Friday, September 5, 2008

forcing independence

I never realized how dependent Bentley is. One of the requirements for preschool is that he has to be able to go to the bathroom by himself. Now, he is potty trained (except an occasional #2 accident, but that's a whole other post), but he still prefers someone to take him to the bathroom. Also, he can't understand the concept of pulling his pants down just far enough to use the potty, and pulling them back up. He wants to fully remove his pants and underwear and then needs someone to put them back on. It hadn't even crossed my mind that this would be an issue until the first day of school. So now I am trying to teach him this concept. It had also caused me to think of all the other small things he "needs" help with every day. Just now it took him 10 minutes to figure out how to put his t-shirt on because I have always helped him with it. He asked for a Capri-Sun and I had to open the fridge for him because he "didn't know how". I realize this is partly my fault for babying him and it just occured to me that we never really went through the "I can do it myself" phase. If you always have someone there to do something for you, why would you want to learn to do it yourself?
So, I have initiated Operation: Forcing Independence. Bentley didn't know he wanted to be independent and more self sufficient, but he is going to be! He is 3 years old for goodness sakes and still asks me to put the lid on his marker for him. Time to cut the umbilical cord child... you are on your own....
Well, as much at least until next time you need help... :)

1 comment:

Megan said...

definitely time to cut that umbilical cord...but I'm not referring to Bentley! I'm referring to Mattix!