Me in Place

Poop has taught me a lot about life and what to expect from life and how to deal with the literal and figurative poo life serves up. I’m not talking Pooh bear, I’m talking poo, people. (Forgive me, Grammas).

1. Strangely enough, I rarely smelled my kids’ poopy diapers. I had no problem changing them, didn’t have to leave the room, could ignore it for quite some time, actually. (I can smell other people’s kids, though. Ick.) While everyone else was clearing the room and covering up their noses, I was like, “Hm? What? Dirty diaper?” Lesson: Bad things that happen in life will affect people differently. React to bad things the way you will, don’t let others’ reactions bother you. And be patient with others and their reactions.

2. Poop attracts help. One of the worst poo moments was when my middle child was a baby and her diaper, and all that was in it, exploded at the Omaha Zoo. I had to buy her an outfit from the zoo gift shop, and was changing her and basically giving her a bath in the bathroom sink. By the time I was done, there were three older ladies helping me clean her up, telling me stories of when their kids had messy diapers and giving me pats on the back as encouragement. At first I was embarrassed that they were helping with the poop bomb, but then I told myself to lighten up and I took their help and had a great time in the bathroom of the Omaha Zoo with three grandma helpers. Lesson: Let others help you when poop explodes. Let their life lessons encourage you.

3. I used to try to do my treadmill at home when SuperBoy was little. He was crawling around playing in the basement (on the other side of the room from where the treadmill was). But, no joke, the sound of the treadmill must have triggered something in him to make the diaper fill. So my workouts never got done because I’d stop to change the poop and then never get back on track again. I even blogged about one instance here. SuperBoy’s out of diapers now, but you know what else? I finally joined a gym. This way, when I am working out, I am working out. I am not worried about the poop. Lesson: It’s okay to give yourself a break and relax. The poop will still be there when you’re done. Take a break and breathe.

4. My last lesson today about poop is this: There is never any way to always be prepared for poop. No matter how much of a good, prepared mother I tried to be, there was always a point where I’d be standing there with a naked baby yelling for “Somebody bring me the diaper wipes!” or we’d be out somewhere and the diaper bag wouldn’t have the extra outfit in it. Lesson: You will never be prepared for the poo in life. Bad things are expert at surprising you. There ain’t nothing you can do about it.

Take the good with the bad. Clean up the poop and be strong. It’s worth it.

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