To Pee OR Not To Pee

[Couldn’t resist a shout out to Shakespeare J]

The dilemma that my 4 year old is facing in school currently is just that, “To pee or not to pee”! So far, he has attended 6 full days of JK and each of those days, he did not pee at school. How would I know for sure? Well, when he gets home … it is Niagara Falls (if you know what I mean) … that’s about 8 hours of voluntary water retention!! And of course, his own confession of “I did NOT pee at school!”.

“Why?”
“I don’t know”
“What do you mean by I don’t know?”
“I don’t know”

That was our conversation from Day 1.

On Day 2, as I walked him to school, I told him that he should pee when he needs to. So, did he? NO. Before we walked back home, I requested his teacher if I could take him to the washroom. I thought if he got familiar with the amenities, he might be more comfortable. Turns out, he knew exactly where the “Boys” washroom was. I was a bit shocked to see it … there was pee everywhere! First instinct was to walk out of there …

“OK”, I told him, “Take some tissue and clean the toilet. Then wash your hands. Then you can pee; clean up again if there is a mess and wash your hands again! Got that?”

“What?”, he said, “Why 2 times?”

We got through that somehow and I hoped that I got through to him. I informed his teacher about the little issue and requested to remind the little guy to go to the washroom.

Day 3

“Why NOT?”
“Because the teacher did NOT tell me to!”

Day 4

“Come on dude! This is NOT good for your bladder!!”
“What is a bladder?”
“It holds your pee and it is getting tired!”
“NO! It is in my tummy and my tummy is OK!”

Day 5

I am thinking TGIF (Thank God, It’s Friday!). I can work with him on the weekend. One of the moms suggested that I offer him a small reward like a lollipop or something. She actually had a few in her handbag and gave me one.

As soon as I saw my little one, I asked him, “Did you go to the washroom?”. He beamed and nodded. I felt so relieved. I gave him a hug and the lollipop; thanked the mom and started walking home with a happy smile on my face.

As soon as we got home …

“I have to go pee! My tummy is hurting!”
“You peed at school today, right?”
“No”
“But you went to the washroom?”
“Yes”

I so badly wanted to scream.

Over the weekend, I was talking about it with my brother. The first thing he told me was that I have too much time on my hands. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t spend this much time thinking about my child not peeing at school. Right!

So, I decided to talk to my son one last time and not make such a big deal of it.

Day 6

Half way to home, he says, “My tummy is hurting!”

We walked home as quickly as we could.