I’m a little embarrassed to admit this, but my 5 year old twins still wear pull-ups at night. I don’t know why I’m embarassed by it, after all, it’s THEM who use them, not me. Nonetheless, because all of us mothers evaluate our entire self worth on the successes and failures of our children, I am of course mortified to the point where I contemplate shopping for Good-Nights at the Target across town out of fear that someone I know will see me stocking up.
I know the twins could skip the nighty-diaper if they had to. When we went to Australia with the kids this past summer every single morning they woke up dry. By the end of the trip I was high-fiving them, “I think you’re ready to ditch the diapers!” But when we got back, because of the jet lag, I put pull-ups on them, and what do you know! They’re back to lazily peeing in the comforts of their beds. And that’s what it is, too. Laziness.
Haven’t we all wished that we didn’t have to get up and walk to the bathroom to pee in the middle of the night. I envy those little guys. They can just lay there and let it flow. We, on the other hand, remain in bed contemplating “Can I make it to morning? Maybe, but if I get up and go now, I might be able to sleep later. I don’ want to give myself a bladder infection by holding it too long. Maybe if I roll over I won’t have to go so badly.” Finally, after 30 minutes of lost sleep, we inevitably succumb.
So I’ve resorted to bribing the twins. I tell them, “Guys, once you can go 5 nights in a row without peeing in your pull up, I’ll take you to Target and you can pick out a toy! And not just a little toy. Something MEDIUM.” For a split second I thought about BIG, but I didn’t want to go overboard. I’m not sure if this will work, but I figure it’s worth a shot.
This morning, McKenna came into my bathroom, very excited. “Mom! My pull up is dry!”
I was overjoyed as she pulled it off and showed me. I high fived her, “Only 4 more nights, my girl!” Could it be we’re finally getting somewhere!? Then Aidan walked in. Was he, too, going to show me a dry diaper? Were the both of them days away from being sleep-over-ready? So I ask with much excitment, “How about your’s, buddy? Are you dry?”
He looks at me expressionless and says, “McKenna didn’t have a dry diaper. She changed when she woke up.”
Sure enough, I found a nice wet plump pull-up hidden behind the closet door. Apparently I’ve created deceitful bed-wetters. Nice!
