The Boy Who Cried "Potty!"

One of the things I worried about while potty training Little Man was our frequent small road trips to the store and such. Around here everything is at least 30 miles away, with almost nothing in between home and where you are going. Both routes we take to the town we frequent have 1 gas station along the way. One route it's near the middle of our trip, the other it's toward the end. It really worried me - largely because there really aren't even any good spots to pull off on the side of the road. They are all state or county highways with absolutely no shoulder and some with big drop offs...

The amazing thing is that it's never really been the problem I thought it would be. Little Man has been full potty trained for about 7-9mos now. He hasn't even had an accident at night in the past few months (I almost hate writing that because it will surely conjure one up) ;)

At first he was very hesitant to go to the bathroom in public. We bought one of those potty seats for traveling, which made all the difference. Totally worth it. After he got used to the idea of using that, he was fine.

So once he got to be a pro about going in public, it became a novelty. We almost can't drive by the gas station without him saying he has to "go potty at the gas station!!" Seriously, one day he fell asleep on the way home and missed the gas station and was so upset when we got home because he wanted to go potty at the gas station.

Because it's such a novelty for him to go in public places it's impossible to tell when he really has to go! If we're in a hurry to get where we're going on home I tend to ignore him. And he's never had an accident in the car. Until last night.

By the time we realized that he *really* had to go potty this time we had already passed the one gas station. I remembered one area that had a little turn out, but by the time we got there he had just gone. I felt bad, but... what was I to do? Maybe it will teach him a lesson about crying "Potty." But probably not. It will probably just make me stop every single time he says he has to go. Boy does he have me trained well ;)