What went viral this week: A nurse’s strength + a teacher’s balloon potty training video

Video of teacher showing kids how to wipe butts goes viral

We don’t know exactly where this teacher teaches, but it’s likely not a school in the United States. And that has people online suggesting that American parents and teacher pick up this genius method for teaching little ones how to clean their behinds after going to the bathroom.

In the video the teacher has taped a couple of balloons to the back of her chair and the backs of her students’ tiny chairs. She shows the kids how to wipe between the balloons, teaching them a skill they can use on their own butt in the bathroom.

If your little one is having a hard time mastering this potty skill it may be time to buy some balloons, mama!

4-year-old goes viral after saving 2-year-old sister from drowning

As Today reports, Gray Forrester (who just turned 5) is a heroic big brother. This little guy saved his 2-year-old sister after she fell in the family pool, and their mom is telling the story not only to give props to Gray (who totally deserves them) but also to remind parents about pool safety.

The Forresters did a lot right. They had a pool fence installed and their kids knew they were not allowed to be in the pool without an adult. “We installed beeps on the doors. We thought we had taken all the precautions, ” mom Laura Forrester told told WBIR in Knoxville.

But little Andie got around the security measures when her mom wasn’t looking and fell in the pool. Luckily, Gray was there. “He saved me,” says the toddler.

According to Gray, his little sister was struggling to doggy paddle, so he “grabbed her tummy. I was trying to lift her so she could breathe.”

Andie was not waving or yelling for her mom because she couldn’t. As former Coast Guard rescue swimmer Mario Vittone writes, “drowning is not the violent, splashing call for help that most people expect.”

Gray lifted Andie out of the pool and their mom is so thankful and recommends all parents look into swimming lessons and double check their pool precautions.

Gray is a little hero and he’s also really lucky. According to drowning investigator Natalie Livingston, kids have been known to pull one another down when one is drowning. Luckily, that didn’t happen to Gray and Andie.

In an ideal world an adult would have been the one to save Andie, but her mama is happy Gray was there to do it.

This viral photo reminds us how hard labor + delivers nurses work

Caty Nixon is a labor and delivery nurse and, as Today reports, she’s also a viral sensation. The internet attention was very unexpected for Nixon. It came after her sister, Laura McIntyre posted a photo of Nixon snapped after the end of a grueling work week.

“[C]aty just wrapped up her fourth shift in a row. That’s around 53+ hours in four days. That’s not including the 1.5 hours she’s in the car each day. She usually doesn’t get a chance to eat lunch or even drink much water,” her twin sister wrote.

“This pic is from a night back in July where she came to my house after a particularly hard day. She delivered a stillborn. Have you guys ever really thought about what a labor & delivery nurse sees? They see great joy in smooth deliveries & healthy moms & babies. They see panic & anxiety when a new mom is scared. They see fear when a stat C-section is called. They see peace when the mom has support from her family-[because] not all new moms do. They see teenagers giving birth. They see an addicted mom give birth to a baby who is withdrawing. They see CPS come. They see funeral homes come. Sid you know that they have to make arrangements for the funeral home to come pick up the baby? I didn’t either,” McIntyre wrote in her now viral Facebook post.

According to McIntyre, Nixon is “so good at what she does she often forgets how to take care of herself while she’s taking care of her patients.”

The photo she shared of her sister is a reminder to society that we need to take care of the nurses who take care of us.

Nurses like Nixon are so dedicated. “The good times are so good, and the bad times are heartbreaking,” she told Today. “I’m here for all of it.”

We’re so glad her sister is there for her.