Have you ever had a dream that you were falling? That is how the thought of potty training my children makes me feel. Potty training is the ultimate battle between an educated adult and a child that can prove them wrong at any moment.
My son is 2 ½ years old and had no interest in potty training. We tried for a few weeks after our daughter was born. That was a bad idea. Each attempt ended with tears and a wet diaper anyway. So we decided to wait awhile. He would not lay still for diapers so we just kept him in Pull-ups full time. I believe that was our mistake.
Over the weekend of July 4th, we were at my Grandparent’s house. We had quite a few family members there including one little 3 year old boy that belongs to my cousin. He was playing in the play room with my son. I was in the bathroom at my Grandparent’s house, putting on my make up, and my cousin’s little boy ran in, stripped himself naked and sat himself down on the toilet and commenced peeing. My son ran in after him and asked “What you doing?” I explained that he was going pee in the potty because he’s a big boy. Suddenly, a light bulb clicked in my son’s brain. He wanted to go pee in the potty. We got home on Monday and he decided he had no interest in the potty anymore. Sigh.
On July 26th, my Mom, who watches our kiddos while we’re at work, thought it would be a good idea to start potty training my little man. We all watched the potty training video and were all fired up. A week went by and there was no progress. My kid is s t u b b o r n.
My husband decided, once and for all, that he was going to get our son potty trained. He’s such a brave man. A friend had suggested that we just put our son in underwear and go from there. So we did. My husband took our son to the store and let him pick out his own big boy underwear. He picked out a package that showed the characters of the Thomas and Friends train cartoon on the butt of each pair. He loved them. He couldn’t wait to wear them. And we had the next week off of work as vacation.
Monday morning, 7 am. My husband explained to our son that he gets to wear big boy underwear now and that he can go potty on the frog-potty on the floor of the bathroom. Then he gets to stand on the step stool to wash his hands in the big boy sink! Then if he peed in the potty he would get 2 stickers to put on the chart that we put on the fridge and if he poopied, he’d get 4 stickers!! Yay!!
We set the timer for 20 minutes and watched him like hawks. He went through all 7 pair of underwear that first day. The second day we were about ½ way through the morning when I thought maybe he wasn’t exactly sure what it was we were wanting him to do. I didn’t know how to explain it to him. We were frustrated.
Then, finally, a miracle. The little frog with a cup in its back on the floor of my bathroom finally got used for what it was made for! We made a HUGE fuss!! We hugged him, gave him extra stickers and high fives, called Grandma and Grandpa, and told him over and over that we were so proud of him. He got the hint! The rest of that day he only had 1 or 2 accidents. We set the timer for 30 minutes if he just used the potty and every 10 after that if he didn’t go. The 3rd day: only 1 accident and no timer. By the end of the week, he was a pro.
It’s now been 2 weeks since that day and he’s now comfortable with going to the potty. Almost a little too comfortable. He likes to go all the time now whether he actually has the urge or not! It gets him out of time-out and bed at night! He knows that if he says he has to go potty, we’ll take him so we don’t derail his training. He’s not dumb.
Dare I say it? Potty training is a success.
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