Before you have your own kids, there are those who have kids already who love to tell stories involving poop, puke and pee in hopes of freaking out the non-parents. It's like a badge of honor earned by the new parent after the first tour of duty cleaning up human excrement: you've had to wash poop off the wall and clean puke off junior's favorite book, your shirt, all the stuffed animals, sheets, blankets, pillows and the rug, and you get to talk about it in public. Well, before I had done my tour in Babyland I laughed it off and made a mental note to never discuss my child's poop with anyone.
My Messiest Moment
Well, here I am writing about one of my messiest moments of my life and it involves none other than my son's poop. Now wait a minute, before you click away, hear me out. I've never written about poop before {and probably never will again}, but when I heard about the Clorox Bleach It Away campaign I knew which messy moment I'd write about. Listen, I could win $25,000 or a $750 Canon Rebel camera, either of which I could really use. So, here it goes.
Poop All Around
When my son was around 6 months old, he was over the moon about bouncing in his Jumperoo. He cared nothing for swings or saucers, but he loved to jump and he's got the calf muscles to prove it too, even 4.5 years later. Well, during one such bouncing session, we realized he had indeed filled his diaper because we could smell it. Yet, as only a parent can appreciate, my husband and I decided to wait to change him because we were in the basement away from the diapers and wipes supply, he was enjoying his exercise routine and we were watching a movie that was almost over.
After a few minutes, our dog, a very expressive, motherly canine, approached our little bouncing bundle of joy, gave him a few sniffs and gave us a look. Her look said, "For the love of Pete, change this baby's diaper and give us all a break! What kind of parents are you?" The admonishment from the dog was enough to make us further check the situation.
Upon inspection, we realized the stench was pretty bad; and yep, the poop had gone up his back. Seriously, that's really enough, but hang on, there's more. As we pulled our sweet muffin out of the Jumperoo, we noticed that the poop had also run down his legs all the way into his adorable little soft leather shoes and had soaked through the seat of his pants and was all over the fabric of the Jumperoo seat.
So the disapproving look from our dog regarding our parenting skills was well deserved. This was a royal, stinking mess. Thankfully, I was not alone in this situation. My husband set about the task of cleaning up our soiled child and I began cleaning the filthy clothes and fabric seat.
The Scoop
These days, if something has poop on it, I toss it in the trash. But back then, I dutifully rinsed, treated, washed, bleached, etc. I was able to salvage the clothes and the Jumperoo seat, but those cute little leather shoes were goners, despite all of my efforts to save them. Our child cleaned up quite nicely, and we all survived that messy moment of life and many more that followed.
One day, I'll tell my son that story while he cuddles his sweet-smelling {for the time-being} infant and he'll think, "Mom, why must you talk about {my} poop!" And then, when he least expects it, his time for cleaning up an explosion of poop will come and he'll have a poop story of his own.
It's not just the pristine, sunshiny moments of life that make us who we are; it's all the moments, even the messy ones. And I'm a mom, with two boys, ages 5 and 3. I've become better acquainted with bodily fluids than I ever intended to; such is life. Over and out...
I received information about Clorox's Bleach It Away campaign and am sharing my messy moment for the chance to win prizes from The SITS Girls. To learn more about the messy moment program, check out www.BleachItAway.com. Sharing your story on the Clorox fan page gets you entered for the chance to win $25,000 and daily prizes, and you can grab a coupon for Clorox® Regular Bleach.
Anna



















