Maybe I'm trying to hard
or maybe it's because there's no consistency, or maybe he's just not ready, or maybe I'm not ready...no wait I am so ready. If you haven't figured it out yet, we're in the midst of potty training in our house and nothing has made me question my parenting abilities quite like the task of trying to teach a toddler to pee and poop in the toilet rather than in his pants. If anyone was to ask me for tips on potty training, I would suggest not reading about how some people had their kids training in one-joyous day, because you will want to hunt those people down and beat the piss out of them.
We started introducing the potty a year ago, but we didn't really start pushing it until about six months ago. In the last six months we've tried bribery, punishment for going in his pants, and even the handy trick of offering M&M's as a reward, and I think I've learned that my kid doesn't really enjoy M&M's due to the fact that after I explain that he can have an M&M after he pees in the potty, he completely looses interest.
I just recently signed Jordan up for preschool in the fall, stand by for my teary post on September 2ND and how I'm going to make it through that day. In order for him to start preschool he has to be completely potty trained. So, this past weekend, along with putting him in a big boy bed (yup, he figured out how to climb out of his crib, so we were forced) we also decided we were going to go full tilt and put him right in big boy underwear. Let me just say that by noon on Saturday we'd gone through SIX pair of underwear. Along with putting him in time-out, I had to take a mommy time out myself after spending 15 minutes trying to talk him into at least trying to pee on the potty and then having him pee on the living room floor right in front of me. Then an hour later, as I was still fuming from that endeavor he walks up to me, waves his cute little hand and says "Hi Momma....I just peed!" And no it wasn't on the potty, unless my living room floor is now called a potty?!?
My next plan of action is to keep pushing this potty thing through then end of this week, if I can make it that long. And if by then we're still at the same point then...frig it. if he wants to continue to sit in a wet diaper, if he wants to make me go broke by continuing to buy diapers, if he doesn't want to go to school in the fall, so be it.
My final thought is kids will be ready when they are ready. The more we push this as a parent, the more frustration comes with it. In the end, I'm sure I'll learn and most will learn that eventually, everyone uses the toilet.
We started introducing the potty a year ago, but we didn't really start pushing it until about six months ago. In the last six months we've tried bribery, punishment for going in his pants, and even the handy trick of offering M&M's as a reward, and I think I've learned that my kid doesn't really enjoy M&M's due to the fact that after I explain that he can have an M&M after he pees in the potty, he completely looses interest.
I just recently signed Jordan up for preschool in the fall, stand by for my teary post on September 2ND and how I'm going to make it through that day. In order for him to start preschool he has to be completely potty trained. So, this past weekend, along with putting him in a big boy bed (yup, he figured out how to climb out of his crib, so we were forced) we also decided we were going to go full tilt and put him right in big boy underwear. Let me just say that by noon on Saturday we'd gone through SIX pair of underwear. Along with putting him in time-out, I had to take a mommy time out myself after spending 15 minutes trying to talk him into at least trying to pee on the potty and then having him pee on the living room floor right in front of me. Then an hour later, as I was still fuming from that endeavor he walks up to me, waves his cute little hand and says "Hi Momma....I just peed!" And no it wasn't on the potty, unless my living room floor is now called a potty?!?
My next plan of action is to keep pushing this potty thing through then end of this week, if I can make it that long. And if by then we're still at the same point then...frig it. if he wants to continue to sit in a wet diaper, if he wants to make me go broke by continuing to buy diapers, if he doesn't want to go to school in the fall, so be it.
My final thought is kids will be ready when they are ready. The more we push this as a parent, the more frustration comes with it. In the end, I'm sure I'll learn and most will learn that eventually, everyone uses the toilet.
posted by Samantha at
8:21 AM
4 Comments:
Stick with it you can do it!!
I had the same kind of "first day" with my daughter. Just before he turned 2 I put her in underwear. I then spent the first day doing laundry because she did not make it to the potty once the whole day.
I even ran out of underwear because I did not have enough. I had to go out the next day to get more.
I wrote that day off as "the day I taught her it was NOT okay to pee in her pants".
I devoted the next 3-4 days to the task and it worked. It was a lot of work but as the next couple of days passed I was getting more success than failure. By the end of the week she was trained.
I blogged about it on my site when it was happening. If your interested check my archives in December of 2007--
Make it fun on the potty to teach him he likes it there. Books, bubbles and songs. Also remember to push the liquids so there is something to come out. Let him drink his favorite beverage alllll day. The more there is to pee out the more likely he will have a success that you can reinforce.
I was trying to leave my link and hit the wrong button...I left the long comment about having no success int he first day either...
Rose
Thank you so much for the support, it helps more than you may know.
Also, because you posted as anonymous, I don't know the name of your blog and I'd love to check it out.
Thanks again!
Potty training seems to come in all types of ways. But the one consistent thing I have heard from just about every parent is when they're ready, they're ready, and it is usually not at the same time we as parents are ready. When my daughter was training we read lots of books and I carried her potty chair out into the living room dining room, where ever, while she ran around with nothing on. Then she actually went and sat on the potty in our dining room. Once she did that I moved it back to our bathroom and she made her way in there.
Good luck.
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