Ok, so anyone with a baby or toddler knows the fear of taking their kiddo to the pool or pond in terms of them wearing a swimmie diaper. What if there’s a poop? And what if it, GASP, leaks? Well, it happened to us over the summer. And it was all the nightmare I thought it would be and more.

We were visiting my in-laws in Connecticut, and we decided to take the kids to the kiddie pool at their fancy country club. Paige loves it there. The kiddie pool is all fenced in, clean, large, and has lots of lounge chairs under a covered area for the moms to relax under while keeping watch. It’s only 12 inches in the deepest part so kids love to frolic. It’s also has the kind of posh clientele I’m just not used to. At all. I always feel so sketchy there, like a frumpy dork. So, that sets the tone for the story.

After an hour of splashing and mock swimming, I noticed Paige was getting extra vigorous in the water… standing up and then throwing herself backwards onto her butt (wrestling style) so there would be huge splashes around her. She did it a bunch. And then she came out of the pool and did it on the concrete pool deck. That’s when I saw them… 2 “bunny balls” came flying out the top of her diaper and landed on the deck. I saw it in slow motion like in the movies. I ran over and said, “awww shit shit shit!!!” And began scrambling to pick it up with baby wipes. My heart was RACING. A woman in a fancy straw hat and caftan nearby said “It’s in the pool too! I have to tell the lifeguards!” (She said it with such disdain and disgust it reminded me of first grade when some little douchebag said “I’m gonna tell on you!”)

Anyway, I look in the pool and there were a few floating bunny balls so I dove right in and scooped out what I could see. Cue the lifeguard who told us all we had to leave the kiddie pool so that they could add more chlorine and such. It would have to be closed for the next hour. (Up until this year, it would have been closed for the day, but the health codes have changed). The other moms seemed annoyed by the inconvenience and gave me the hairy eyeball. I did go around and apologize to each of them. Luckily most said “hey, it happens.”

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Sweating and heart-racing, I brought P to the changing room to take care of business and it was THE BIGGEST FRIGGIN POOP SHE HAS EVER DONE. AAAAAAGGGGGGGHHHH!!! *cue the horror movie music.* I ripped off the damned diaper and poop landed everywhere. Then I noticed it was up her swim shirt, all over the swim bottoms, up the front, etc. Let’s just say I was freaking the hell out and began to shake. I mean, I’m in the Taj Mahal of changing rooms. What if someone came in and saw the poo-scene from hell? I worked quickly but it took about 20 minutes to clean Paige, clean the area, and restore peace. In a dose of luck, nobody came over where we were to witness the scene. Thank you, Lord. Paige was in great spirits during all of this and I could barely keep her still. She was wriggling, dancing, moving around. She made the poo mess so much worse.

When it was all said and done, I wanted to pass out. But the pool re-opened at noon and we sheepishly re-entered the kiddie pool. Sure, I wanted to melt into the pool deck and die after I heard people talking about it later on. “Did you hear the pool was closed? Gross!” Or the little kids saying “I heard a kid pooped in the pool, eeeeeeeew!” etc. etc.

Note to self: Try to wait for your kid to poop BEFORE you go to the pool. If possible.