Gross Story

Moms will do anything to keep their kids safe – ANYTHING! I discovered how strong this instinct is one night when three-year-old College Boy started screaming in his bath.

College Boy was a wonderful little boy, smart and happy-go-lucky… I’m not exactly sure what that means, but I like the sound of it. He wasn’t one to see monsters under the bed or to be afraid of new places or things.

When he was three we lived in a small two-bedroom apartment that had the bathroom basically in the middle. I could easily hear College Boy playing in his bath from anywhere in the apartment so I often put him in the tub and listened while I worked. One night while he was taking a bath I was listening to him from the living room when suddenly he started screaming hysterically Mommy! Moooommmyyy!! Mmmmoooommmmyyyy!!! There was screaming and crying and splashing and more screaming and more crying.

I flew across the living room and into the bathroom so quickly that I barely remember moving; suddenly I was standing at the bathroom door. I looked around frantically for blood, guts, whatever it was that was hurting my baby.

College Boy was standing in the tub, tears streaking down his face, his eyes wild and his hands stretched toward me. Taking two quick steps into the bathroom I reached my hands out to him, anxious to take whatever it was that was hurting him. Give it to Mommy! I held out my hands for… a pile of poop! Eeeeeewwwwwww!! My firstborn had just started potty training and pooping in the tub scared the heck out of him.

I stood in the middle of the bathroom staring at a handful of poop; grossed out but glad that my baby was OK. I flushed the poop, obsessively washed my hands, then drained and scrubbed the tub. After a good scrub-down in a fresh bath and some cozy jammies, College Boy and I settled in the rocker to read books before bed.

He was none the worse for wear. I learned to take a second to look before holding out my hands.