Chinese kids are usually toilet train young. I guess those L, XL, XXL sizes diapers are mostly targeting the foreigners or lazy-to-wipe-up-those-peepee-on-the-floor parents.

I found out this around November when the weather was still mild, and little children were still running wild in the playground. Suddenly, I saw this little toddler with a big hole on his pants, showing off his bums as he tried to climb up the slide. Ah, so that was the 开裆裤(kai dang ku) that I have heard of but never seen before.

The suakoo-ness in me made my senses ultra sensitive and my sight started aiming for the bums of the little children to satisfy my curiosity how this open bottom pants work. It is a really convenient piece of gear. Every now and then, I started to notice the ayi (the domestic helper) bringing their children to the grass patch and the kids would just stand or squat there. Well, you know what business their are into.

It is a very common sight to see children peeing on grass patch, road side.  I was quite cool about seeing that since it was common among my generation while I was a kid, though it is now rare to see parents/maids allowing children to pee in the public back home. Personally, I won’t let my kids do it. It is not just a hygiene issue, I believe it is also about being civic minded and inculcating the idea of not showing off their private parts/business to the public.

My ultimate shocker came one day while we were having lunch at Ajisen Ramen. As we were enjoying our favorite ramen, my eyes caught a mom bringing her toddler son to a wash basin (which is within easy reach at the dinning area). The mom positioned the son properly and started yelling at the boy to pee pee into the wash basin. Oh my god, imagine seeing a kid urinating into the wash basin where we try to clean our hands at. Hey, perhaps I was wrong, that basin might be there for that purpose, who knows!

As we enter the chillier winter, kids started gathering up in the indoor playground. It was a really big, well equipped and safe area for younger children to play with. This time, an older 5yr old boy needs to take a leak, so he conveniently opened the side door (which leads to a side garden) and just peed there. Woo, good aiming, he didn’t wet the glass door or the floor of the playground. The playground caretaker didn’t complained, he just got himself a pail of water, flushed floor and dried it with a mop. Must be an everyday routine.

That was only episode 1. Then episode 2 began. Another ayi brought her ward to a litter bin nearby and urged her to do it there. Hmm…not so good aiming this time, she wet the floor as well as the ayi’s pants, everyone else had a good laugh at the mess they made.

Maybe I was just being retarded to be so horrified, but those were real cultural shocks to me.

It set me wondering about the idea of allowing kids to pee in less obvious but equally public area too. If we get so used to letting kids pee in grass turfs, side roads, it probably will become another easy and acceptable option to let the kids pee in wash basin, lift, lobby, shopping malls or any other places.