Parenting

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

True Mom Confessions & Answers with Uncle Brett: 5 Reasons to let your son pee sitting down!


TMC:

My very dear friend taught her sons how to pee sitting down. She was a single mom and didn't know how to teach them standing up. They are now adults and from what she hears (most moms don't ask their adult sons how they piss) they can pee standing up just fine.
 

Uncle Brett says:

Kudos to this mom.  I strongly advocate teaching boys to pee sitting down. I pee seated most of the time myself: it's relaxing.  But besides its leisure benefits, I think it's also advisable for the following reasons:
1) It's a consistent approach that leads more naturally to the act of pooping sitting down, a transition with which some boys struggle based precisely on this artificial division.
2) It diminishes worries about aim.  Little boys have a hard enough time getting their foot into a shoe or their hand in a mitten, and that's pretty much a direct one-to-one match up.  Why give them carte blanche to freely wield their highly inaccurate urine gun--with the safety off--all over a room and fixture you're going to have to clean?
3) Not that I'm a doctor, or put total faith in the medical establishment, but I've seen some studies that claim that peeing seated is easier on the bladder.
4) If this practice were universally adopted, it would finally rid us of that tedious seat-up/seat-down struggle that every sitcom writer seems to think is the pinnacle of comedic genius.
5) The penis is seductive enough to a young boy.  I promise you that they'll figure out how it works and discover the pleasure they can derive from it without giving them an open excuse to fondle it five times a day. 

Brett
Berk, M.S.Ed has worked with young children and families for over twenty years, and is the author of The Gay Uncle's Guide to Parenting (Random House, 2008).  Visit him at www.askgayuncle.com


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From the Community…

Comments 11-16 of 16
  • Katja C's Avatar
    Posted by Katja C Sun Oct 26, 2008 9:18pm PDT

    Good to know! My son is officially 2 next month, so we're starting to teach him the basics of the toilet. I'm relieved that it's okay to let him learn to pee like I do--it's what he does naturally, after seeing how I do it. I kept worrying that I was doing something wrong.

    Should have figured that the main hurdle is teaching kids to use the toilet at all--the standing/sitting choice is something he'll figure out on his own. Cool!

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  • Katie's Avatar
    Posted by Katie Mon Oct 27, 2008 6:06am PDT

    I tought my son to sit then attempted to teach him standing...I say attempted because the first time he did it standing he got so excited he fell off the stool he was standing on and now refuses to pee any other way besides sitting.

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  • Jezabel's Avatar
    Posted by Jezabel Mon Oct 27, 2008 7:15am PDT

    Ok I was always under the impression you toilet trained all children, regardless of sex, to pee sitting down. Once they mastered the rythme then boys will learn to pee standing up from watching his father, brothers, whoever.

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  • garym's Avatar
    Posted by garym Mon Oct 27, 2008 7:02pm PDT

    Boys can do it sitting or standing. It is hard to do either at first. All of the trainig seats in the old days had a cover on the front for the boy to sit and not spray. As for the way it should be standing for men and sitting squatting for females is the natural way. Back to history men mark the area hard to do sitting.

    Fun topic is it not funny that we are even talking about this. ;-}

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  • garym's Avatar
    Posted by garym Mon Oct 27, 2008 7:06pm PDT

    Boys can do it sitting or standing. It is hard to do either at first. All of the trainig seats in the old days had a cover on the front for the boy to sit and not spray. As for the way it should be standing for men and sitting squatting for females is the natural way. Back to history men mark the area hard to do sitting.

    Fun topic is it not funny that we are even talking about this. ;-}

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  • Ali's Avatar
    Posted by Ali Thu Jul 23, 2009 12:08pm PDT

    Apart from your excellent reasons, let me tell you some thing then. Not bad if you know that in my culture male people avoid peeing while standing! In my country it's so, as my religion has recommended not to pee while standing, and to do it while sitting or squatting. I know there, they teach the kid when he can stand up, how to pee while standing, but it's not so here. However, I am male and quite healthy, but I don't pee while standing. You should consider that there are many different ways around the world.

    Why stand to pee? Why aim? Aiming is for the time when you are distant to your target and can't be close to it, but when you can be close to it, and if you are sane, you prefer being close to your target than aiming to the target, so sit down and be relaxed. One of the names of the place you are doing that in, is rest room! Human body needs resting once in a while and it is better to rest the times we don't do any special task that needs a focus of mind and energy. Peeing is not a job necessarily needs mind and energy, but still we can do it with using mind and energy (aiming and standing). I said when a work can be done without mind and energy too, it is better we save our mind power and energy for those really need them, and rest instead. (Not with one time of peeing, but with many times of peeing it will be something noticeable). And why you waste your time and energy in cleaning bathrooms? You can save it for more useful affairs by reducing the need of bathroom to be cleaned! Urine is sterile when it comes out of a healthy body, but as soon as it enters the outside milieu, the infections will start to appear in it as the time goes, since it is a good circumference for growing septic. And not only if the pee leaks other places it makes dirty, even if the pee is directed into the right place, when standing, its hitting the surface (of toilet water or inside the toilet) with more power and speed (because of the height) causes tiny drops spray in the area and sprinkles the places around, like the bathroom ground, and the clothes and shoes of the one is peeing, and also a lot of microscopic particles of pee will be diffused in the air, that can make pollution and dirty many things. Also when standing, because of the height, the pee flow meets much more air until it meets the surface, and therefore, its vapour will be made in the air (that's the pee smell) and it will be published in the air then. Of course one time of peeing standing can't make this kind of pollution, but with many times of peeing standing, the pollution of the place, air and the toilet seat will become noticeable, and then as a result it demands more times of cleaning which also wastes time and energy.

    As for those who say "peeing while standing is much easier than doing it while sitting or squatting", I should say that bending over and pulling down pants, and keeping a part of panties down for a while and aim for a while both need an attempt; and the fact that which one is easier for a person depends on habit. The way in which one's habit is based on, is easier for that one, and to which you habit, it will be easier for you! And as for those who think "peeing while standing is of a few pleasures of a man!", I should say that a man is more valuable than way of peeing places as his pleasure and property! It does not fit a man to consider that as his worth! Men have more valuable special abilities to be mentioned! To my own, peeing while standing is a nasty action, also it does not feet a man's character, that's like you imagine a respectable man standing up still somewhere, his penis is hanging out and his pee line is in front of him, and then shaking the dong at the same position, it doesn't have a nice view. Specially, when a lot of urinals are in a public place in men's washroom, and a row of men have that view together, it's also nasty. I think in men's room, urinals should be in partitions having doors, like the toilets. So I meant its action is nasty. And a nasty action doesn't feet human's character, not only men's. Who made the rule that males MUST stand up while urinating? And don't link it to the nature, potentially many things are natural as an ability; one can bring out a gun, aim and kill, but he has choosing power, although he has the ability, but he may not do it if he is sane; one can just bring it out, aim and pee, but does it mean he can not do it in other ways? Being able to do some thing, doesn't allow doing it anytime and anywhere! You can easily imagine what happens if you use some of your abilities in wrong times or places! So when one can do some thing, s/he rationally has to do it the right time and right place. Now the question is "what's the right use of peeing standing up?" As God has made the ability of peeing while standing easily in guys, it must have an advantage, and yes it has. In men's jobs some times urgent situations happen, and some times they have to do some thing in a short time when the speed is important, and some times men have situations that they can't sit or squat or are in places where sitting or squatting is not easily possible; in such times they can use their ability of peeing while standing easily. But these urgent times just some times happen, not always! Peeing standing is an ability for both men and women of which the right use is in emergency conditions where sitting is impossible or harmful. So both men and women should do stand and pee when it's really needed, and when not needed it is better they sit. So I think there should be a project for men to stop, or to say better, manage peeing while standing. One group are already doing that and their site is: http://www.mapsu.org/ . As I mentioned, there are some occasions when it's needed to pee standing up, then it happens for both men and women! So what should women do? So easy, they can instantly pee standing up using a small device, one is here: http://www.travelmateinfo.com/page002.html .

    One problem people usually have is that some of them are afraid of being made fun by other people, I think one should follow anything s/he think it is right. Everyone has an opinion and it's respectful for him/her. And other people's behaviour shouldn't stop anyone having his/her own opinion, other people don't have the right to stop anyone doing anything according to his/her opinion. That's an affect of freedom, and if the freedom of thought exists somewhere, people shouldn't be afraid of how other people think about what they do. And if there's not, then there should be a 'change', if not, then one has to live how other people want, not how s/he wants! I think a rational person shouldn't be afraid of being the target of other peoples closed minds.

    So as a conclusion, the best way is to teach your sons to sit as usual, and allow them to stand when needed, and then, you won't need to be in the trouble of teaching them aiming, because when standing is needed it's a situation like the toilet is dirty or there's urinal or there's an outside condition, and then no aiming is required. Anyways, I'm not going to impose this on you, still you can do anyhow you know better, I just brought some reasons why I asked you this although there are much more reasons I didn't mention them here. One more reason I can mention is if your son stands and pees and you have small daughter(s) too, his standing has some affects on his sisters. You know, to grown people it may be no matter what happens, but small children's souls and specially female soul are sensitive and even such things are great issues to them. Her sisters, when they find they can't easily stand and pee, they feel sad when they see their brother pees standing as usual. And small girls never show their sadness in such situations, they hide it from you but they deeply take affect from the matter, and you won't see her crying since she's hiding it. Of course not allowing her to watch her brother pee won't solve the problem, be sure your daughter knows it, you can ask her if you're doubting, remind that you can't follow your daughter everywhere all the time to see when she watches it and when she doesn't! Yes she has accepted the bodily functions but she hasn't accepted why her brother has too pee standing all the time when he can easily sit on the toilet and point down his dong, still if you don't believe you can ask her. Well, it was one of other reasons, and I think it will be great if the current way of peeing of guys in toilets and bathrooms, in the most parts of the world changes. I think if some of the issues like this become reformed, we'll have a better world.

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