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Why would a child wet themselves on purpose?

Any suggestions?
My 6 nearly 7 yr old stepson is ruining family life!!
He is very wilful and basically hates beind told no.When he is told off for being naughty he will wait until its night time,get up,stand next to his bed and wee in his pajamas. We are at a loss for a cure to this problem. We have tried everything, ignoring it, taking things away from him, reducing his drinks always explaining why he shouldnt be doing this but nothing is working.
We always positively encourage his good behaviour but its like he doesnt care..
My partner cant cope and to be honest ive also had enough,he is a very intelligent boy but it seems as soon as you try to put any kind of boundary in place he doesnt like it and if you dare repremand him for his behaviour he gets up in the morning stands next to his bed and wets his pjs. When you ask him why he says because he wants to.
Please, any advise?

Re: Why would a child wet themselves on purpose?

I would say he is doing it because he's knows its causing you both to be stressed. The fact that he's intelligent would back that up, he may have intended it as a one off but seen how effective it was at upsetting you so continued. Your statement 'he's ruining family life' seems significant, it could well be his aim so what is more important than stopping him from doing this is to find out why he feels the need to gain your attention in that way. (Maybe he has hopes of his parents getting back together and sees you as an obstacle or if he's new to being your stepson perhaps he's testing you out? Could be any number of reasons) If you don't look for the cause you may find that you stop him doing this only for him to find a better tactic so I'd say concentrate on that over trying to put a stop to it.