Embarrassing My Son at a Hospital

Toddlers often say things in public that embarrass their parents. I never thought that what was going to take place at a hospital one day would cause great embarrassment to my toddler.

My son was just five years old. I awoke at one in the morning and heard him singing in the bathroom. I was puzzled so I got up and walked toward the bathroom.

About three feet shy of the bathroom door I asked him what he was doing. He apparently did not hear or see me coming and he jumped up off the toilet seat. He covered his private parts and explained he woke up and had to poop.

I told him that was fine and that he should finish and go back to bed. I waited at the bathroom door because I wanted to make sure he finished his business and made it back to his bedroom timely.

He continued to stand in the bathroom with his hand over his parts. I asked him why he was just standing there. He moved his hands and there was blood everywhere.

He was a very shy little boy. He would often close the shower curtain when he bathed so I couldn't see him. I had no idea he was hurt. I thought he was just hiding his 'boy parts' from his 'girl mom'. (That is what he used to tell me when I asked him why he shut the shower curtain.) I asked him what happened as I reached for a washcloth to clean him up.

He said he felt a pinch and now he is bleeding. I determined that he caught his penis between the toilet seats when I startled him.

As I was cleaning him up I realized that he needed medical treatment. He had a large gash right on the base of his penis.

At the hospital the nurse asked me to sign his name and wait to be called. I wrote his name and explained that he can't wait. The twenty-minute trip to the hospital had soaked through the entire washcloth he had held on his wound since we left.

She asked me to explain what was wrong. I told her he was bleeding and she asked where. Not wanting to embarrass my son I whispered to her that it was his penis.

Three times she asked me what I had said. Getting angrier by the second I shouted, 'He cut his penis on the toilet seat and it is gushing blood'. I never thought about it until the entire waiting room started laughing.

I turned around and saw my son crying. I asked him if it hurt and he told me that it didn't hurt too badly. When I asked him why he was crying he said 'because everyone in the hospital knows I cut my pee-pee off now'.

The nurse even started laughing, but a doctor took us into a private room within seconds. He was patched up with liquid stitches within minutes. We were assured that the injury was common among little boys and there would be not future effects other than a visible scar.

As we walked out of the waiting room the nurse at the desk asked if everything was okay. I told her it was and the entire waiting room clapped.

My son is now much older and recently told me that he will never forget how hot his face got when everyone in the waiting room knew what happened to him.