After 2 years and 9 months we are finally ready to toilet train Lucas. We’ve read “potty-training” information on the web ad-nauseum. The truth is that we had been putting it off for about a month. There are about two hundred and fifty different “criteria” to evaluate if your child is ready to get potty trained. The downside of trying to potty train your child “too early” is as small as eternal trauma and debilitating emotional disease, so no stress.
However, I knew that we had to potty train him and I felt increasingly guilty about sending diapers to the landfills, especially because I had a feeling that it was time to start.
Day 1
Naively I picked a Saturday to start, thinking that this wouldn’t take more than 2 days to nail down. Right??….Wrong. Apparently Dennis and I were a bit overenthusiastic about the “potty” and made a big deal of the “big boy underwear”. So much that Lucas went into a mind-block and refused to pee in the potty. He would sit in it but after he got up, nothing, nada, zip. Even though Lucas had been consistently peeing in the bathroom at daycare and had done it a couple of times at home, once it was for real he didn’t want to have any part of it.
It would go something like this: 1) Lucas sits on the potty, 2) Lucas reads one of the 300 books I got him, so he would read while sitting in the potty, including 2 that were about….peeing in the potty, 3) Lucas gets up and the potty is bone dry, 4) Lucas goes to the living room and promptly pees on himself. Repeat 14 times. Seriously, I purchased 7 pairs of underwear and by the end of the day we had cleaned them all twice.
Day 2: Sunday
Same process as Satuday, not one drop of pee in the potty, 14 accidents in the living room. Dennis and I bring out the big guns (downright bribes) of stickers every time he pees and after 4 stickers a small present out of a box ( I purchased cheap things at Target to fill the box). I start getting worried about the next day at daycare and possible embarrassment in front of his daycare-mates. To boot, I had to fly to NYC for a work event and was going to be gone until Tuesday.
Day 3- Monday
Lucas pees in the potty at daycare and has a great potty-training day (1 accident). We get home and SUCCESS! the mind block has been eliminated and he can actually pee in the toilet. Or maybe someone that knew what the hell they were doing explained to him the concept of using the potty. Either way, I’m psyched.
Days 4-7
Lucas has about 1-2 accidents a day , which according to his teacher, is great because she’s had kids that have up to 6 accidents a day. At home is harder to control but now he pees in the potty without fussing or complaining. We are going through the toy “reward” box like there is no tomorrow. I can’t believe I’m potty training someone, does this mean I’m an adult now? Sometimes Dennis and I look at each other and can’t believe we are parents.
We are still struggling with #2 though because Lucas likes to poop while standing up. We are still working on that one.
So far, potty training is very difficult but you have to stick to it, even in the midst of 14 accidents. Fingers closed that we continue to do well even when we go on vacation to PR in a week.