Friday, November 11, 2011

Prince discovers Inductive Reasoning

We have three bathrooms. One is by our room, one is by Prince's room, and one is by the living/dining room - the guest bathroom. Prince for some reason decided a few weeks ago that he really prefers the guest bathroom. Joy tells me it's because the sink and toilet are lower, so the room is more preschooler friendly. He is not allowed in our room, let alone our bathroom. I don't think he knows a bathroom exists there.

[If stories about preschoolers and bathrooms are not your idea of good time, don't click on the Read More link.]


But there's this problem that he hasn't quite figured out how to always pull up his pants again before wandering out. That's not as much of an issue when he uses his own bathroom - who's to see, and his room is next door so he can go get new underwear and pants if he soiled his old ones. No problem. That's not true of the living/dining room. Add to that the fact that the culture around here (and the presence of little kids) has people on infrequent but not rare occasions opening our front door without knocking and we worry.

So the last time Prince wandered out of the bathroom unclad, we locked the guest bathroom for a week. This was frustrating for him, but no great hardship. We unlocked it again Sunday and we have begun training him to recognize where he should not walk without pants. It got locked again yesterday.

Today, Prince was practicing his toiletry* while Joy tried to encourage him to not wander out before he is done. She explained where the line is he should not cross without pants on. It was then Prince made an inductive leap:

"Mommy, what will happen if both bathrooms are locked?"

*lol* That was a very informative question, showing us how he thinks the world works. Joy said, "We won't lock both bathrooms, [Prince]. You can always use this one." We agree that we need to talk to him a bit more about just why the guest bathroom gets locked.

What a delightful boy!
 -- Derrill


* - Why isn't toiletry the right word for this set of skills? By all rights, it oughta be!

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