Sylvia Jeffreys has revealed that an embarrassing moment involving her two children left her terrified of indoor play centres.
The Today Show host, 38, revealed in a column for 9Honey that a trip with her boys Oscar, four, and Henry, three, to the local play center left the star with her biggest parental regrets.
Silvia revealed the incident happened almost 12 months ago, just after she returned from a holiday with her sons and husband Peter Stefanovic, 42.
During the trip, she quietly patted herself on the back for her potty training after the spare clothes she packed daily for her offspring remained untouched.
But that confidence was short-lived when Sylvia took the boys to the local play center for a fun day out.
Sylvia explained that she had met a friend who had children the same age as Oscar and Henry for a chat and a play date.
But things quickly went wrong when Henry had a toilet-related ‘accident’ in the ball pit.
‘But then it happened. In slow motion. After taking my first sip of a hot almond latte, I looked up and saw my almost three-year-old [Henry] frozen stiff on the clear perspex slide,” Sylvia explained.
Sylvia Jeffreys has revealed there was an embarrassing moment involving her children Oscar, four, and Henry, three, which left her terrified of indoor play centres. Also pictured is Sylvia’s husband Peter Stefanovic
She added that she saw a “pile” of children urging Henry to move so they could use the slide, but little Henry didn’t budge and said the “shocked” look on her son’s face was a “red flag ‘was.
“The steady drip that fell into the ball pit below him was the excruciating confirmation that he was, in fact, not fully toilet trained,” Sylvia admitted.
As the realization of what was happening sunk in, Sylvia remembered that she hadn’t packed an extra set of clothes for the toddler because of her children’s stellar toilet performance on the recent trip.
She explained that she had met a friend at a local play center who had children the same age as Oscar and Henry for a chat and a play date.
Henry’s bathroom accident left Sylvia shocked as it happened in front of a room full of witnesses, including “a reality TV star, the owner of our local pizza restaurant and dozens of families living within a short radius.”
As she meekly approached the center’s cafe counter to inform staff of the incident, Sylvia’s horror subsided after staff took action.
“As they systematically put black gloves on their wrists, I felt a small dose of comfort, this wasn’t their first rodeo,” Sylvia continued.
‘By the time I emerged from the toilets with my child in his buddy’s spare trousers (luckily for my better-prepared friend), children were descending into the pit again.’
‘But then it happened. In slow motion. After taking my first sip of a hot almond latte, I looked up and saw my almost three-year-old [Henry] frozen stiff on the clear perspex slide,” Sylvia explained.
She added that she saw a “pile” of children urging Henry to move so they could use the slide, but little Henry didn’t budge and said the “shocked” look on her son’s face was a “red flag ‘was.
She added that she saw a “pile” of children urging Henry to move so they could use the slide, but little Henry didn’t budge and said the “shocked” look on her son’s face was a “red flag ‘was.
She said Henry’s accident prompted the ball pit to be evacuated, the affected balls removed and the slide and pit sterilized.
Sylvia said she was forced to confront the horrific memory almost 12 months later after recently returning to the scene of her “greatest parental embarrassment.”
Write for Nine trips in June, Sylvia explained how revisiting locations from her childhood allowed her children to create their own special memories while fostering a sense of tradition.
“The three-mile jog back to Surfers Paradise was fueled by my excitement that my children were about to build their own holiday memories in the place where I forged mine,” she wrote.
“Sometimes a big dose of the ‘familiar’ is just what the doctor ordered,” she explained.
“The steady drip that fell into the ball pit below him was the excruciating confirmation that he was, in fact, not fully toilet trained,” Sylvia admitted.