A recent study published in Child Development Magazine found that preschoolers argue with their parents an average of 20 to 25 times per hour.
That’s right.
20-25 times.
PER HOUR.
This is no surprise to me.
My 4-year-old’s official job on this planet, for which he receives some kind of esoteric compensation of which I cannot comprehend the value, seems to be making things harder for his dad and me.
He won’t go potty.
He won’t brush his teeth.
He won’t eat.
He won’t get dressed.
He won’t take a bath.
Basically, he does not want to do anything we want him to do.
This is especially true if we are in any kind of hurry whatsoever.
If there’s a deadline to be met, you can freaking forget about it.
I’ve literally fed him his pancake bite by bite in the morning, begging him to “take a giant monster bite” instead of the “tiny birdy bite” he much prefers when we’re running late for school.
While we run around packing his lunch, getting dressed, feeding the dogs and performing all the other general chaos of a school/work morning, Asher chooses to make up songs about gummy worms and dinosaurs over his uneaten breakfast.
He thinks running the water in the sink while making faces at himself in the mirror is far superior to actually brushing his teeth.
And he would rather eat a plate of sand and cigarettes than go potty. The kid freaking HATES to go to the potty.
I’ve dragged him by both arms to the potty so many times, whatever pants he’s wearing are the closest thing to a mop my floors see.
So basically, seeing the results of this depressing study actually made me feel less depressed about the contrary nature of my kid.
Apparently, it’s the nature of all kids to be contrary.
To the tune of at least once every 3 minutes.
And now I have a second kid. A sweet baby that will some day become a contrary 4-year-old.
And this one has a master to learn from.
God help me.
Yes, we are all screwed together. That does lighten the load somehow.
I remember the birdy bite days. Excuse me while I go have terrifying flashbacks.
Flashbacks and wine go really well together!
I totally feel your pain on the potty thing. That does get better. My son refused to go, ever. He would wake up after 12 hours of sleep and refuse to go. I couldn’t handle it, nor could I understand it. At 5.5, he has learned its not so fun to refuse to use the potty!
Mine does the exact same thing. He’ll wake up, eat breakfast (birdy bites, of course), play…it’ll be ages before he’ll agree to go potty. And then it’s always an emergency and at least half the time, he pees himself while pulling his pants down. There is mucho bribery going on in this house every single day just to get my kid to go potty. Nice to hear it gets better. I assume that one day he’ll actually care if he pees his pants and other people see it?
I have to assume that yes, he will care one day. My son cares. Much of his caring has to do with the fact that he can call his little sister a baby because she is still having lots of accidents and still wears a diaper at bedtime.
Oh man. EB is all about the potty right now, so much so that I can’t get her to do very much besides yell “bye bye pee pee pottieeeeee!” But I can see how this could quickly change directions. But she already doesn’t eat, so…that just keeps happening you say?
Oh yeah. If you want her to do it, prepare for her to NOT want to do it. ; )