Kids

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Let's talk kids.
Always the kids. Oh, the children.
The bloody, blessed children.

I love them, I swear.

My kids are both going through really challenging stages. And it's catching up with me and I'm afraid that I'm not coping very well.
(The mummy club would hear this and nod vigorously, offering coos of understanding.)
Hear me out.

Ev started school this year. She's brilliant. She talks ALL OF THE TIME. She started reading and she writes me love notes and draws pictures of her family with enormous stick hands, kneecaps and bumpy shoulders. She practices backtalking and cries uncontrollably multiple times every single day.
Another thing she does every single day?
Wees her pants.

That's it, folks. We've had a complete toileting regression. We have gone from a confident check-that-off-the-list job to the centre of my parenting frustration.
I know! I know, I know I know.  I knoooooowww
Don't make a big deal of it. No pressure. Does she have a UTI? Don't make her feel bad. Don't overcompensate by putting her back in nappies. Give her a time schedule. No more drinks after 5 o'clock. Umm. What else? Put her on the toilet before I go to bed. Put her potty back in her room for easier access. Night lights. Support, support support. Talk about what it feels like. Pressure? Frequent reminders. Anything.

Yet.
It has now been 5 months and it's become even worse. Now she accidents up to, and I exaggerate not, 8 times through the day WITH the 90 minute toilet breaks. Plus the accidents at night. And I think one of the biggest concerns is her inability to even acknowledge that her pants are wet.
Seriously.
I make a point not to make a big deal, telling her to change her pants because she's had another accident. She just looks a bit sheepish and runs off. I guess it's possible that she doesn't even go to the toilet when I tell her to, but sits there and sings to herself in the mirror and that would have been enough to fool me on most days, to be honest.

Today, though, once again, she said she can't even feel that it's wet. She doesn't know why she doesn't go to the toilet. And she had another accident while I was at Nicole's house, not even 30 minutes after her previous toilet break. I'm just... I'm frustrated!!!

Top it all off, I'm simultaneously toileting a stubborn and ornery 2 year old, who insists on regular cuddles through the night by screaming as though he's been met with a barbed wire sickle and my dinners are out to kill him.

I'll tell you, this parenting thing is a hoot.