Tuesday, October 04, 2005

Battle of the Bedtime and other reasons I'm stopping after one

Tonight has been vexing, to put it mildly. I love J with all my heart, and I'd lay down my life for him if need be. But tonight - I was about three seconds away from pinching his little head off if he'd gotten out of that bed one more time. The fun started before bedtime, though, around 8:30, with a round of both poo AND pee in the pants. Fun! I don't know why my child has such a block about pooping in the potty, but he flat out won't do it. So that was a treat. Good thing I was planning to do a load of his laundry tonight anyway.

Bath time was fairly uneventful, but going to bed was a whole 'nother kettle of fish. I got every excuse in the book - I don't like my pajamas, I don't want to go to sleep, I don't like sleep, I want to read just one more book, I want my drum and stick, I want to play the drum, I want milk, go 'way mama so I can have a poo, I want more milk, I want to rock, I need to go potty, I want more milk and I want to come with you to get it.... AAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. By the time he finally went to sleep, it was 10:30 and I was so out of sorts I felt like I was just being mean to him. Logically I know I'm not, and it would be different if I were that abrupt at 8:30. But at 10:30, it's way past bedtime, and I told him the next thing I heard out of that bed had better be snoring, or no TV tomorrow. After that, he wanted me to hold his hand, and then he went to sleep. Finally.

Reason #1 for no more children: well, clearly my life circumstances are less than ideal for having children right now. Reason #2: I don't think I have the financial and emotional resources to do a proper job of raising two children. Reason #3: if I never have to change another pair of poopy pants again, it will be too soon. I will be beyond glad when my child can poop in the toilet and handle clean-up himself. And once I'm past the point where dealing with poop is my responsibility, I see no reason to go back to square one, starting with changing poopy diapers every hour or two all the way up through potty training. Nope, I certainly have no desire to go through this stage again.

3 comments:

Holly said...

Wish I had some wisdom about the pooping issues. Poop in underwear is the worst...yuck! I thrown them out...don't even think of trying to clean them. no way...not me!

Kalleigh Hathaway said...

What amazes me is how accustomed we get to our own children's personalities and that affects what we accept and what we feel guilty about. I watched "Nanny 911" for the first time last night, and wondered at what point the kids' behavior went from acceptable to unacceptable. I can't imagine my son, even at three, telling me "I want" or "go away". But he has a pleaser personality and isn't stubborn, and I would have no idea how to deal with a stubborn child. You deal with way more than I ever could, and that in itself reminds me why I'll have no more children!

Lisa @ The Plain-Spoken Pen said...

Kayten, you're right - what we'll accept varies depending on our personalities and our children's. J is about as stubborn as they come - when I had my reading done a couple of months ago, the woman doing it told me it was a good thing I was a lawyer, because I'd have to argue my case with him often! LOL I'm pretty laid back, so unless it's something I think is vitally important, I try not to get too worked up about it. J will tell me "go away" if he wants privacy (like to have a poo) - that, I'll give him. But if he were to tell me "go away" meaning he just didn't like what I was doing or telling him? Well, too bad, because I'm your mama. If he tells me "I don't want" (as in "I don't want to go to bed," "I don't want to go to school") he's told that it doesn't matter what he wants right now, this is what he needs to do. It may take two or three or four rounds of it, but he'll go on and do what he's asked. And usually, once he's realized that mama is not going to give in, he goes on in fairly good humor. He may be stubborn, but at least he isn't a sulky child, and I'm thankful for that - if he gets upset, it doesn't take too long for his sunny disposition to return. (He gets that from me - K can hold a grudge for years! LOL) But unless God has a really weird sense of humor, I'm not having any more. I can deal with a stubborn child, but not with more than one of them! And I'm sure that somewhere my mother is laughing, saying, "Ha ha, you got one just like you!"