Potty

May 31, 2010

This evening at a Rest Stop on Tollroad 80-90 I received a little parenting lesson from a young East Asian father. The young man and his little boy entered public washroom area, an obvious task in mind. A stall was quickly selected and then from the protests I recognized the project. Several times the volume of protests grew to the point of almost – but not quite – crying. No loud wails, just some fairly urgent protests in another language. Suddenly there was a little slap. “Uh oh”, I thought, “let’s hope some diligent child-rights advocate did not hear that. This young daddy could be in trouble”! Well, those thoughts of trouble vanished as he quickly became my hero. In short order that was followed by silence, and then the whole room was filled with the sweet smell of victory. A little boy had now settled down to the job at hand!

My hunch is this gentle but firm encounter between father and son is an accepted and expected stage of development among persons of that culture. It is nothing to be terrified of; not an occasion of parents fighting with each other, and of course no worries about who might be listening in.  In short, it is not a scene!

As this little boy let it stink on the potty, I know that he had all the assurances needed by little boys. His daddy loves him; when there is a job to do it has to be done, no detours and no games; mommy is outside waiting and she has full confidence that daddy will help to get it done. When I stepped outside there she was – a very attractive East Indian woman. I did not say anything; just gave here a little smile of acknowledgment.

Hats off to the people of other cultures. Some of them have so much to teach us modern North Americans.