My son had an accident at school this week. He didn’t fall down and get a boo boo. He didn’t wet himself. He didn’t throw up. You guessed it. He pooped his pants.
This was a first for him. He’s slipped up and wet his pants before; however, this whole poop episode was uncharted territory. I’ll set up the story for you as it unfolded for me.
I was sitting in a meeting at work when I got a call from my wife saying that Charlie was acting funny at school. His teachers said he had his head down at the table, wasn’t eating his snack (highly suspicious), and just not acting like himself. Immediately, my wife started scheduling an appointment at our local doctor office. In my head, I started thinking about all I needed to do in order to miss a few days at work if something was wrong with him. My wife assumed he had another case of strep throat. I texted my boss, updated him and asked my wife to keep me in the loop on Charlie.
As I sat there in that meeting, I felt worse and worse for my son. Imagine being four years old, not feeling great, and probably just wanting your mom or dad to come get you and carry you home. My heart hurt for my son. If he was sick, I wanted to get him the care he needed.
A few minutes later I got another text from my wife. This text was sent to my wife from Charlie's teachers at school that she forwarded to me. The message said this:
“Okay, so we found the issue. He must have been too embarrassed to tell us. He pooped his pants. He started sitting kinda funny in the chair he was in and we realized almost immediately what was going on. We have changed his clothes and cleaned him up and he seems to be better.”
This next part shows just how awesome his teachers are at his school.
The text continued like this:
“I told him not to be embarrassed to tell us next time. Sometimes we have accidents and that either of us (his teachers) wouldn’t have known he had pooped unless he told us.”
While at school, all of the kids have a change of clothes in case of accidents such as this. Charlie just so happened to have blue sweatpants at school for his change of clothes; the same color sweatpants he was wearing that morning when we left the house.
The text continued on:
“(One his teachers) even said that he told her he was glad his pants were the same color so his friends wouldn’t notice. I really think he was just so embarrassed. He is actually smiling again!”
Doctor appointment cancelled.
If you’ve read any of my postings before, you probably know that I’m a tender-hearted dad. I don’t cry just for fun or wear my emotions on my sleeve; however, I’m not ashamed of my feelings. My little boy pooping his pants, feeling so embarrassed about it, and then coming out of the whole situation with a smile made me tear up.
On one hand, I felt so bad that he’d had this accident. I couldn't imagine what he must have been thinking. He could have thought that he was in trouble, which he certainly was not. He could have thought everyone was looking at him thinking something bad, which they most likely were not. We’ve ALL been there. We’ve all felt like everyone was staring at us. We’ve all felt like we messed up and that we’re going to be in trouble. The thing that tugged at my heart was that my four year old was feeling that same way. I know he’s only four, but I bet his little heart was hurting. Because my little buddy was hurting, I was hurting for him.
Despite hurting for him, I was also happy for him at the same time. I was happy his teachers were so patient with him and comforted him during his most challenging situation so far at school. His teachers are simply amazing. I’m so thankful that he has teachers at his school that love him and treat him like one of their own. If he couldn’t have been with us or his grandparents, I’m happy that this incident happened while with the teachers in his classroom. Thank you so much ladies.
Finally, I was proud of my son. That’s right. I was proud of him. So what he pooped his pants? Everyone has accidents. What made me a proud father was that despite literally pooping his pants, my son was smiling afterward. Not only was he smiling, he even found a silver lining for the whole situation. His replacement pants were the same color as the ones he had soiled! So, in theory, none of his classmates would even notice he had a change in his attire.
I wasn't sure how to approach the incident with my son when I picked him up from school that afternoon. Eventually I decided on this plan: don't mention it until he does. Please don't misunderstand, I didn't want to pretend like it didn't happen. I fully intended to talk with him about not pooping his pants and stress the importance of telling his teacher when he had to use the restroom.
When I opened the door, my little man ran to me like he always does. So happy to see me and even happier to go home! I told his teachers thank you and gave them a little extra nod acknowledging my appreciation for their help with the events that unfolded earlier in the day. After his teacher closed the door, Charlie got my attention.
Then he said to me, in one of the most gentle voices I've ever heard my son use,"Daddy, I kind of pooped at school today".
I then knelt down, met him eye to eye and said, "I know buddy, we all have accidents sometimes". I gave him a big hug. It was the perfect ending to a wonderfully messy story.
I hope that you find a silver lining in whatever situation you are dealing with today. Remember this: most people won't even know you pooped your pants. We ALL have accidents! When you have an accident, just put a new pair of pants on and keep smiling.