One Whole Week

It has been an entire week since my six year old son last wet the bed. We told him that if he could go seven straight days without wetting the bed, we would get him a surprise. This morning was day seven of seven. Before the seven days, there were a few days where we had to reset the clock, but not anymore.

I’m not a big believer of bribing children for acceptable behavior, but this is different. There are really only three options that I could see: 1) bribery, which is the path we took; 2) punishment, which is pretty futile in a case like bedwetting because I think it will only compound the “problem” which is pretty routine for six year old boys and 3) resigning myself to doing a lot of laundry, which had gotten old really quick.

Yesterday, we told him that if he was able to go seven days, he couldn’t just start peeing in the bed again on Day Eight. I pointed out that he has proven to us that he was able to either hold it or get up and go to the bathroom, so there is no reason to start bedwetting again. We also pointed out how proud of him we were.

We have no idea what kind of surprise to get for him, but he knows it won’t be something extravagant, but instead it will be something special for him because he earned it.

Some of my friends without children might not see what a huge accomplishment this is (but really isn’t not cleaning up urine soaked bedclothes a good thing?), but trust me, this is huge. I have been through a lot with my kids: first steps, first periods, first dates and first children and I rank this up there with the best of times.