The dog ate my poop!

It must be something a boy just knows, that he simply has the ability to pee wherever he pleases. Is this due to the handy location of the instrument that he pee's from? Probably!

Merrick, 3 years old, very successful at always going potty in the POTTY! Until one quiet afternoon with Grandpa. They were playing in the backyard, and the neighbors dog lifted a leg and pee'd through the chain link fence...and so begins my sons fascination with peeing wherever it's convenient. (And grandpa's enjoyment of seeing me freak out that my son is peeing everywhere). Well Grandpa on this fine day, in response to the dog peeing through the fence, teaches my son to pee back through the fence. Of course I didn't find out about it until Grandpa was bragging about how awesome it was!

A few weeks later, my beautiful boy became the kid at the park who just pee'd in front of everyone when he decided to whip it out in the middle of a birthday party and pee right next to the entrance to the big, rented, blow up, jumping castle thing! Ahhhh! I was standing on the other side of the party, and looked up to see him pulling up his pants, and turned to my boyfriend and asked why he thought our son had his pants down in the middle of the park. I then ran to my son and asked him, and he informed me that he had to pee. And that Grandpa said it was ok to pee outside! WRONG!

A couple days later, we were at Grandpa's house, it was Father's Day. I was inside cleaning up, and my son was in the back yard playing with the dogs. I went out to check on him, because as you know when a kid gets quiet it usually means they are doing something naughty. Well sure enough it was naughty...Again Merrick is pulling up his pants, with Mack (a mini dachshund) close behind. Preparing myself for another pee story, I ask him what he was doing. "I pooped mama, but I can't find my poop because Mack ate it!" (My child speaks very well for a 3 year old) So now we have progressed from peeing in the park to providing a delicious poopy treat for Mack! Good lord! So Merrick spent the next 10 minutes in time out, sitting on the toilet, so he could be reminded that the only place we poop is in the toilet!

I am hoping that this also got the point across to my father that teaching a kid to pee outside only leads to bad poopy things, and that he was in as much trouble as my son. And that maybe the fact that his little dog just ate poop with the mouth that licks him! ha!

Unfortunately the story does not end here. I thought that the time out on the toilet, and the big trouble was enough, however I am sad to say, 4 days have passed, and we are still battling the newly learned ability to pee wherever Merrick finds convenient.

We were cleaning up the house, and I had asked Merrick to go to his room and pick up his toys. I was cleaning my bathroom, and again Merrick was quiet. Yikes! So I head to his room to check on his progress. Well I catch him carrying his Halloween pumpkin bucket to his bathroom, and he starts dumping out some liquid...in my head I'm thinking, please god let that be water and not pee! I ask Merrick was he was dumping in the toilet, and with the guiltiest look on his face ever, he giggles and tells me it's pee! GIGGLES! Ummm no sir, giggling is really not appropriate at this point, so again we have a big, loud talk about how we don't pee anywhere but in the toilet. And more time out!

I have to wonder if all this random peeing, in random places i.e. the pumpkin bucket, is his way of telling me that he's jealous of his new baby sister, and all this peeing is getting him attention! That or it's just a male prerogative to pee whenever & wherever they please, and that trait just happens to be something that comes with the territory of having a boy!

I WONDER...

I was having one of my usual chats on the phone with my dad the other day...My dad loves to chat about things, about the most recent show he saw on history channel, or politics, or soccer, or whatever he's into at the moment. I love it! I always learn something new, and most of the time I feel like I may have taught him something. Or at least given him some insight on the way I view the world. So let me give you a little back story to start...

I have a 3 year old son & just had a baby girl in April. Pre-parent life for me was, well, there was nothing I did in my life that would lead any person, primarily my dad, to believe that I had any desire to be a parent. Then came my son, and I became "my mother", which is a compliment. I love being a mom more then anything ever! I love my babies, I have extreme tunnel vision for these two, my whole world revolves around them. I do my best to observe my kids, to learn their behavior, and really I just want to figure out what makes them tick. And in turn I guess I am hoping this will lead me to be a better parent. At least to be the best parent I can be that is.

Back to the conversation with my dad...we were talking about the state of the economy, which then turned to our thoughts on what we think the world is going to be like for my kids as they grow up. How much a gallon of gas will cost, and so on. This then headed into discussion on "kids today!" and how they are so different from when my dad was a kid, and even when I was a kid. I of course have to share my two cents on this...

I have a friend who has a son who from what I have observed is a wild child. No rules, no bedtime, no discipline, I could go on. And my advice to this friend was "if you don't give you child rules, the cops will." It seems to me that with each generation we are getting more and more lazy. We have less and less respect for eachother and everything around us. "I wonder" if in the effort to make "life better for our kids" we've become so spoiled, that all hell has broken loose?

My grandparents were hard working, depression era, money saving, more like penny pinching, hard fisted disciplinarians. My parents were similar, not as hard, but I still had the fear, and I knew my limits always. And now...well just turn on the MTV, take a look at My Sweet 16. These kids are having 16 year old birthday parties that cost 100's of thousands of dollars, and act as if they deserve it, like their simple existence deems them worthy of such spending. And for my own peace of mind I have to hope that this is all simply just an effort for their parents to "give their kid what they didn't have." But in the process, what are they teaching our kids? How to waste a ton of money? That spending money is what you do to be better then the next guy?

A few weeks ago, we were leaving a friends house, and across the street we witnessed a fight between what appeared to be a single mother and her son(s). The boy called his mom every name in the book, was throwing things at her, pushed her, I'll spare you the details. This kid had to be in high school, and was bigger then her. But instead of standing her ground, showing him that she was in charge, I heard with my own ears a response that still makes me sick. Instead of calling the cops, which is what I would've done, she basically gave the kid reason to do it again. She went on and on about how she was a bad mother, and must deserve it! Are you effing kidding me?!?! Just ask the kid to punch you in the face next time!

I love the concept of giving our kids a better life then we had, but at the same time, maybe the rules, and the little bit of fear we had with our parents weren't such a bad idea. Maybe it would be wise if parents would step up and invest more time in their kids, be a thorn in their side, be aware of what these kids are doing. Give our kids rules, bug them about what they do, where they go, make it our business, even though they wish it wasn't. We made these kids, and the best way to give these kids a better life is to raise them to be hard working, obedient, thoughtful adults.

I'll get off my soapbox for tonight...peace out!