The Branch in the Bathroom

 The Branch in the Bathroom

When school lets out, I wait on the playground with the other parents for my child to emerge in the sea of short people flooding from the double doors.  In a rush of energy, we catch backpacks, jackets and artwork, and watch as our kids disappear to play on the playground, blacktop or woods behind the school.  To be honest, moms love this time of day.  The kids are all running off their extra energy with their friends and we get a chance to talk to other adults with few interruptions.

In the midst of conversation during this time, I was approached by another mommy friend who told me some girls were laughing that they just saw something funny in the woods.  That something was my son peeing on a tree.  I quickly excused myself from the group to find my son, the pee-pertrator.  I pulled him aside and told him it wasn’t okay to do that here on school grounds, and reminded him that private parts should be kept private.  It wasn’t much of a talk.  He’s a kid; he did something stupid; no real harm done, so I figured that was it.

The next day, I ran around like my usual crazy self during a day with a full schedule.  My husband happened to be working from home that day, but I didn’t see much of him since I was only home long enough to eat some lunch.   When I finally returned home with my three kids, my husband greeted us at the door.

He looked at my son and told him to go to the bathroom.  Since he has been potty trained for over four years, I gave him a raised eyebrow look of question.

“We got a phone call from the principal,” he mouthed to me over the heads of our short people.

Read the rest here on TheAlternativePress.com:  The Branch in the Bathroom