Potty training

Jessica Mary was a VERY early talker. Very bright, could understand when she was wet and needed a change, and I really thought that potty training her would be a breeze. It was not. I had postponed starting her, because I was still working part time when she was two, and then I was pregnant, and didn’t want to start her and have her regress. But after Sam was born, when he was about two months old, Jess was just about three and a half, we got her a potty and some pretty underwear and started. The first day went great. The second day went a little worse and by the third day, the poor kid was just accident after accident. And she was getting more and more upset… so I threw in the towel, and told her that she didn’t have to potty train anymore, put her in a diaper and resigned myself to changing diapers until she was in kidnergarten.

A couple of weeks or months later (it all blurs), I found some soggy underwear and a towel in the laundry. I asked her what was up, and she said off-handedly that she had had a tiny accident but cleaned it up herself. And from that point on, she didn’t wear diapers during the day. She had another accident or two, but was really reliably potty trained within a day. No pressure on my part, no effort on my part – when she was ready, she did it on her own. I put the underwear in her dresser so she could get it herself, and she handled it on her terms.

Fast forward about three years… and I’ve got a small boy who I think should be potty trained. Sam does not. He cares not even a little bit about being in a wet diaper, can sit in a messy one for as long as I’ll let him, in fact, frequently has to be convinced to come and get changed. He’s a lot more stubborn than Jessie is, and I know that I need to back off and let him do this when he’s ready. I can push him, but all it’s going to do is stress both of us out.

I babysit for a couple of other toddlers, so I’m potty training them :-). They have both used the potty at home, and one of them is reliably potty trained at preschool, but not here. I’ve got my potties set up, one for each of them, and have cookies for bribes all set up – and I’m hoping that if I can get those two reliably potty trained here, then maybe Sam will be more inclined to do it as well. Here’s hoping, anyway 🙂