that’s gross
Woodge | February 28The missus called me at work today. It seems a certain 4-year-old boy left a dookie on his bedroom carpet. Again. That’s twice in two weeks! Naturally he says it was an accident and it was coming too fast to get to the bathroom in time. He Knows it’s wrong… but what do you say to that???
A) Ack!
B) Clean it up!
C) You’re grounded, mister!
D) Bad dog! (then rub his nose in it)
E) Would you like to go stay with Nana & Pop for a week?
What?!
I think the only solution to this is to maybe reward him for successful dookies?? Like, if he can change his workflow to accomodate enough time for successful dookie-ing, he gets a gold star on the dookie chart, redeemable for cookies which in turn make more dookies.
I vote for “B”. Even if he can’t make it to the bathroom in time, he’s old enough to inform a parent about it and at least help clean it up. If this continues, though, I’d start going with “D”. ;)
I had a similar problem with our 3 year old. This was right before he turned 3. He could do pee no problem - but really delayed and didn’t want to go dookie…a few times it was too late in very inconvenient places…like his bed.
I agree with AllisonF - reward good behavior. The kid doesn’t want to poop on the floor and punishing him is only going to make it worse.
We would notice our guy ’squirming’ a lot - and would constantly ask him if he had to go…Just trying to stay on top of it until he had to give in.
We also said that we’d get him his most sought after Darth Vader mask upon his first successful dookie in the toilet. He still loves that mask and tells people the story about how he got it for going poop.
Is there a business in town that you don’t particularly wrong? Take your kid there for a few hours.
How about a modified E…send the kid to the sister-in-law!
My boy’s acidents start ramping-up when he’s stressed. Like when we had him (briefly) in an acedemicly based accelerated learning pre-school. Man, that was a mistake. Anyway, check for stress, and use option ‘A’.
None of the above. You speak calmy to a certain 4- year old boy and explain patiently that there might be better ways and places to “lay cable”.
If I have to pick of the above choices it would be “E”
AD
Make him go sit on the potty for a few minutes every hour, even if he doesn’t have to go.
Reward for success is all well and good but I’ve noticed that after some initial gold stars, interest in a good behavior chart starts to wane — even if goodies are involved.
I’m leaning towards the suggestion above… regular trips to the potty whether he has to go or not. Of course, that’s something Mama would have to enforce during the work week and she might not be too crazy about that idea. Might beat the alternative, though.
We went away for the weekend. Left the kids (4 & 5) with the 28-yr old stepdaughter who is a raging capitalist. Offered her $100 bonus if she could get the 4 year to put it all in the correct place every time. The kid was pooping & peeing in the potty like a champ within 3 hours. I don’t know what she promised him, but it worked.
Isn’t it great to get so much help from other people on a blog! Anyway, I don’t have kids myself (yet), so no experience but I would reward good behavior.
The missus asked the doc about it yesterday (at the usual checkup). Doc said this was normal behavior and not to make a big deal about it. (This too shall pass — but jeez laweez, go pass it in the bathroom!)
We’re potty training our 3yr old now and have sorta the same problem. Our boy doesn’t make the effort to get to the bathroom. We make him go sit on the potty every 15 min (though when I am the only one home with him and the 1yr old it’s every 1/2 hour). He knows not to pee on the floor or drop the kids off in his underwear. He just couldn’t care less. He did drop a load in the potty his 2nd day and we all went bat shit here (no pun intended). I do have a point….reward the good and the bad? well, I just don’t know - we’re feeling your pain though.
My twin girls are almost 4 months old. Is that too early to start the potty training? (wink wink) I’ll bet Pop would love option “E” (another wink).
and, what’s wrong with option ‘D’ ?
You could put the coil on top of his pillow and tell him the “Poop Fairy” dropped off a little reward for his deed.