These are my thoughts on Elementary School Bathrooms

In the last couple of days, two seemingly unrelated events transpired, and now my kids are scared to use the bathrooms at school.

First, there was a two and a half hour power outage. Dark schools are a little bit scary, but pitch black bathrooms are the stuff of nightmares for 7 year-olds. But when you gotta go, you gotta go. So we had a couple bathroom helpers that volunteered to hold flashlights to make things less scary. Mostly, the flashlights didn't work that well and the flickering lights just made everything worse.,

Second, I decided to read Tuck Everlasting to my kids. How did this result in a fear of school bathrooms? Well, near the end of the book, Winnie decides to help Mae break out of jail. As we're discussing this, one of my little girls raises her hand and tells this story:

"This is a real story. There was this man who broke out of jail and it was by a school. He got into the school and nobody knew he was there. Then a little girl went to the bathroom and the man went in and chopped off her head."

And no one has asked to use the bathroom since.