Putting the Fear of Flush Into Her

After spending many Sundays in the church nursery with Sarah and still having her freak out when I left, we decided a few months ago to keep her in the service with us.  She's remarkably well behaved and keeps busy with snacks, sorting the offering envelopes and membership brochures, and "reading" the Bible and hymnal.  She even goes up front for the children's message, as long as I tag along and sit on the sidelines.

She usually needs a potty break part-way through the sermon (don't we all?).  I take her downstairs to the kids' bathrooms so she has a chance to stretch her legs and use the shorter sink.  This morning, she wouldn't go before we left the house, so I was on alert.  When she gave the potty sign a few minutes before the children's message, I decided to go to the bathroom just outside the sanctuary, hoping we'd return in time. 

As I set her on the toilet and noticed the automatic flush mechanism, I had a moment of panic, knowing that it would be a bad scene if the toilet flushed beneath her.  The downstairs one never had, and I hoped this one was set conservatively as well.  No such luck.  Before she even got started, the sensor clicked, and a torrent of water roared below her bottom.  She erupted in tears and lept into my arms.

Once she was calmed down, I persuaded her to go downstairs to our usual commode.  She apprehensively took a seat, but she was too shaken up to go.  After about five minutes of reassuring her that nothing would happen until she was done (I've always had to push the button), the darn thing flushed.  Again, she screamed and dove into my embrace.

At this point, I remembered that there was a small toilet stall in the nursery with a manual flush.  Knowing that Sarah wasn't crazy about the place, I assured her that we would just use the potty and go back upstairs.  It was no use, though.  She refused to have a seat and insisted she no longer had to go.

We returned to the sanctuary, where the minister was in mid-sermon, and I spent the rest of the service praying we'd avoid wet pants (and pew).  Thankfully, Sarah has pretty good bladder control these days, and we made it all the way home without an accident.

Needless to say, I'm not looking forward to our next visit to an automatic toilet.  After a quick Google search, however, I'm ready to give it a shot.  It seems you can put a Post-It note over the sensor to disable the automatic flush, so I've added some to my bag of tricks.  Now I just have to convince Sarah to give it another try.