A Pot to Piss In

My son has peed on so many things in his short life—chairs, walls, toys, and, above all, my lap—that it is almost remarkable that he had never peed on the one thing he is supposed to: a toilet.

Until now, that is.

As of 8:15 p.m. yesterday, we are the proud parents of a boy who actually pissed where he was supposed to. And this at the tender young age of two and a half—never mind that 2-year-old horses are already balling and racing and winning big cash payouts.

Still, we are proud. And we are ready for the beginning of the end of diapers in our lives (lord knows it may take a while before he’s actually potty-trained, though).

Now, as every PR person who has emailed DadWagon has found out, we are not really product-people at DadWagon, but I have to give some of the credit to Nico’s sleek new potty. What kismet that the potty comes from Baby Bjorn, who don’t sponsor us but do sponsor our good friends DadLabs? I actually don’t like BabyBjorn’s main product, the infant carrier, so much. But this simple piece of molded plastic makes a pretty stellar device, particularly for the boys. Not that I know much about physics or geometry, but let’s just say that toddler penises don’t really point down as much as one would like. If it weren’t for the Baby Bjorn shield, Nico could be potty trained and still peeing all over everyone.

So we and our little pissed-on pot are quite content for the moment. We feel somewhat validated as well in our hands-off approach; I know that East Germans forced their kids to potty train by the age of 1, for example, and I can’t really say that the whole country was damaged by the process. But we let Nico figure things out on his own, for the most part. We led from the front, as they say in the Army. We led by example. And that, dear readers, is our own Silverman-esque story of courage, redemption, and pee.