Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Potty Training could be worse

When I saw this photo taken earlier this summer at Hilliard Ohio’s Historic Village, it had new relevance for me in our current potty training environment and provided a new prospective on our task. We have it so easy. Sandy and I have never suffered outhouses, having always lived in homes with indoor plumbing.  But in their childhoods, Pa and Granddaddy did live in homes with outdoor facilities, which caused me to think – What was potty training like then? A quick Google search reminded me of the outhouse’s indoor partner, the chamber pot. My continued research found dozens of historic chamber pot designs, and I noted their similarity to our little plastic training toilets. Also, I learned the word “potty” was a nickname for the chamber pot. So I suppose Pa and Granddaddy potty trained just like their grandsons, only without the motion activated music and applause sound effects.

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