Officer Tickets Mom For Her Son's Potty Training Emergency -- Yes, Really

A Georgia law enforcement officer charged a mom with disorderly conduct when her toddler narrowly escaped peeing his pants in a parking lot

Are you sitting down for this? A woman in Richmond County, Georgia, was given a ticket for disorderly conduct because her three-year-old toddler had a potty training emergency in a gas station parking lot. Apparently, the county deputy that issued the ticket saw the situation as illegal, when tens of millions of parents across the country likely see it as a thing that has happened to absolutely everyone with kids, and a closely avoided pee accident.

According to WRDW New Channel 12, mom Brooke Johns was driving with her son Cohen in the back seat when he declared he needed to go to the bathroom as soon as possible. When he shouted, ‘Momma, I’m about to pee in my pants,’ Johns found a gas station as quickly as possible to diffuse the situation. But as soon as she got him out of his car seat, she knew they couldn’t make it to the bathroom inside – she already saw a wet spot on the front of his pants.

“He was peeing before his pants were even all the way down, so obviously he had to go,” Brooke told the new station.

An added complication? Johns is 34 weeks pregnant with Cohen’s baby sister, and isn’t supposed to be picking him up.

When the deputy saw Johns next to her car, shielding her urinating son from the public eye, he didn’t see a near-potty accident. He saw lawbreakers.

“She allowed her male child to urinate in the parking lot,” the ticket read. “I observed the male’s genitals and the urination. Public restrooms are offered at the location.”

Johns recalled what happened next:

“Accidents happen. And he was like, ‘Take him in the bathroom.’ What if I would have ran in the bathroom and someone had been in there? What I was going to let him do? Pee on the floor of the gas station?”

We’re betting on a few things, here:

This police officer has never potty-trained a kid before. Or has completely and utterly forgotten what it’s like.

This police officer has never been eight months pregnant and tasked with carrying a ticking urine bomb to a gas station rest room.

This police officer has never had to disassemble and clean a car seat that has been pissed on.

This police officer lacks basic empathy and understanding.

“I am not a law breaker and I am definitely not one to bash the law or officers,” she commented on Facebook. “I did what anyone would have done in my situation. Peeing in the parking lot instead of in his car seat was a way better choice in my eyes.”

Johns even took to Facebook to ask if other parents had ever made the same decision that she did, and let a kid pee outside in order to avoid an accident. The results were not surprising.

There was no shortage of support for Johns and her kiddo on social media.

“I can understand what the law is meant to do,” one person with common sense wrote. “This is not what the law was meant to do.”

Another wrote:

“Brooke Schnitzler Johns, you did absolutely nothing wrong. 99% of parents/grandparents have done this. Give that sweet little boy a high five for letting you know he had to pee! When you go to court put the word out and I bet you’ll have a courtroom full of people to support you.”

Johns has an April 30 court date to argue the charge. She’ll be 39 weeks pregnant at that point, but she says she doesn’t want to give up having her say to a judge about the situation. We wish we could be there to hear that conversation.