What is the most humbling thing you have ever done?

For me, it is cleaning up other people's pee.  Yes, you read that right.  Scoff if you will, but it always brings me down a peg and reminds me that no matter how high I climb academically or professionally, I will still be a pee cleaner-upper for Thing 1 and Thing 2 (and sometimes my husband - sorry honey, but honestly, how is it that a grown man can still miss?!?! Can anyone explain that???).  I will probably even do it when I visit them at their respective colleges b/c, lord knows, in my experience, I've never met a man who could do it right (or more accurately, they just don't try or care).  Once they are married though, all bets are off - let their wives worry about those yellow stains! 

I've tried to get my husband to pitch in, after all, he's the main culprit in our bathroom.  I am quite sure that it isn't me peeing over the edge of the seat thankyouverymuch!  His approach is to spray bleach on the toilet in hopes that some sort of scrubbing fairy will magically appear and do the job.  All that does is leave blue streaks where the tile meets the grout.  Nice.  And, I've tried getting Thing 1 to help me (you know, raise the next generation of compassionate, housecleaning males and all that), but really, that was more disgusting than doing it myself (though FYI - a four year-old has no qualms about sticking his hand in the toilet!). 

But it doesn't even end there.  In an attempt to make it easier on myself when my husband deployed, I bought an automatic litterbox for our cat, who happily used it for the first week we had it (AKA - while my husband was here!).  The very next day after he left, I walked into the most horrid smell - seriously, those of you with cats understand.  Not even morning breath and the requisite joke - "Where is the cat?  What cat?  The cat that s* in your mouth" - can do it justice.  Anyway, I figured it was his way of showing his emotions for Mike leaving, right?  Till later that day when I came back from picking up Thing 1 from school and there was a big puddle of cat pee.  And of course, the only thing to compare to the smell of cat poop is cat pee.  So, drop everything and clean that up (Shoutout for RESOLVE carpet cleaner by the way).  By this time, I'm figuring out that he's scared of the litterbox.  I think it might have started the raking process while he was in there or something b/c he won't go near it.  So I wait till that night, after the kidlets were in bed, and do the only thing I can think of...I gently placed (as gently as you can place a resistant feline) him in the litterbox and sat with him until he calmed down...and finally, you know, went.  I'm happy to relate to you guys that he is back to his old bathroom-going ways and I have made sure to put the delay feature on that thing to use.

So I guess I'm not limiting myself to even humans, but now we have animals in the mix (and reason number 1,222,349,999 why we won't be getting a dog till my husband comes home!).  Also, chalk the Rocky (our cat) experience up to something I never thought I'd have to deal with.  Obviously, I'm used to the dirty diapers from Thing 2, but at least I know he'll grow out of that (ah, potty training, such great material there!).  However, I don't see any break in my future for pee cleaning.  At least, not if I don't want to be afraid to sit down on the toilet - hey, wait there's an idea...

ADVISORY: Users are solely responsible for opinions they post here and for following agreed-upon rules of civility. Comments do not reflect the views of The Virginian-Pilot or its Web sites. Comments are automatically checked for inappropriate language, but readers might find some comments offensive or inaccurate. If you believe a comment violates our rules, click the "Report Violation" link below the comment to alert an editor. Update on new comment functions.