I woke up with a jolt of excitement wrapped in anxiety! Mentally preparing myself for my first official train journey with my 3 year old niece, Faith.

On-route to work, it dawned on me that I was doing something so auntie-like, fetching my brother’s child for the weekend!

Now I’ve only got 7 years experience, parenting a boy, and I realised that I’m absolutely clueless when it comes to girl-children, they are so very different to  boys…and Faith can be a bit wild!

“What if she needs to pee? I can’t let a girl sit on a disgusting public toilet seat…what do mom’s do? Do they hold the child mid-air and hope she don’t get wee all over her legs? Do they let her stand on the toilet and make a pee? What do I do?” This my thoughts while looking out to sea on-route to work.

Travelling with a boy child is so different. My son can stand and pee, if the loo is too disgusting we can use an empty bottle (we had to do this on the train once, very discreetly though!).

“What if we in the train and she needs to pee, what if she pee’s on me? Should I take a towel with to keep on my lap, should I just buy a disposable nappy…?” All these crazy thoughts running through my mind. Crazy right?

Well, as the time neared for me to travel to Cape Town station I got more excited and well, quite nervous about the loo issue! I wasn’t even sure if she was fully potty trained!

At 4pm I arrived in town, to find a very tired Faith waiting with her mom. After saying our goodbyes, we got in a train (oh, before we left her mom assured me that she’s been to the toilet). It took her all of 6 minutes to fall asleep!

Half-way home she woke up and started to cry. Thankfully the last yellow bar on my mobile phone’s battery was enough for me to show her some photos, distracting her for a while and then she fell asleep again.

“Please don’t pee, please don’t cry, please don’t pee, please don’t cry AND if you need to pee on me, at least let it happen when we get to our side of the world (Muizenberg, St.James, Kalk Bay or Fish Hoek)!” This, my thoughts the entire train ride home!!!

I was very very pleased when the train pulled into Fish Hoek station and my lap was still dry and cousin Faith was still asleep. Phew, what a relief!

What an achievement and how silly of me to worry about a 3 year old girl-child peeing on me and crying in a packed train on a very hot day!

This weekend is going to be challenging. Mothering two, sibling rivalry, my son complaining about the noise and also trying to decypher what epheneny means and many other words. Being called Vaughn…

Being a parent does not make me an expert on anything, but my own child. I will just have to wing it this weekend when it comes to girl-children lol.