Some background: I'm a single mother of a wonderful, smart, cute and very headstrong little boy who is three years old. He's a new three, since the end of February. And when I say smart, the boy is too damn smart...for MY own good. I have to stay like five steps ahead of him and I'm usually too tired, so we have some battles. When I'm on my game, we do great. If I'm off, we both suffer. So, when I say that motherhood is one of the things I need to work on, it's really about getting myself in the right head space and arming myself with enough of the right tools to handle my amazing spawn...didn't have the tools today.
Bboy is grown--that's what he thinks. He doesn't say it in those words but he knows everything and can do everything on his own (except when I want him to, in which case he needs "mommy to do it.") Anyway, the latest attempt at autonomy has been going to the bathroom. I have to say that he has done amazingly well with his potty training, which had a rough start but basically went off without a hitch once I read this book (can't remember the name at the moment) and then he was all set in about a week. And only had like two or three accidents after that, usually because he was so engrossed in something that he didn't want to stop. Anyway, now mommy isn't allowed in the bathroom (unless he wants me to tell him a story--ok, so that was the way I got him to stay on the toilet--read books, told stories, etc.)
Now when he goes, he's like "I need my privacy, mommy" or "I can do it myself, mommy". That's cool. I'm all for it--except when he poopies! I keep telling him, when he poopies to come and get mommy so I can wipe. Sometimes I catch just as he's getting off the toilet, a few times he had already gotten off and said he wiped himself (and amazingly he seemed to do a good job), and then there was this one time...
This morning, I totally got engrossed in my own thing. Thinking back, I heard him say he was going to the bathroom. I even vaguely recall something about poopy, I think. It's all kinda hazy at this point. I know he came into my room, I know he got up on my bed, and I know he said something about poopy again. Is it starting to become clear to you yet? You know it's coming right? Here it is...
I turn around after hearing poopy, to find my wonderful child on my fabulous bed with poop all on his hands and FEET! Ahhhhhhhhhh! He's telling me there's poop on his hand and then I'm up yelling at him "DON'T YOU MOVE!" and "WHY DID YOU GET OFF THE TOILET!" and "STAND STILL! DON'T YOU TAKE A STEP! STOP, STOP, STOP! So now he's crying cause I'm yelling at him and he wants to move and get the poopy off but I'm telling him to stand still and I'm furious and grossed out and pissed cause I just changed the damn sheets! I pick him up under his arms and yell at him not to touch me. I carry him to the shower like he's a funky little poopy boy--which he is!
Clearly, I could have handled that better. When he was in the shower, I apologized for yelling at him and we talked about the germs that are in poopy and that he needs to tell mommy when he's done from now on. He said ok and the rest of our morning went off without a hitch. But I guess that first part was hitch enough!
LOL! You definitely handled that better than I would have!
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