Johnny: *says the alphabet and leaves out the letter P*

Teacher: What happened to the P?

Johnny: It’s running down my leg.

This is an old joke, but a good one as it’s so real! Young children often have toileting accidents and teachers need to know what to do. Gone are the days when it was ok for teachers to simply help children clean up and change. Of course, if there is an ECE or another adult who is trained to help them, this is the best option. If not, have the child go to the bathroom and hand them their extra clothes from their back pack. Encourage the child to clean themselves as much as possible and hand them a plastic bag in which to put their dirty clothes. If they are able to change into clean clothes, then you are done. If they do not have clean clothes or if the mess is too large for them, then it is time to call their parents. Their parents will come with clean clothes and clean them up or take them home. The child simply has to wait until the parents come. This is not the best option, however it is the best option available to us right now. It is often advisable to call the caretaker to come clean the bathroom after this (and to check that nothing has been tracked all over the classroom by the child by mistake – there’s nothing like wondering what kind of “mud” is on your shoes after a day like this)!