You have adopted a sibling group. The siblings that are of the same gender share a bedroom. As you walk into the bedroom one morning, you are nearly overcome by the pungent odor of urine. Upon further investigation, you realize the odor is permeating from the carpet in front of the dressers. In fact, the carpet is wet with urine in quite a large area. The siblings that you adopted seem oblivious to the odor and to your investigation. You comment, to no one in particular, “There is pee all over the carpet over here and it makes the bedroom smell bad. I’m glad I don’t have to sleep in here.”

The children don’t say anything. You try asking each child about it. “I wonder who peed on the carpet in your bedroom.” Of course, each child doesn’t know anything. You have no way to prove which child did it.

You are actually a little surprised because the children have been in your home for a while and nothing like this has happened before. However, the girls did make poor choices each day during the week, which resulted in being sent to bed early. What should you do?

You could ignore it. If they get tired of the smell maybe they will clean it up. Of course, if they lived that way for years before coming to your home it may not bother them. In fact, it may even be comforting to have the old familiar smells around them.

You could fill a bucket with soapy water containing some kind of odor eliminator. Then give the children a scrub brush and tell them to work together until the carpet is clean. You could even try eavesdropping to see if one accuses the other. Although I have watched my daughters work side by side a number of times without saying anything or pointing a finger.

You could shampoo the carpet yourself, not say anymore about it, and see if it happens again. What would you do?

Photo Credit Julia Fuller 2005