Overcoming Fear

Everybody has their hang ups or strange little quirks.  For example, I don't like to walk on sidewalk grates.  I always walk around them.  Even when I am in New York City and the sidewalk is completely made up of them, I find a way to walk around.  If I can't, I freak out the entire time I'm walking on them.  Andy hates stickers.  And face painting.  Andy temporary tattoos.  But he really hates stickers.  He gets really upset if someone tries to put one on him, and it takes everything he can muster when we go somewhere and they want him to wear a sticker name tag.  It truly is amazing how many people try to give your kids stickers when they are little.  Most of the time they don't ask, they just stick.  It would drive him nuts.  I finally taught him to say no thank you, but it was major torture until he figured that one out.

Amanda's hang up is flushing the toilet.  She has been potty trained for over a year now, and all this time she has refused to sit on the toilet if it isn't completely clean and there is nothing inside.  That kind of makes sense, except for the fact that the girls and I go together to the bathroom.  A lot.  Flushing the toilet after each and every person is a waste of time and water.  But she is adamant.  Even if I wipe my nose right before she sits down and throw that in the toilet, when she's seen ahead of time that the toilet is clean, she will flush it again.

It gets even trickier when we are traveling and the entire family goes into the family bathroom.  She yells at us to flush the toilet when we are done and we yell back that we aren't going to do if after each person.  I'm sure it's comical to the people waiting outside in the hallway.

Anyway, after months of this going on, the other day she went to sit on the toilet and Sarah had used it before her and hadn't flushed.  She looked hesitant, but she got up there anyway and went.  I'm sure it was driving her crazy, but she overcame her fear and just went to the bathroom.  I'm sure she won't do it again for a long time, but once is good for me.  For now at least.  It means she isn't as rigid as I thought and maybe, just maybe, she will give on a few more things moving forward.  A sign of better things to come.