than for girls, without going into much detail as to why.  They are only 7 and 4, after all.


So hopefully we've had a breakthrough.  She's not exactly a "city girl" but she sure does act like one sometimes.  :)  (Not that there's anything wrong with city girls).


Now I'm not encouraging her to drop her pants and go wherever she is.  Obviously it isn't appropriate in many instances.  But when there's no bathroom nearby and you're out in the country with no one around, why not?


Hey, when you gotta go, you gotta go.  Right?

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