I got off of my lazy tush yesterday to scrub bathrooms and mop floors. It feels good to have fresh clean rooms, but since I am caught up on most of my housework, I am floundering on what to do to today. I have plenty of to-do projects on my list. Many things that I could work on, if I could stay focused. I could be highly productive today, if it were not for one small problem . . . Riley is naked again.
All 3 of my boys have had their times where they liked being naked or I have had a hard time getting them dressed in the mornings, but Riley is taking things to a whole new level. This little boy who is 2 for only a few more days absolutely LOVES being naked. It's driving me crazy.
I get him dressed and he goes off to play and then wanders back into the living room in all his natural glory. It's not constant of course, and there are days that he actually will stay clothed for the entire day, but when he gets on a naked kick, we can't keep his pants on his body.
Over and over again, I put pants back on him or insist he does it himself and less than five minutes later they are off again. The other night after struggling for 20 or 30 minutes with the underwear issue while making dinner, I finally resorted to a pull-up, thinking that maybe this had something to do with potty training or comfort. Riley climbed up to the table to wait for his dinner and when I turned around the next time he was standing on his chair butt naked with his unmentionables resting on top of his dinner plate.
Scott was alerted to the problem with my very loud cry of 'What do you think you are doing? Get your p--- off the kitchen table!' I put the pull up on again and he immediately took it off and tried to get back up to the dinner table as I was exchanging his plate and getting food served. Finally having reached my limit on the naked thing (it's only cute the first time or two, it stopped being adorable weeks ago for us), I scooped Riley up and put him in the front bedroom. I gave him underwear and the pull up and told him that he could come rejoin the family when he had pants on.
The bedroom door was open, he wasn't secluded, just isolated for a short time to figure out if he wanted to follow the family rules. He cried for a short second then stopped. He didn't come out. After about 6 minutes, Scooter ventured into the room to get a toy and I heard Riley shout 'Get out of here! Leave me alone!' Scooter grabbed his toy and hightailed it back out to us. A few minutes later, Riley ventured out of the bedroom and at first glance it looked like he had complied with my request. He was wearing something anyway. But as he got closer to the table, we could see that he had carefully arranged himself so that all the important parts of his anatomy were poking out of the top of the underpants. AAGH! Honestly it was one of those times you are so angry they defied you, but you want to laugh yourself out of a chair at the same time because they chose such an ingenious way to do the defying.
What am I supposed to do with that??? Anyway, we dealt with it and a day or so later, I announced to Riley when he started some additional dinner time pants antics that if he wanted to be naked, he needed to stay in his bedroom, if he was coming out to be with the family he had to have clothes on.
Scott didn't really agree with my rule. I think he thought that I was kind of giving in too much and that Riley shouldn't be hanging out naked for any extended period of time anywhere - even his own room. Scott thinks Riley should just listen and obey, but that's not how kids work. I'm holding firm on this version of the rule for 2 reasons. First, I don't want to give Riley a complex about being naked. We use correct terms for body parts around here and I try to make sure the boys know they have normal bodies that God made purposfully when they have questions or concerns or even curiosities. So even though I insist that they only expose themselves, talk about or do certain things in appropriate private circumstances, I am doing every thing I can to give them healthy body images. It's fine that Riley is naked. It isn't hurting anyone when we are here, but we don't all want to see it all the time so he is being relegated to a bedroom for his nudie-time. And Second (it's selfish) Scott isn't here all day. He's at work and I am stuck fighting the naked fight all by myself all day. He might get frustrated with it at night and on the weekends, but it doesn't come close to comparing. In the name of picking my battles, I have chosen not to fight for pants, but for the living room and kitchen being naked-free zones.
So today with literally 20 slightly important things I could or should be doing looming over my shoulder, I am fighting with keeping naked Riley in his room or having him clothed when he comes out. This won't last I know. He's just doing what kids his age do. When I first laid down the rule, it wasn't really a set rule to him, just something new so he listened for a couple of days. When he would come out and ask for something to eat, he would look down to see that he was still naked and go back to get dressed before coming back and asking again, telling me 'but I have pants on'. Today though, he's testing the limits to see how serious I am. He comes out again and again naked and when I remind him of the rule he tells me 'No' and 'I don't want to' and 'I'm really, really mad'. It's keeping me from doing just about anything else, but with consistency and follow through in mind I am sticking to my guns.
At the end of this battle, I suspect that Riley will quickly lose interest in running around the house naked. If we hold the line at staying in one room, where no one is actually going to see him, it won't be nearly as fun for him after a while. After all, what's fun about misbehaving and trying to drive your mother crazy if she can't actually see you do it?
But for now, I can kind of see that today is going to be one of those not-so-productive messes. I might get to the store to get a couple of things I need, but I have a feeling that even that small chore might wait until Scott is home to be with the kids and I can escape the battle of wills I am dealing with right now. It's too difficult to get anything major done when you have to stop every 3 minutes to deal with an almost 3 year old. And it's too important that Riley KNOWS that I am winning the battle of wills for me to let it go while I fold laundry, prime door trim or organize a box full of documents.
I have fought these types of battles before and I will again. I am seasoned enough of a warrior by now to know that I have to be consistent and not give an inch to ensure victory. I also have been doing this long enough to know that kids can always surprise you. So even though I am trudging on with supermom confidence, I also know that Riley is entirely capable of figuring out a way around my road block and that there are also about 573 other things he could think of to do to get a rise out of me as well.
Oh well, the goal here today is that Riley be reminded I am boss and that he doesn't go off to Kindergarten thinking it's okay to run around in the buff all day! Bye-bye To-Do List!
Thanks and God Bless!
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