The Mother Load

As I typed the title of this post, I imagined the visual that would greet most mothers (okay, and maybe some more observant dads).  Anyone who has had an inquisitive, toilet loving toddler AND a careless older child who forgets flush in the same house at the same time knows the horror that combination can produce.  Luckily for us, this product is not related to that in any way (except for the presence of a toilet, I guess). 

I'm deeply sorry for the visual and the possible dredging up of long buried mommy memories, but the product is called Potty Fishing. There wasn't much else I could do.

The Potty Fishing, uh, gift set(?) consists of 5 components:

*A "water themed" mat. (Yeah. It's blue. Wow.)
*A small fishing rod. (For an infant.)
*A bowl with which to create the perfect bathroom fishing hole. (Easily the cheapest part of the set.)
*4 plastic fish (Because making live fish watch a man do his business would be inhumane.)
*A do not disturb sign. (Silence! The king is on his throne! Playing with his...toys.)

This product highlights something I will never understand about some men. What is it about the bathroom and the things we do in it that are so fascinating that men need to be in there for 30 minutes at a time? I have bodily functions just like everyone else, but when I need to use the facilities, I get in, get done, and leave. I don't linger.  I'm not in there long enough to even think about fishing, much less participate in the activity.

Perhaps men who need 30 or more minutes in the bathroom are in there because their endeavors in the realm of toileting are a bit more, ahem, significant than an average #2. To this I must ask: Wouldn't introducing an activity like fishing only distract from the goal? Wouldn't it be better to focus on the task at hand? Wouldn't daily fiber be more effective?

This bit of product silliness can be yours for a mere $19.95, so at least it's not terribly overpriced.  However, you could probably make something similar out of things you have lying around the house, so it's still not much of a value.

I will say that were this a product marketed to parents of potty training children, it would have been published under the Awesome Product label.  This kind of thing is just what moms need to keep their potty learners on the potty until nature makes things happen.  If you buy it for this purpose, I won't look down on you.  If you're a man and you expect me to think well of you for using this, I can't help but disappoint you.

And you won't get a cookie for going on the big boy potty, either.

(Thanks to Mother Load reader, Andrea F., of Queensland, Australia, for today's Stupid Product idea.)