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- kim nakahodo - Profile | Pictures | Blog
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This weekend I took a road trip to my sister’s house in Tennessee for Easter. DH had to work this past weekend so Niko and I were on our own… a 16 hour round trip with a 3-year-old by myself. Pregnant. Groan.Within the first two hours of our trek the must-have portable DVD player craps out on me. Arg! So, I found the closest Best Buy and waited for them to open. I didn’t care how much that stupid thing was, I wasn’t about to drive another 6 hours without it.That part of the trip was unexpected, but one thing was a guarantee with a pregnant lady and a recently potty trained toddler… frequent bathroom breaks.Since we were stopped anyway, might as well make this stop our first in that department. Enter my hatred of the automated bathroom. I have no idea why, but Niko is terrified of the public toilet’s flush. I can only imagine that it’s because they are generally much louder than a home toilet.As soon as we enter a public toilet the chant starts... the ‘don’t flush down the toilet’ chant. I usually hear it about 6-10 times while we are in the bathroom. We lucked out and got the bigger stall and in we went. Generally, I let Niko go first since I never know how close we are to not making it. Little man did his business, then stepped back for just a second. Before he could step up to finish his business….WOOSH!Niko jumps back, still peeing and running at me crying/waddling in fear. Do you know how hard it is not to run the away from a little boy crying/dripping pee running/waddling at you??!? I had forgotten to check to see if this toilet is one of those stupid automatic toilets. @#$#$ those things!!!We made it out of the stall in one piece though. The rest of the day was pretty uneventful, thank goodness. I would like to say that the rest of the trip was a smooth, but what fun would that be. You see, my son is not only terrified of the flushing toilets, but also the automatic hand dryers.Enter our drive home. By this time, I had become master covering the toilet sensor and going to the bathroom all at once. I had also figured out that I should send Niko to the sinks to wash his hands then release my hand from the senor so he would be out of the stall when the toilet flushed. I was feeling pretty proud of myself as a hero of the restroom when our next horrifying moment happened.On the way to the sinks, Niko walked under an automatic hand dryer and it went off blowing warm air on his head. I rounded the corner to hear the shriek of a little boy and feel a mini running bullet hitting me. Great… how are we going to make it out of the bathroom when the walls are lined with automatic dryers? It’s like a firing squad for little people to try and avoid.Don't get me wrong, I laughed at the humor it all, but I guess I don’t really understand why we feel the need for such automation to begin with. Have we slid so far as a society that we need machines to flush for us? Can we really not trouble ourselves to remember this simple task, or is it such a chore that we can’t spare the few seconds to take care of our own waste? Can we not push a button to start a hand dryer?Such a bizarre concept, and a really big pain for toddler moms.
I think it is the fear of germs that have driven us to automatic toilets. Automatic dryers, though, I like, because they reduce waste (and our landfills really can't take much more) and they are cleaner. Toddlers are a challenge sometimes, but they do grow out of it.I have a 3 year old and she actually loves the automatic flusing toilets, sink faucets, and hand dryers. With as many people that use those things, I feel a little more sanitary with the automated ones.My 4 almost 5 year old HATES the automatic flush and hand dryers. But she is okay with the automatic sinks!I too like automated hot air hand dryers, but my one complaint is that you then have nothing to grab the contaminated door handle without the paper towels. It is always stated that these are used to protect the environment because they are more sanitary than using paper towels, but then I've also read that the warm environment from the hot air is perfect for bacteria to grow?
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