Parenting and the Art of Aiming.

I meant to type this up last night but I was so overwhelmed with laughter and tending to my baby daughter that I couldn't get through it. So here's the situation; I have a 7 year old who knows how to use the bathroom perfectly but one downside is the fact that he has bad aim. How do you deal with this? He continues to say sorry but the floor falls victim to the stream. I've made him clean it up himself and it seems to work for a while but then he goes back to it. So last night there was a puddle on the floor next to the toilet and I brought my son into the bathroom to see the destruction. "Alright dude what's up with this?"

My son stared at the puddle and I could tell he was thinking hard about what to say next.

"I don't know dad...I didn't do it."

"You didn't do it?"

"No I didn't. I did it yesterday."

"Ok, so you did it yesterday but you didn't do it?"

"Ugh! Ok wait, yeah I did do it but..."

"You need to aim bud. Point and shoot."

He shook his head and shrugged his shoulders.

"I try to aim dad. I try and aim and it just goes all over the place and I can't control it."

I bit my lip and tried to stay in discipline-dad mode but I couldn't.

"You know what buddy!? You just stay here a moment!"

I walked out, shut the door and went to the living room where I proceeded to bust up laughing. I couldn't help but do it because he was so serious and I tried to stay in character but his response caught me completely off guard. For a moment I flashed back to when I was growing up and my brother and I got in trouble for doing the exact same thing. Where my boy seemed to be actually trying to control it, my brother and I were doing it on purpose. Growing up at home our bathroom had this small hole on the floor next to the toilet. For whatever reason I would aim for that hole before finishing off in the toilet. Yeah, I was being a little jerk but I didn't know my brother was doing the same thing until our mother yelled at us to clean the corner and he said that he had been doing the same thing.

We were having fun and being punks like most boys. As I type this up I can't help but think that I am now paying for what I did back then. After I laughed in the living room I went back into the bathroom with my son.

"Look bud, you just need to try to aim for the toilet ok?"

"Alright dad, I'll try."

"Just remember that every time you do this you will have to clean the floor."

"Alright..."

Once he cleaned it up he went to bed. I laughed to myself at his response and as I laughed my wife came out of the bathroom.

"Poor boy..."

"What are you talking about?"

"Well it looks like the sprayer for the diapers is leaking and that's what was by the toilet."

"Crap!"

Yep, my boy took one for the team but he at least learned a lesson right? We'll see how much he learned since he has a tendency to leave the door open when he goes to the bathroom. I suppose boys will be boys but have any of you dealt with this yet? If so, what have you done? What I'm doing is working so far but it would be funny to see what others have gone through. Parenting and art of aiming...yep that's the dilema in my home at this time...parenting and the art of aiming.