Kids Do The Darnedest Things

Children will inevitably embarrass you at the worst possible times.  I have many stories of embarrassing kid moments but for some reason it seems that the majority of them happened with Tweenie after I left her sperm donor father.  I sometimes wonder if I was just more embarrassed by things because I was a young first time parent.  No clue why most of my stories involve her, but she has given me many.

There are two that stick out in my mind.  Here is the first one.

I believe Tweenie was 3 at the time of this story.  Her nickname back then was “Pumpkin”.  We were out having a Mommy-Daughter Day of shopping and running errands.  She was fully potty trained but hadn’t yet gotten to the point that she could hold it for very long.  If she said she had to go, she meant NOW.  I can deal with that, no problem.  The problem comes in NOT telling me she had to go.

We were pretty much done with our day, I just wanted to run into Goody’s real quick.  I know there was something specific I was looking for though now I have no clue what that item was.

I was standing there looking at a rack of clothes & Pumpkin had walked around to the other side.  I hear something.  ”What is that?  Did you spill your sippy cup?”  Then realizing she didn’t bring a sippy cup, I wondered what in the world this child could be getting into.  I walked around the rack to find my daughter standing in a puddle of her own pee.  I froze.

“Why didn’t you tell me you had to go potty???”

“I don’t know.”  (As a parent, I seriously wish this phrase had never been invented!!)

So while my daughter is standing there in urine-soaked shoes and shorts I pondered my options.  I can buy her new clothes and shoes (after all we are in Goody’s), clean her up and continue our day…..I can let someone know what has happened and just take Pumpkin home (I was pretty much done with my errands for the day anyway)…..or I can just calmly walk out of the store without purchasing anything and without saying a word to anyone.

I chose option 3.  I was a 24-year-old single mother and I was embarrassed.  There was no way I could face anyone and tell them my daughter had peed on their floor.  I grabbed her hand and out we went.

This Goody’s has now closed and something else is in it’s place.  I never once returned to Goody’s after that incident.  Now that there is a new store in it’s place I have been once.  But I still feel so guilty and humiliated.

What embarrassing moments do you have???