Tuesday, September 27, 2005

What kind of idiot tells a potty training/ed child, who has had an accident in their underwear, that it's ok to do that? That would be my mother-in-law.

Alison is doing a great job with the potty, but we still have accidents. Most of the time it's just a wet accident, but last night, for some reason, she pooped in her pants and didn't say a word about it. She sat in it long enough to end up with a red butt. Needless to say, my husband wasn't happy when he discovered it, just as he was going to do her stretches and then get her in the tub.

His mother called just as he was getting Alison into her pajamas. He put her on speaker phone and let her talk to Alison while he was finishing up. Because the monitor was on, I got to hear the conversation, too. Grandma did more talking than listening, but Alison did get a chance to tell her that she had pooped in her underwear, -- and she specifically said underwear...not diaper, not pull up -- and my lovely MIL told her not once, but twice, that it was ok that she had pooped in her underwear. I wanted to reach through the monitor and the phone and strangle her. I also wanted Kevin to tell her that it wasn't ok for Alison to go in her underwear, but he didn't. Perhaps the next time it happens I need to bag up her underwear and pants and send them to grandma to deal with. Then perhaps she would understand why what she said was so inappropriate.....then again, maybe she wouldn't.

And people wonder why I'm glad that my MIL lives 16 hours away. Fortunately, Alison has not taken her words to heart, because she did tell us when she had to go today. So we didn't have to deal with another accident, even though she was wearing a pull up (since it was just before nap time).

2 comments:

Smoov said...

Well....what would you do about the accident? Would you punish her or let her know you were angry? I always struggled with that, what to do when they had accidents. I felt angry because I knew they COULD use the potty and for whatever reason they didn't. I tried being angry and I tried not making a big deal of it and I tried telling them it was ok to have accidents. For mine, not making a big deal of the accident and making a HUGE deal when they went potty worked! And candy too.

Debbie said...

I would do what we did... calmly tell her that I understand it was an accident (though in this case it wasn't really, she didn't make any attempt to get to the bathroom, just went in her pants) and sometimes they happen, at least she tried, but next time she needs to try a little harder to get to the bathroom first because it's not ok to go in her underwear. I do not say "oh, you pooped in your underwear, well, that's ok," and leave it at that, which is what my MIL did....twice.