Dear Moms, Dads, Relatives, Educators and Business Owners!

Getting out and about with the kids in the school holidays for me means lots of visits to public toilets, which are my pet hate. My son is addicted to visiting public toilets. He is a confirmed loo loiterer. I am convinced he saves up his "No. 2's" just for our trips to the shopping malls. I can recall visiting 3 different public toilets in one day.

A trip to the mall, or anywhere, for Carrick is not complete without checking out the loos. He pretends this is not so by luring you into a false sense of security and waiting for you to walk into the grocery shop and pop a few items into the trolley. Just when you start thinking, "Whew I actually made it into the store without a pit stop!" he shouts, "I need a poo" at the top of his voice. I put on my embarrassed "typical kids" look for surprised onlookers, swoop up my son, abandon the trolley and make a beeline for the nearest loo. I have no idea how long he is capable of holding it in and I am not about to hang around to find out.

Carrick is quite picky when it comes to choosing the right toilet and he somehow manages to hold it in long enough to make a choice he is happy with. He then ditches all but his shirt onto the germ infested floor and climbs onto the toilet where he will spend the next 10 to 20 minutes singing at top volume, wiggling around, pulling out toilet paper, inspecting the toilet seat, the colour of the walls and the toilet paper dispenser.

When he finally gets bored he plays his "I'm finished game". He tells me he is finished and as soon as I have the paperwork ready, he tells me he has just one more to do. This happens about 2 or 3 times before he finally climbs off, puts his hands flat on the dirty floor and puts his bum in the air facing the toilet to make it exceptionally hard for me to wipe it.

I daren't ever flush the toilet for him. He has to inspect what he has deposited and then have the satisfaction of flushing it away himself. He is also fascinated by the various toilet flushing mechanisms you get. I have scary visions of him growing up one day to be a "toilet flusher engineer". No offence to any "toilet flusher engineers" out there, without whom which we would be up to our ears in poo, but you have to admit, this is not something you dream of your son choosing as a career. This is the end of loo loitering part 1. Part 2 involves the washing of the hands.

I am under no circumstances allowed to assist. My son has to climb up onto the basin and squeeze out the soap on his own. This generally takes another 10 to 15 minutes. He is the most efficient hand washer I have ever seen. He rubs the soap front, back and into every groove, between every finger before rinsing. This is not a habit you want to dissuade or discourage. I have to wait patiently. I am allowed to pick him up to pull out the paper towel or hold him under the hand dryer.

Sometimes a visit can take up to 40 minutes. Tired of trying to be patient, I now pack a book in my handbag. So the next time you walk into a public toilet and see a little boy singing on the loo and his mom reading a book by the basin, please say hi to me....

What have you been up to in the school holidays? We love to hear from our readers!

Cara
Editor