Conference moira::parenting_v3

    >Public Toilet Fettish
    
    That sounds very familiar....I swear my younger sister knew what
    the inside of every toilet in Greensboro, NC (where we grew up) by
    the time she was 10. ;->
    
    Hamp

    Yup!  My sister did it too...every time our family went to
    a restaurant, she had to check out the "facilities"  I was
    always the one designated to go with her.  
    
    She's 21 now, I'm pretty sure she overcame that fettish!  8-)
    
    Good luck Kristen!  Sorry I don't have any answers for you.
    
    Linda

    RE: .1
    
    Us too.  My mother called my sister and me the FBI - Federal Bathroom
    Inspectors.

    Being a parent of 3 and growing up in a large family myself,...
    I think your child's behavior is absolutely normal and predictable
    for that age.  I remember my younger sister also had a fettish about
    bathrooms... pure curiosity.  In fact she's in her late twenties
    and believe it or not,... she's the first to use the bathroom whenever
    we go to a relative's house, mall, etc.,  
    
    Concerning the duck situation... I'm going through the same thing
    with my 2 year old...suddenly all he talks about is bugs.  In one
    instant he's in a panic ...he'll see lint on the carpet and think
    it's a bug... when you show it to him...he's fine.  Last night he
    started this thing with shadows... he didn't want to go into the
    dinning room as it caused a shadow from the light in the kitchen.
    Now every time he sees any type of shadow he panics.
    
    It's possible that some other children from your daughters daycare
    started talking about ducks...maybe your daughter is also confused.
    You might want to get the encyclopedia out and show her a picture
    of a duck... make them sound pleasant.
    
    It's all normal.
    
    Karen

    Your note gave me a good laugh.  My 2 year old also has to visit every
    bathroom.  But once she's in there we have to discuss every fixture and who
    bought it, where they bought and how much did it cost and so on....
    
    The only place she NEVER has wants to go to bathroom in at her doctors
    office when we are all waiting patiently for a urine sample.
    
    Roberta

    Visiting every toilet between here and creation seems to be so
    common it's amazing.  The only thing I can say, like so many other
    things, "This too shall pass"
    
    For ducks, what you might want to try is to locate some of the
    small Usborne books ... there is one about Duck, and there are a
    host of others where along with the story and pictures,somewhere
    on each double page, there is a small duck, half hidden.  It's a
    great exercise to find duck!  (Like find Waldo, but this is much
    more interesting to a 2 year old!)
    
    Stuart

On one memorable Boston Globetrotters' game at the Worcester (Mass.) Centrum, 
my son needed to go to the bathroom AT LEAST fifteen times.  Which leads me 
to agree with Stuart,

>                      <<< Note 1205.6 by KAOFS::S_BROOK >>>

>    Visiting every toilet between here and creation seems to be so
>    common it's amazing.  The only thing I can say, like so many other
>    things, "This too shall pass"



In fact, it may pass many, many times.

Clay    

    RE: Ducks-How do you know they aren't coming.  "The Attack of the
    killer ducks".  I've seen them and talked to the, they are anry. 
    Coming soon to a theater near you. :')
    
    Not to make light of your concern, but it sounds to me like normal
    behavior.  Differen't children get different things engrained in their
    heads.  Even my 8 month old has this thing he has to do.  He loves to
    knock all of the water out of the dogs dish wiht his walker.  My two
    older children had different things. 
    
    
    Mike

    Speaking of bathrooms, what is the "normal" age a child should start
    being potty trained?
    
    Thanks
    
    John

    For potty training questions, please reference the following notes:
    
    34  MAJORS::MANDALINCI    19-JUN-1990    13  Shed Night Diaper in TT 2 year 
    50  USCTR1::KAGULE        21-JUN-1990   135  POTTY-TRAINING
    207  CRONIC::ORTH          1-AUG-1990    38  regression in toilet training
    249   CSC32::WILCOX       13-AUG-1990     6  Child gets up 1-2 times a night
    355  THEBUS::JENSEN       20-SEP-1990    13  When do you dig out the Potty C
    609    SAHQ::FLEMINGA      9-JAN-1991     5  Huggies' Pullups?
    748    MATT::DAVIS         5-MAR-1991    19  Bowel movement problems during 
    1096   PROSE::BLACHEK      21-AUG-1991    17  Which potty should I buy?
    
    Laura
    co-mod

    Another vote for normal in both situations.
    It's weird, as with many milestones you are thrilled when your child
    can use a public toilet - but then you realize that you have to answer
    the call and encourage the behavior whenever it's requested. I smiled
    when I read the 15-visit basketball game - just the other week I
    visited the employees bathroom of the supermarket twice - once to pee,
    and once was an important other function, but then was only what he
    calls a bum-burp.

    What a circle!
    JR

    
    
    re: bum burp
    
    Pretty funny, my nephew use to call them bum fires.

    On the subject of public toilets:  I had exactly the OPPOSITE problem
    when I was a tyke; I was deatly AFRAID of public toilets!!  Indeed, I
    was quite afraid of *any* toilet other than the few I knew "personally"
    (my house, my grandparents' house...)
    
    Here's the reason:  When I was little, my parents' house had a LOT of
    septic-system problems, and eventually the johns would back up.  The
    first time this happened to me FREAKED ME OUT something fierce!  I
    don't know why... maybe something to do with a "trusted" appliance
    turning on me (it's supposed to take the icky stuff AWAY, not get it
    all over me!)  From that point on I lived in fear that any toilet could
    instantly turn into a monster!
    
    Once my parents got their septic problems fixed, I got to "trust" the
    john in my bathroom, but no others.  It got to where I'd ALWAYS hold it
    until I got home (taught great self-control, but potentially
    unhealthy!).  Surprisingly, I never had any accidents during this
    period...
    
    It took me quite a few years to get over this!
    
    Anyhow......... maybe the answer to the toilet fetish is to stop up the
    john? 8-)  [jus' kidding...]
    
    --jim
    

    re .13,
    
    You must have just LOVED the movie GREMLINS then~!!!!!!!
    
    :-)

    When our daughter Amber was 22 months we were pretty much done potty
    training her.  One day we were walking through a large hardware store
    which had on display, seven new toilets.  Amber *insisted* that she
    sit on every one of them.  She started jumping up and down to get 
    my attention, then pulled down her pants and pointed to the first
    toilet.  We tried to explain to her why she couldn't go potty in it,
    but at 22 months, it just didn't sink in.  We made a deal, she could
    sit on them all but she couldn't take off her pants.  We ran the risk
    of her wetting her pants but in my frazzled mind, it was better than
    her pooping in the display toilets. sigh.
    
    As it turned out, she was happy sitting on each one without actually
    using them.  double sigh.
    
    Jodi-
    

    Tell me about it, I take the little guy to the hardware store and if he
    disappears, he is in one of three places. The little playhouse out the
    front, sitting in a tub in the pathroom section, or standing behind a
    glass door, in the door section making faces at the world going by...
    
    q
    

    .15 reminded me of several years ago, when friends of ours and we were
    house hunting.  We went to look at the model in a new development, with
    their two daughters.  We all sort of realized at the same time that one
    of their daughters was missing.  So where did we find her?  In the
    bathroom "christening" the toilet!  Her mom related that whenever they
    went to visit *anywhere*, this daughter just had to use the bathroom!
    (I think she may have been 4 or 5 at the time).
    
    Lyn