Pee Happens.

 It seems like most years I have at least one kindergartner who has some pee issues.

This year is no exception. I have two of them, actually. A little boy who's mostly catching on, sometimes he forgets but it's been at least three weeks since he had to change his clothes.


Annd.... I have Miss Olivia. Remember her?

She's a beautiful little girl. Very intelligent and very definite about, well, everything. Has huge feelings and strong opinions.

She also wets her pants at least once every afternoon.

::sigh:::

I go around wiping up pee from the benches on the cafeteria tables while she's in the bathroom changing her clothes.

We have a bottle of spray sanitizer that we use on all the tables daily anyway.

Olivia has been sent home three times in the last week because she didn't have more things to change into. Once she's changed her clothing, she pees again within an hour usually.

I check in with her at least every 30 minutes or so.  I ask if she needs to use the restroom. She almost always says no. Usually it's about five minutes after that when she wets her pants.

I don't get angry with her, she's little and for whatever reason, can't help it.

But I have told her that she can't sit on the rugs  when she is wet, and that if she doesn't have clean clothes, she will have to go home.

She doesn't want to go home, she likes being there. All the open art projects and games and other kids to play with. She LOVES outdoor time.

Her mom shed a little light on everything this evening.

Apparently when Olivia was learning how to use the bathroom, she was in an in-home day care. The lady who was running it shamed her and shouted at her when she had a pee accident.
Grr.

Olivia's mom told me the woman was mean in other ways, too, she hadn't been aware of it until Olivia started kindergarten this year and began telling her things that happened 'at my other day care'.

There are other things going on in the family, too. The parents are going separate ways, and Olivia is understandably upset by that. She started school this year, which is a huge adjustment. Don't get me started on what I think about sending five year olds to school all day long, either. They're still so small and sooo not ready to be somewhere for 10 hours a day.

Some of them are dropped off at 7:30 for school, then they come to me after school and aren't picked up until 5:30. That's a long damn day for ME, I can't imagine being a small person and having to deal with that.

So this afternoon, she needed to change her clothing just before we went outside at 3. When we came back in at 3:40, she'd wet her pants again.

::sigh:::

After learning that she had no more clean clothing, I had to text her mom to request an immediate pickup.

:::sigh again:::

When her mom came to get her, she came and talked with me for a few minutes. Showed me a 'pee watch' (Not sure what it's actually called) on Amazon. It's a timer that a person wears on their wrist like a watch. It buzzes at whatever interval you want. It's to help her remember to go to the bathroom.

Pink Pee Watch

Olivia changed her clothing (Mom brought her some clean pants) and came to sit with us.

She said, "I'm sorry Mommy, for being bad."

Her mom said, "Oh no, you weren't bad, you just had a little accident."

Then Olivia turned to me and said, "Are you mad at me?"

"No, of course not. It's just pee. But I want to help you remember so you don't have to change your clothes or go home. I think the watch your mom is getting you will help you remember on your own."

She said, "So you're not mad?"

"No. I'm not mad."

Then she brightened.
"Can I have a hug?"

So I gave her a side hug. Told her, "See you tomorrow," and they left.

I fervently hope the watch will help her remember.

I also wish I could slap the 'care' giver who hurt that baby's feelings over her bodily functions. There are a lot of reasons I'm not a huge fan of day care. Funny, considering what I do for a living, but it's true. Definitely not a fan of unlicensed ones. No oversight, no required training. And they get away with things like that.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Maybe I should keep my legs crossed instead. Ha.