A Day in the Bathroom

OK it was only an hour.... but with 21 children, aged 4 to 5, it felt like an entire day. With a tornado warning and my scalp tingling and trying to keep all 21 children entertained while they made use of the single toilet and/or the urinals.... IT FELT LIKE AN ENTIRE DAY LET ME TELL YOU!!!

Yesterday I had to sub for one of the teachers. So I had a sub being me, the Teachers Assistant. I don't know what happened to her during the tornado warning. I suspect that she ended up with her son's class, which is over on the parent's day out building, in another hall bathroom, and that T.A. probably ended up with the screaming babies and every other available teacher it took to hold them all in the women's room next to us. I was amazed that we couldn't hear the screaming in the Men's room, only when I walked outside the bathroom door. Good soundproofing and hopefully a good storm shelter. I'm not thrilled that it is a gym roof, but I haven't come up with a better place for that many kids. Hindsight being what it is, I would have preferred to have another teacher or another adult with us, but we were in ratio and had no problems whatsoever, but I will mention it... maybe in a week or two.

So we read like 4 books and I cracked toilet jokes. Yep, I did what I do best. It all started innocently enough. Someone started getting that seriously worried look on their face. I mean, lunch was interrupted. That's bad enough! We all had to abandon our food and walk single file to the big bathrooms. I took one look into the women's room crowded with screaming babies and decided to head to the men's room where there was peace and quiet. The other Pre-K teacher joined me. So it was just us 2 classes. Why the 3rd Pre-K teacher didn't come with US, I'll never know. What a dodo. We ran back for reinforcement books twice in the hour plus we were trapped and I could hear screaming both times. Yikes. In OUR bathroom, I had those kids LAUGHING!!!

So, back to those seriously worried and hungry kids. I was explaining how we sometimes need to take safety precautions just like at home when it is a thunderstorm and a tornado warning and we have to go to a safe place where there are no windows. We all had to sit criss cross against the cinderblock wall because that was the safest place. No standing or walking around. Bummer, huh?! I asked if anyone could see a window in the boys bathroom. Noooo, of course not silly, then people could watch us doing our bizness, that would not be good. Giggles. So that is what makes it a safer place to be in a storm and we would be there for just a little while until the weatherman tells us the storm has gone over us. Someone started uttering those dreaded words about wanting mommy, I thought maybe a tear might be forming, so I quickly deflected the situation before they all started in... Of course the first thing I thought of was to say "hey who can go the longest without going to the bathroom?! Don't look at the toilets! DON'T LOOK AT THE TOILETS!!!" I turn around and there's a kid using a urinal right in front of everyone! That caused a riot of laughter then and there. I made a "Ooh Noooo!" and crossed my legs and crossed my eyes and more laughter and then someone made a dash for the toilet. After that it was all over - nobody was scared, nobody was asking for mommy. We took turns reading books and holding a kid or two in our laps, we made jokes and every other minute someone told me they were looking at the toilet and I would say "Stop it! Don't look at the toilet!".

By the way, this is a great book if you need 20 minutes of distraction and laughter. I wished I had read it before so I could have been better at it, but it sure did the trick! I had to improvise and edit some of the language (to avoid name calling at school) but otherwise it is an excellent and fun read!

And all's well that ends well. After about 15 minutes of weird scalp tingling, the storm finally blew over us with no touch downs. We were released after an hour in the men's room. I do believe at least 10 children used the toilet and/or urinals. Some twice. All 21 looked at it. And all 21 were forced to wash their hands!!! Oh so gross in there. I can't believe we were forced to breathe Men's Room Air for an hour.