When raising children one must often make a conscience decision. Do you laugh or cry at whatever just happened? I’ve been trying really hard to choose “laugh” lately, even though I want to cry (or get mad at the very least). Here are two recent examples…
Lately Jackson and Tyler have had a hard time making it to the potty on time between the hours of 4pm and 6pm. It’s really quite remarkable how many times the two of them can pee on the floor in those 2 hours (we’re talking 4-6 accidents between the two of them in a 2 hour span). I don’t know why they have such a hard time in the late afternoon/early evening, but they do. As a result dinner has been late several times because of all the, uh, activities here.
This past Monday night I decided I wasn’t going to let these potty time escapades get the best of me or my dinner preparation. My plan of attack? Start dinner at 3:30pm in hopes it was done sometime between 5:30 and 6. Good thing I did too because it took me nearly 2 hours to get dinner into the oven! In those two hours we had 10 trips to the potty, 3 puddles on the floor and I got to rescue a sippy cup from a toilet. All I could do was laugh. And be glad I started dinner when I did!
The next night Tyler did something that had Nick and me rolling with laughter…
We were in the middle of dinner when Tyler suddenly jumped up and frantically said “potty! potty!” so I grabbed him and rushed him in there. I could tell he was starting to poop (something we’ve been working hard at getting him to do in the toilet rather than his underwear) so I was frantically trying to rip off his pants and his underwear. As I was doing this he also started to pee, so he was spraying everywhere before I finally got him on the toilet. That had me giggling enough and then just as Nick came to see what I was laughing at I noticed the poop on the floor. That sent me over the edge and Nick cracked up too. We told Ty he was so close!
What will you choose to do today when your kid does something crazy/obnoxious/frustrating? Laugh or cry? I’m choosing laugh again; it seems to make the days better.
