Hi. I'm new here and feeling very depressed. I apologize if I ramble or don't make sense. We had a rough morning here and I'm pretty frazzled.
To give some background, I have a 4.5 yr old son named Riley. He has been a challenge ever since he was a young toddler, although it seems to get harder to deal with him the older he gets. Riley is very smart and is advanced for his age in a lot of areas. However, he is also defiant, talks back a lot, and explodes if things don't go his way. He really only acts that way with husband and I. That's the part I don't understand. He's actually quite shy around strangers, and although not perfect, he does pretty well at preschool and with other relatives.
The problem we're dealing with right now is toilet related. Riley has been potty trained since he was 2.5 or 3 yrs old. He's always done pretty well with peeing on the potty, and although he will only poop on our potty at home, he's done well with that for the past 9 months to a year. Last week though, he suddenly developed a fear of the toilet clogging and refuses to poop on the potty! He has been pooping in his pants since last Wednesday.
I have no idea where this is coming from. This morning I finally had enough and put him on the potty and told him to sit there until he until he poops (it had been two days with no BM, and I didn't want to deal with another accident). He threw an absolute screaming fit and kept trying to get off the potty when he felt the poop coming out. I ended up having to hold him on the potty until he was done going! The whole process ended up taking about a hour.
I probably dealt with this the completely wrong way, but I was really at my wits end. It made me furious that he put me through that, and I didn't know what else to do. Every other 4 year old I know uses the potty, so why can't he? Especially since he's been trained for quite a while and doing well. I would completely understand if he couldn't make it to the potty in time or wasn't completely potty trained yet, but this just doesn't seem normal.
Anyway, sorry for going on and on, but I just feel like a really lousy parent right now, and I'm at a loss as for what to do. Thanks for listening!
To give some background, I have a 4.5 yr old son named Riley. He has been a challenge ever since he was a young toddler, although it seems to get harder to deal with him the older he gets. Riley is very smart and is advanced for his age in a lot of areas. However, he is also defiant, talks back a lot, and explodes if things don't go his way. He really only acts that way with husband and I. That's the part I don't understand. He's actually quite shy around strangers, and although not perfect, he does pretty well at preschool and with other relatives.
The problem we're dealing with right now is toilet related. Riley has been potty trained since he was 2.5 or 3 yrs old. He's always done pretty well with peeing on the potty, and although he will only poop on our potty at home, he's done well with that for the past 9 months to a year. Last week though, he suddenly developed a fear of the toilet clogging and refuses to poop on the potty! He has been pooping in his pants since last Wednesday.
I have no idea where this is coming from. This morning I finally had enough and put him on the potty and told him to sit there until he until he poops (it had been two days with no BM, and I didn't want to deal with another accident). He threw an absolute screaming fit and kept trying to get off the potty when he felt the poop coming out. I ended up having to hold him on the potty until he was done going! The whole process ended up taking about a hour.
I probably dealt with this the completely wrong way, but I was really at my wits end. It made me furious that he put me through that, and I didn't know what else to do. Every other 4 year old I know uses the potty, so why can't he? Especially since he's been trained for quite a while and doing well. I would completely understand if he couldn't make it to the potty in time or wasn't completely potty trained yet, but this just doesn't seem normal.
Anyway, sorry for going on and on, but I just feel like a really lousy parent right now, and I'm at a loss as for what to do. Thanks for listening!