Responsibility with a Capital Pee

Today, my two year old peed his pants. He drenched the undies that he asked to wear (which I agreed to since he’s 99% potty trained), made a puddle on the dining room chair that created a mini waterfall down to the floor, and tiny pee puddle footsteps all down the hall to the bathroom.

Normally, this isn’t pleasant but honestly isn’t a big deal either. Except for the fact that today his teething little sister was finally down for her first nap of the day, of course on my lap. It’s really sweet to snuggle with your one-year-old until you’ve got a potential urine town production going on.

The toddler runs back on the scene in dirty clothes he found on the bathroom floor. But they aren’t covered in pee so it’s fine, right? Then it’s time for the true test. 

“Son, you need to clean that up, ok?”

Listen, I know he’s only two, but we try to teach him to be responsible and that his actions have consequences. Plus, I really didn’t want to wake up the grumpster. 

So things didn’t go exactly the way I planned them. He climbed a stool and got way too many paper towels. And in the process of putting the roll back, he knocked some things down (but he put it all back). And honestly, I definitely had to do a second cleanup after nap time because he smeared it around more than anything else, and obviously didn’t sanitize. BUT, he cleaned it up enough to keep it from getting stepped on or stomped on or stay sitting, soaking into the floor and chair.

Honestly, we’ve done potty training a little differently. We waited until he showed interest. We didn’t rush it. You could say it’s taken 6 months so far to get him to this point (and we’re obviously not in the clear on accidents yet). We’ve taken it at his pace because honestly, when we tried other methods it wasn’t effective and this way it’s literally zero work and minimal stress for us. With that being said, I sometimes question if we should be doing things differently. 

But when you think about it, potty training is about your toddler maturing. They’re learning a necessary skill that they’ll use for their entire life. But responsibility is a life skill too, and he’s starting to master both! 

So yeah, accidents happen, but it’s always important that we learn from them. Life is messy but there’s learning to be had from every experience. ((Who knew I could be proud of my son for cleaning pee!?))  Apparently every puddle has a silver lining!

Maybe my son’s not big enough for full time undies. But he IS big enough to take action, own his mistakes, and make it right. And that matters a whole lot more to me than dry underwear.

What are some ways you teach your children responsibility? I want to keep promoting this for my littles (hopefully without the pee, so give me tips for that too!).