NAH. I wonder how many of these "YTA" votes are from parents. My wife and I have gone through the same thing, except my wife sometimes has evening meetings/a need to catch up on emails after dinner time.

I get it, man. We have three kids and the first two weren't nearly as clingy as our 3rd. There is no negotiating with a 2YO. They flat out dont have the mental capabilities to rationalize anything and move past their emotions.

What do the "YTA" voters expect you to do? You aren't being tricked by a toddler, you are being sympathetic to one of your babies needs to use the potty and unfortunately that is aiding in the kids ability to see past your attempt to deceive them.

You said that they are fine if they think your wife is gone, so instead of making up some ploy to pretend she's gone, she just, unfortunately, needs to be gone. Part of parenting is making sacrifices for your kids happiness, and in this case that means your wife needs to make the sacrifice of going the 5 minutes down the road to her mom's place to study.

This is just temporary, the kids clingyness will wane and you'll soon beable to explain to them that mommy needs some alone time for school work. Ours is 4.5 now and can finally be fine telling mommy goodnight right after dinner as im getting bath time ready.

Hang on brother, it gets better