Reply from Jeffrey, Child's Age 14 and 15 - 9/23/02 - IP#: 131.96.240.4Ellen, You have received a very common-sense response from Steven, and I hope you have put it to use in dealing with your son's current lack of cooperation. By offering your son two choices, (either wear protection and avoid having a wet bed, or refuse the protection but assume the responsibility for cleaning and changing the bedding), you were being completely reasonable. By rejecting both of these choices, he is not being reasonable. You should insist that he accept one of the two options, and I would suggest two things to convince him to do so. First, withdraw other privileges if he continues to refuse to do the laundry. You can't physically force him to do it, but you can deny him other things he wants. Second, you mentioned that you have older sons who were also bedwetters, and they may be able to help. Unless they also became uncooperative at the same age, you may be able to enlist their support in talking to their younger brother. He may listen to their advice more easily. You should also point out that by refusing to wear GoodNites, he is acting as if he is helpless to avoid waking up lying in soaked sheets. He needs to have his thought process turned around so he can understand that although he cannot yet help wetting in his sleep, he does have control over whether his bed gets wet. If he can learn to see it that way, he will realize that wearing protection is the mature way of managing his sleepwetting, not the opposite as he obviously thinks. |