Whether you’re toilet-training your kids or just trying to survive an outing to the shopping mall, we all have an embarrassing toilet story to tell!

We all have embarrassing stories we’d rather not re-live … right? I have one or two that made my cheeks burn red. Okay, maybe it’s more like half a dozen.

A few years ago, my daughter Esther decided to add one more incident to the list. We headed to the shopping centre first thing in the morning to get Esther’s feet fitted for school shoes ready for Prep.

After our shoe shopping expedition, the kids played on the indoor playground, then we browsed in the ABC shop, and finally had morning tea at Mrs Fields. Then it was time to take the troops to the toilet.

Our Toilet Disaster

I headed to the parents’ room as Maggie was toilet training at the time. I knew there would be a parents’ cubicle with an adult toilet and a junior toilet suite that the two girls could use.

Once the girls had finished, flushed, and washed their hands, I told them not to open the door. Mummy was going to go to the toilet.

As I hovered over the adult toilet, Esther slammed her hand on the green button to immediately open the automatic door. There I was, midstream, with the door open to one mum and a new dad who got a wonderful view of my public toilet etiquette.

I screamed at Esther to push the button to close the door, but she kept pressing the green button to keep the door open. I was so embarrassed I couldn’t even speak straight to tell her to push the bottom silver button to shut the door.

She realized her mistake and pressed the correct button. The door s-l-o-w-l-y closed just as I finished.

A New Toileting Strategy!

After a few stern words in the bathroom about listening, we all walked out as if nothing had happened. Phoebe needed her nappy changed, so I couldn’t walk straight out of the parent room. The cheek burn was imminent.

Needless to say, I have since been thinking twice before using the parents’ room toilets again. A safer bet is to take the girls with me into the female toilets. Latches tend to require more skills to unlock.

Have you got an embarrassing toilet tale? Have your kids ever opened up a toilet door on you in a public space? Feel free to share it below: we all need a laugh sometimes!

Originally published on The Plumbette. Image by Caleb Woods at Unsplash.