It seems that when we have stomach issues, they strike at the most inopportune times. And that’s exactly what happened to Clint Edwards the blogger behind No Idea What I’m Doing: A Daddy Blog and author of I’m Sorry…Love, Your Husband.
This guy was on a 12-hour road trip to a family funeral when he was struck with a bad case of, what I like to refer to as, “the poopie shits.”
He was only two hours into their journey when he had to stop at a gas station somewhere in Oregon to relieve his diarrhea. He was inside the gas station searching for cornflakes with his 4-year-old Aspen when he felt this violent call of nature.
At least he was in a place where there was a bathroom nearby. So, he grabbed up Aspen and ran into the bathroom having no choice but to bring her into the stall with him.
Thankfully (not really), Aspen was there to narrate the whole episode.
“Aspen watched as I struggled, Moana light-up crocs on the wrong feet, blue eyes wide and supportive, hands clapping,” Edwards recalls in a piece posted on his Facebook page. “‘Good job, Daddy! Good job! You make two poops! Now three poops! I’m four! Yucky, Daddy. It’s stinky.’”
Edwards wasn’t sure what got him sick but he sure did feel supported in this time of distress since his daughter who “is the Richard Simmons of pooping” was there to cheer him on.
“She commented on the size, smell, and sound. ‘Wow!’ She said. She commented on my work ethic. ‘You’re trying so hard!’ At one point I had to actually push her face away from the business end of things as she clapped and cried ‘You’re doing it, Daddy! You’re doing it!’”
Aspen learned to be this supportive while being potty trained by her own parents. They always cheer her on when they are in the bathroom at their house.
But in this situation, it seemed way out of context and terribly awkward, especially when you turn into a “pooping-farting robot.”
You see, Edwards and his daughter weren’t the only ones in that bathroom. There was a man in the stall next to him who was listening to the entire thing. And what a show he got.
“And when I’m cheering her on in our family restroom, it seems normal, even appropriate. But when the roles are reversed, it’s just, well, awkward,” Edwards explains. “Particularly in a public restroom where the man in the stall next to me was obviously holding back tears of laughter. Laughter that busted loose when she called me a ‘pooping-farting robot.’”
This poor guy! Not only does he have horrible diarrhea but he has his own private cheering squad and is being laughed at in the process.
It wasn’t long before the whole humiliating ordeal was over.
Edwards walked back to the car, put Aspen in her car seat, and knocked back a packet of anti-diarrhea pills (which is another reason to be thankful he was at a gas station since they sold these packets).
His wife asked what had taken him so long and he replied, “You don’t want to know.”
“It was then that Aspen was kind enough to recount the story to her mother, clapping the whole time. I sat in the driver’s seat. Mel patted my leg, ‘Nice work, Daddy.’ All I could do was say, ‘Thank you,'”
Edwards’ story is just another great example of how parenting can make a crazy situation that much more… we’ll call it interesting. You can see his original post below.
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Source: No Idea What I’m Doing: A Daddy Blog
