My son is a bit scatter brained. So even though he knows the rules to using the bathroom, or rather, the things he needs to do afterwards… sometimes his mind wanders and he skips most or some of that stuff. He’s in such a hurry to get back to the fun that remembering to use soap when he’s washing his hands, or flush the potty – they get forgotten. Turning off the bathroom light? That almost never happens.

It was getting to be a thing and I could tell he was getting tired of going back to the bathroom every.single.time. to do those three things. So I made him a chart. A quick search for clip art and a few minutes in my word processing program of choice and it was done. I made it black and white for ease of printing and made sure to use detailed pictures of what I wanted happening (like washing hands WITH soap) and then writing the words, too, so that he can practice reading while he’s at it.

There was some eye rolling on the husband’s end when I talked about my idea, but you know what? It totally works. I combined the chart with his love of the Disney Junior show Special Agent Oso and pointed out that all he needed to do was follow the Three Special Steps and that he’d succeed – and dudes, he was all over it. He was singing along in the bathroom about his three steps and having a blast. And I haven’t had to send him back to the bathroom to do those things since.

Genius mom moment. I’m just sayin’...