Balloon-wiping teacher goes viral in video teaching critical bathroom-wiping skills

Kristi Pahr of Yahoo writes that parents expect their kids to learn a number of things in preschool—the alphabet and number sense, maybe how to write their name, socialization and the beginnings of conflict resolution. But not many parents expect their kids to learn how to, ahem, wipe their butts in preschool. That’s usually the kind of thing we expect to teach at home. Handwashing? Yes. Butt-wiping? Doesn’t happen at my kid’s preschool.

A video, that appears to be of a classroom abroad, shared widely on social media showed us what we’ve been missing. This absolutely brilliant teacher came up with the best wipe-teaching hack ever. By attaching two balloons to a small chair, she showed kids the perfect front-to-back technique, while showing them how to balance on the potty. We all stress the importance of proper handwashing, cough covers, and nose-blowing and expect those to be, if not taught in preschool, at least brushed-up on and practiced. Maybe it’s time for bottom-cleanliness to take center-stage in American preschools as well.

The origins of the video are unknown, but various versions shared online have been fairly well-received, with parents around the Twittersphere acknowledging the sheer genius of the balloon models.