First, I was asked if I could teach groups for two hours next week on a public session. It's a session I usually skate anyway, so I said sure, and asked if it was a school group. Not only is it a school group, it's GYM TEACHERS!

Second, tonight during the tot groups, one of the teenaged assistants came over and asked me if I knew what to do when a kid pees on the ice . This is a first for me. Poor kid! How humiliating does that have to be? I just hope it wasn't one of those kids who always has to go, but it's really just an excuse, except for this one time , and I'm sooo glad it didn't happen in my group. The assistant had put cones around the puddle, and I directed her to skate rental where someone could call custodial services. Has anyone else had to deal with this?

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We had someone pee on the ice in LTS this week, actually.

I just noticed the skate director inching on the ice very carefully in street shoes- holding cones. So I skated over and asked where she was putting them. We coned-with lots of cones- a circle around it, and waited for it to freeze. Then, the staff would scrape the ice. BUT they forgot to do it! So they pretty much just cut ice right over it. Ewww, gross. Wear, your gloves.

As for the little kid- it was a 4 year old, so they probably won't remember, and I think the instructors of the class moved the other kids along pretty quickly. Word got out- but I never figured out which kid did it. Another instructor said only the back of their pants were wet, so it just looked like they had taken a fall and sat on the ice.

The parents apologized- as they had had a long drive in (b/c of traffic) and hadn't had a restroom break before lessons. Apparently they were playing lots of games in lessons so the little kid never asked to leave! (They always ask to leave if it's just swizzles!!!)

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-Jessi
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Hahaha, wow! This is too funny - I never realized other instructors had a problem with this too. The same thing happened to me a few years back, except the kid did the opposite of pee on the ice. And I mean on the ice!

Another time we had this one kid, George, who was really bad. He frequently left his tot grop, swore at other kids or when he got frustrated (big four letter words), and never listened to any of the instructors except me (Aren't I lucky?). Oh, and his parents never seemed to see that this kid was out of control. He used to stab his grandmother with the car keys and step on his dad's feet with his skates on, so it wasn't like George just tortured the instructors.

Well, one day two of the younger instructors skated up to me at the other end of the ice and said, "George's pants fell off." I was like, "Well, pull them up." Don't ask, but they either couldn't or wouldn't, or George wouldn't let them. So instead of just helping the poor kid out, they carried him all the way across the ice with his pants down around his skates and his diaper showing! I about died! So, there I was - pulling up good ol' George's pants. I'm not sure who was more embarassed: me or George...

I taught for seven years without ever having a kid have an accident in my class. Then last summer it happened three times (to different kids) in about six weeks. We do the same thing most of you've said- put a cone over the puddle until the next ice cut. Luckily, the clothes get most of it since the kids usually have several layers on.

Gotta love teaching tots.

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Shae-Lynn and Victor: We knew you were champions, and on 3/28/03 the whole WORLD found out! Thank you for twelve wonderful years!