I learned about the phenomenon that I have dubbed the tour of bathrooms when I was potty training AJ.  It became clear that something had to change when what should have been a 10-15 minute trip to the store turned into a 45 minute trip because AJ HAD to go to the bathroom four times.  Now I figured after the first trip that she didn’t really have to go but she insisted that she was going to “pee in her pants” if I didn’t take her.  When I attempted to tell her no she began screaming that the had to go potty so loudly that everyone around us could here her.  So faced with the judgment I assumed everyone around me was making about what a bad parent I was for not taking my child to the bathroom I gave in.  Three times!

This was the point at which I decided that I was going to have to deal with any real or perceived judgment and limit bathroom stops to once per trip.  At least then I could be confident in the fact that I had let them go and that the chances that the really have to go again was slim. 

I have discovered a couple of things about young girls and bathrooms.  That they seem to have an obsession with seeing the bathroom in every store that we go to.  I am not sure why there is such an attraction but I am pretty sure I have visited the bathroom in every store we have been to more than once.  The other one is that the bathroom card is played when they are bored.  if we have been shopping too long and they are tired of sitting in the grocery cart or the current activity has become boring but they don’t see a natural end to it they will suddenly go from being fine to desperately having to go to the bathroom.  I have tested my theory by distracting them with a new subject or different activity.  I have timed each of them from the point that they were “desperate” to when they actually used the bathroom at several hours.  Proving my theory that it is a tactic to change activities. 

I hope that they find a new obsession as they get older as I can think of a vast number of things that I would rather view different versions of than a bathroom.