In the first house I shared with roommates, there was a window through which we could see the bathroom of the people next door. Their bathroom window had no curtain so when the man who lived there went to the loo, we could see the top half of his torso and because we were young and a bit obnoxious, we would holler “peeing!” when we saw him so that anyone else in our house who felt inclined could gather ’round and laugh hysterically.

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Today I took the Skytrain and the Seabus (and I just realized how .. plain-spoken, or perhaps child-like are the names of our local modes of transportation. They are exactly what they sound like: a train that travels in the sky and a boat that acts like a bus by making short trips back and forth on the sea) with a friend and our collected four children and the main concern of all was: where can we pee. Is there a bathroom on the Skytrain? (no, there is not) Is there one on the Seabus? (nope) But there’s one in the terminal (yes) and one in the Lonsdale Quay market (yes) and there’s one in this restaurant (yes) and everything will be fine. Don’t worry if you have to pee now, there will be a place to pee later.*

Honestly, children, with a tiny bit of planning ahead, you should never have to pee so badly that it stresses you out. Could this be my most important piece of advice? We will have to wait and see.

* unless you are right downtown Vancouver, because there is no bathroom in the Waterfront Station and the promised bathroom at Harbour Centre across the street is closed for renovations, so Arlo had to pee at the Tim Hortons around the corner and that meant I had to buy an iced coffee that tasted like iced-coffee-flavour but on the bright side, Eli found a long-stemmed red rose on the sidewalk. True love, dropped.