Monday 5 July 2010

potty expressions

Today, a client explained rather sheepishly to me that she had to "spend a penny".  Although I wasn't familiar with that expression, her need was pretty clear from her body language, and I showed her to our washroom.  While she was there, I had a great conversation with co-workers about the different expressions we use for this subject.

Tinkle.


Use the john.


Use the can.


Pee.


Get rid of some tea.


Go to the loo.


Visit the little girl's / little boy's room.


Use the litter box.


Water the dog.

Poor client couldn't figure out why we were all giggly when she came back to our front office.



Naturally, being a female crew with a couple hundred accumulated years of mothering and grandmothering experience, we soon embarked on sharing tales of potty training our children.  After lengthy discussion, we came to the conclusion that children come pre-programmed with potty expressions.

For example, my eldest referred to the act of urination as "going tiddle-iddle-iddle".  She was (and still is) a creative little creature who quickly developed her own imaginative version of using a child`s plastic potty.  Child #2 was more the in-your-face-call-a-spade-a-damned-shovel kind of lad right from the start.  He said "gotsta piss" ... generally loud enough to wake the dead if said urgency arose while in the vicinity of a polite crowd ... and did so proudly whenever and wherever he happened to be.  Thankfully, the next child was both shyer and quieter, and whispered (with a cute little lisp) "I gotta go pee".  Child #4 did not learn English in her first year of life, and consequently announced "go shee-shee", a delightful part-English expression closely related to wearing her orange child's potty as a hat.

Each one of us had a different list of potty expressions and recollections for our assorted collections of kids.  Naturally, this discussion led (digressed?) to comparisons of OUR OWN early childhood potty experiences.
For example, I was introduced to a wooden "po-po chair" by my Aunty D. around the tender age of fourteen months.  My po-po chair came equipped with a handy-dandy tray ... very convenient for balancing the book I was handed to entertain myself with while "nature took its course".  Also very convenient for keeping me locked firmly in place until nature kindly cooperated!  And folks wonder why I take a book to the loo with me now ...

Anyone have any potty expressions / experiences to share?

Come on!  I DARE YA!

2 comments:

Karen Deborah said...

This is cute, I love the photo of the little girl and her book. Actually I think early potty training sure beats the current trend of 3 year olds in diapers. That is just gross. As soon as a baby wakes up dry and then pees they are ready for the loo.

I am a pee pee girl.

farmlady said...

Came over from Fresh Fixin's. Karen gave you rave reviews so I had to take a peek.
Love the potty mouth post. I'm more the... don't say anything just go get it done... type, but this was funny. It's amazing how folks feel the need to explain an action that is so, well... necessary.
Keep on blogging...