Wacky Wednesday – Locker Room

Breast Cancer isn’t really very funny. Parenthood, however, I will admit can be really really funny. And I do try to laugh at myself as often as possible. When you combine That Girl, That Guy, and My Girls, you get a pretty Wacky life. When I was a child, probably when I was learning to read, one of my favorite books was “Wacky Wednesday” by Dr. Seuss. Since we constantly talk about how wacky my oldest is, some Wednesdays I will be sharing what I think are pretty Wacky stories, quotes, and silliness from our lives. Enjoy!

So I know we are late to have the talk with That Little Girl. Not THAT talk, just the first half where we tell her about boys and girls being anatomically different. I don’t want her to grow up thinking the difference is that girls are born with a ponytail, like someone was told (cough cough) by her best friend growing up. And I mean, it is go time now. We have got to have this talk. We intended to have it before school started. Going through a really strong do not let other people touch or see your bathing suit parts and if it happens let us know. That was exhausting enough that night. Not to mention having the feeling that you really shouldn’t have to have these conversations the entire time. That Guy and I keep talking about having this part of the talk. Hopefully before the next swim lesson.

For years That Little Girl has been taking swim lessons. We go into the locker room to get ready and before we leave to change again. When That Guy would get her changed in the early baby days, he would take her into the men’s locker room. Once she got older, That Guy avoided it and took her into the private family locker rooms if I was not there. So he was waiting in that private family room line quite a bit last year when I was out of commission.

You may be wondering if this is all to show you just how far That Family will go to avoid having an anatomy lesson with their kids. I mean, it might be, but it is more so to give you some good background about what happened last week when I took That Little Girl to swim lessons.

The swim lesson itself was pretty uneventful. She is one on one with an instructor and there are other classes going on including a class of parents with little ones. When the lesson ends, she wraps herself up in a towel and takes off for the ladies locker room. Like every other time. In an area distinctly not the men’s locker room. She gets her suit off and the little ones start coming in with their parents. I only noticed because we scooted over a bit to make room. A little boy and his mom took the end of the same row we were in. The little boy was standing not the bench. At this point That Little Girl is nearly dressed and is sitting down on the bench.

And then she glances to her left. Think through the situation when a 18, maybe 24, month old is standing and my daughter is sitting. Her eye level. His waist level. As she turns back to face me with a grimace, she comes out with, “I think this is the locker room Daddy takes me in”. Luckily, I didn’t snarf out loud and the other moms didn’t seem to notice what might have started the turn in the conversation. I quickly said that, well, I’m sure they are very similar in layout and the lockers are probably the same so I can see why the confusion. The little boy’s mom commented that she has already gone into a ladies bathroom and saw a woman with short hair and thought she had gone in the wrong restroom. Which only brought up an entirely different conversation with That Little Girl later how with my short hair people must think that about me all the time.

What I find so funny is that I really don’t think she could place what made her think it was the men’s locker room.