The Day We Learned About the Blue Slide

I hope I am not the only one that does this, but when doing any kind of behavioral kid training, in this case potty training, I use everyday fun to work to my advantage. Brooke has been doing really well with potty training and lucky for me, her reward of choice seems to be going to a playground or play land. That has made it really easy to incorporate a reward into our weekly activities.

For example, Katelyn’s soccer game was at a park with a playground that Brooke loves. So I told her that if she continued to stay “clean and dry” that we would go to the playground after Katelyn’s game. She was thrilled and complied beautifully. As an added bonus our good friends were there too so the kids got to play together while I visited with Jason and Tami. That’s when we learned about the blue slide.

As a parent there are certain things you hope you’ll never hear, let alone experience. Inevitably though, it seems like there are also many things you NEVER imagine you will hear or see but do in fact experience first hand.

We were sitting there visiting and “little” Kyle came running up to tell me he thought that Brooke was stinky. I was surprised because she had been doing so well that honestly I assumed it wasn’t her. However, before I could confirm or deny the accusation, we heard another child yell, “Hey! What is that running down the blue slide.” My heart stopped beating. I looked at the bottom of the blue (tube) slide and SAW “something” oozing out of it. I nearly passed out – partially from disgust and partially from the fear that my child might be the offender. Immediately, every parent ran to their children and did a visual inspection to make sure their child was not the offender. Fortunately, Brooke was innocent. The guilty party was a sweet little boy (probably around two) that turned out to be there with his dad and siblings. Their mom had a baby a few days earlier and this well-intended dad was trying to get them out of the house for a little while. His son’s diaper was so full that it literally overflowed and the blue tube slide was it’s victim. Blah.

All the parents tried to play it cool. As disgusting as it was, we were all just so grateful that it wasn’t our kid. The children playing however were not so subtle. They were all swarming around because of the excitement and wretched smell exclaiming “Who pooped on the slide?” Over and over. In the meantime, us parents subtly tried to engrain in our children’s brains NOT TO GO DOWN THE BLUE SLIDE!

The kids continued to play but the phrase that rang through the air over and over from the children was “Hey! Don’t go down the poop slide!” Well said. I keep thinking to myself how funny it was that they were using the term “poop slide” as if it was part of their everyday vernacular. I love kids, they call a spade a spade. I am just so glad that the “slide pooper” was young enough that he will likely not remember the horrific event. His dad however, will probably never be the same again.

Without any proper cleaning equipment, the dad cleared the slide off and slinked away with his brood. Recognizing that no actual cleaning of the blue slide will ever occur, I think I will have to come up with a different reward for Brooke after Katelyn’s game this Saturday.