Saturday, May 22, 2010

The Awesome Pledge

I have had to clean up pee three times in the last two days. W.T.F.

Scarlett is potty-trained. She usually does so well. She never has accidents at night. But occasionally? She will have an accident during the day. Usually on the bathroom floor right in front of the toilet, because she didn't manage to get there quite fast enough.

Usually? I am understanding. I don't get mad. I clean up the mess, I clean her up, and I tell her that she needs to go potty on the toilet next time. All calm and the like.

Last night, she peed on the floor right before bedtime. I was understanding. She seemed to not be feeling well. I let it slide.

This morning, it happened again. This is unusual. I was kind of mad. I tried not to yell too much. I cleaned it up and I cleaned her up, and we went about our day.

Tonight? She did it again. W.T. F.

I was very, very mad. I could not immediately put her in the bath because I was feeding Sosie. I had Scarlett sit on the toilet until I could come and deal with it. When I did come back to the bathroom, I did not yell. But I talked very loudly about cleaning up pee, and big girls needing to go on the toilet, and how she was not going to have anything else to drink for the remainder of the night, and how she would never be allowed to wear shoes in the house again because they were slowing her down when she had to take her bottoms off to get onto the toilet, and so on. I was very, very mad.

After we took a dual shower so I could clean her up (again!) I felt bad about being mad. But I was still mad. Why all of a sudden is she peeing on the floor? I know she is capable of making it to the toilet. There has to be some kind of reason!

Normally? I would analyze and come up with a reason, and then try to talk to her about it or fix it. But you know what? I don't have time for that. She has to stop peeing on the floor immediately.

I say to her, "Scarlett? The reason that Mommy gets so frustrated when you pee on the floor? It's because I know you can do better than that. Because you are awesome at going potty." Her eyes light up. I hold up my palm. "I want you to tell me, 'Mommy, I'm awesome and I pee on the potty!' and then give me a high-five!"

She repeats it. She high-fives. She seems excited. I hope this works. But she's still not getting a drink with her dinner.

2 comments:

  1. I think it is something she has control over, and she knows she can use it. She might miss the extra specialness of going potty since we used to make such a huge deal out of it, and now we just kinda say, "Ok go potty and I will be there in a minute"...used to, it was all jumping around and being excited that she was such a good big girl for going potty. I don't know...but I'm glad I will be at work tonight. I hate eating without having something to drink, so I would probably cave and give her a drink.

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  2. I guess I'll start telling her she did a good job when she goes on the toilet, then. She did ask me for a drink at dinner. I ended up giving her about 2 fingers of milk and telling her that was all she was getting. And I'm sticking to that no shoes in the house rule!

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