Just GO Already!

My kids lie to me on almost a daily, sometimes multiple times a day, basis about one thing.

The scene usually goes something like this:

I’m sitting at the computer, my 6 year old is on the couch down in the basement with me playing a game. All of a sudden I hear the couch rocking. I look over and she is throwing herself against the back of the couch over and over. No, she is not possessed. She simply has to pee. “Avery, do you need to go potty?” I ask knowing that it has been a while. “No.” she says. “Avery, why are you rocking like that then? I know you need to go”. “I don’t! I promise! It’s just fun to do this.” Really? I think to myself? It’s fun to throw your body over and over again at the couch while you are trying to simultaneously do something else too? At this point, she is looking at me like, “Please don’t make me!” I let it go this time.

Five minutes later like lightning, she flies off the couch running and yelling back to me as she flies out of the room, “I need to go potty!” Hmm. I thought so.

Or there is Kyle. Who dances, crosses his legs, or flits around like a hummingbird with non-stop movement. He can’t sit still when he needs to go. I guess if he keeps moving, he is OK. At some point I get sick of the crazy jittery-ness of his non-stop moving body, and I tell him to go. “NOOOOOO!!!!” is always the response. I never hear, “OK!” NEVER.

One day, I call my Mom exasperated.

“Is this normal? Did we do that after we got potty trained?”

She replied, “No! Once you guys were potty trained, I just let you guys worry about when you needed to go”.

Doubting this, I asked, “Did we ever have accidents?”

“I don’t think so. At least I don’t remember a lot of accidents”, she said.

Still wanting validation, but not getting any, “So, it’s weird that my kids are so opposed to going potty?”

“Well, I don’t remember you guys ever doing that! You just went when you needed to go, and I never even gave it a second thought” she replied.

Sigh. My guess tells me that this is normal and my mother has just forgotten. Or scenario #2, there is something wrong about the way I potty trained them? Or, scenario #3, they are just weird. But, I like to think that it is just that my Mom has forgotten, which means that in another 30 years, I will have forgotten this too. Except, I have the blog. So, not likely. But at least my immediate memory probably won’t remember. I like to think that my Senior years will be all about just remembering the good and the precious stuff.

My kids would do ANYTHING to avoid using the bathroom. It’s like I am asking them to do something horrific act like eat vegetables, or clean up their room. There is flailing, screaming, crying, begging not to do it. Then, when they finally do, things are moving so fast that they are lucky it even makes it into the potty. And, many times, Kyle doesn’t.

It drives me crazy.

I’m curious what you do for two fully potty trained kids to start listening to their bodies better and go when they need to go!

The dancing and flailing and freakishly possessed looking behavior has got to stop.