5 year old peeing around the house

PCros

So over the past few weeks my 5 year old and his older play upstairs in the evening and sometimes they play seperately. Over the past week we have found out that he has been peeing in corners and covering it up. He the lies about it saying it is juice but it is clearly pee.

Strange thing is he'll go to the toilet properly during the night and in the morning on his own accord.

Our older boy never did this so I am just wondering if anyone has had experience with this. At the moment we will have to keep him downstairs with us before he goes to bed.

seamus

I don't think this is that uncommon in boys. Is there any chance that he's playing a game where he's pretending to be a dog or another animal?

Could it be a form of protest? Is there any pattern to it, e.g. does it happen on days that he's been given out to, or where he's fighting with his sibling or otherwise not getting his own way?

Is there a reason why he might be avoiding going into the bathroom? E.g. if he goes out to the bathroom he'll be "nabbed" and his game will end? Maybe his older sibling will "take over" the game? Or maybe he doesn't want to wash his hands (my kids' hands are in rag order from all the washing)

Or it could be as simple that he sees other boys doing it (maybe one of the boys in school pees in the yard) and he wants to do it too.

At 5 he's probably old enough now to explain why he's doing it, so long as you approach it in a non-confrontational way. And he's old enough to understand at a simple level why it's not OK to pee in the house. I'd be wary about going too hard on punishing him for doing it until you know why he's doing it. He could end up just going to greater lengths to hide it. Instead maybe offer some encouragement - set up a sticker chart where he gets a sticker every time he pees in the toilet, with a small reward (a piece of chocolate or whatever) when he's got 10/20 stickers.

PCros

No it tends to be when he is upstairs on his own. Not sure what the reason is behind it.

After a week of staying downstairs with us in the evening we have now allowed him back upstairs and he has to stay with his older brother at all times (to the dismay of the older brother ). This is working out with no incidents.

Yeah we are pretty chilled about it and I know he's sorry. The sticker idea is a good one, if it happens I'll go down that route.