Disclaimer: Peeing will be discussed!

We have been trying to teach the monkey not to pee outside for a few years now, and we have been unsuccessful. He specially wants to do this when he’s by the pool. He will whip it out and aim towards the pool. I don’t know where he got this idea that it was okay, and we haven’t been able to win this battle.

At first my husband said to let him pee outside, he didn’t think it was a big deal. “He’s a boy! That’s what boys do.” But then we heard from his teachers that he would whip it out during recess, outside next to the tree, and we realized we need to put an end to this. Our amazing In-Home trainer made us some PECs. There are two pictures. One with a boy peeing towards the pool with a red circle crossed out. And the other picture is of a boy peeing inside the toilet.

Every time we notice he would start getting ready outside to do his business, we would run, bring him inside, show him the PEC and help him pee in the toilet. I felt we’ve been doing better lately. He’s understanding.

These past few days, we have had some contractors in our home, putting in a new floor. The monkey hasn’t been too weird with the men. When the men arrived Monday morning, we explained our son’s specials needs and asked if they could make sure our doors were always closed because our kid was a runner. We explained he is non-verbal, but he communicates in various other ways.

My daughter said that yesterday, the monkey went to grab one of the men’s hands. The man wasn’t sure what to do. He looked around in confusion but went along towards my son’s direction. So here is my son, eight years old, leading a complete stranger so that he could help him to open the back door. I personally think of that as highly skilled trait and classify my monkey as a true leader, getting anyone to follow his commands. 

Back to the peeing issue. Yesterday, I was sitting on the kitchen table working, while the men were also working on the floors, and the monkey was playing outside in the swings. I hadn’t realized that the monkey came inside and was going to use the bathroom. However, the men had taken the toilet outside while they worked on the floor. The monkey comes inside, whips it out, looks around in confusion as if to say where’s my toilet, and runs outside towards the pool. And I wasn’t able to reach him to stop him.

And the men just stared after us. I’m running and yelling after my monkey, while the monkey is running towards the pool. And I can’t imagine when the men get home, the story they tell their families.   

And now we are back to step one, showing this kiddo the appropriate place to pee.

And sometimes one just has to laugh at it all.