There are many things about motherhood that I have discovered to be out and out lies...like "Oh she is a girl, she is going to be SO much easier." But my personal favorite right now is "Oh, she is a girl, she will be easy to potty train. In fact, you may get them trained at the same time." For some reason, neither one of my children has been easy to potty train. It has required bribery, tons of laundry, patience, books for us, books about pooping and pottying for them, and more than a few visits from the carpets cleaning guys. The only thing that seemed to work for Colin was a combination of no pants for several weeks at home and chocolate. I was horrified when I first heard of this "naked" potty training. But there is method to this madness. It seems that most children will hold their pee pee and poop if they have no pants on at all. This worked for Colin. Our only complication was the poop. He would just hold that in for days at a time. Not pretty. The kid still has poop issues at 4.5 y/o. He is plagued with constipation and the problem becomes worse due to his desire to hold it in instead of push it out. He is literally the most anal retentive person I know.
This "naked" approach may not be the way to go with Molly. When they say each child is different, they were not lying. Molly was starting to get the potty training thing towards the end of the school year. She would pee pee and poop in the potty...sometimes. It was far from consistent, but she was showing some interest. We switched to pull ups, so that she could try when she wanted to, but I knew we were far from ready to take away that safety net. This summer, it is crunch time. She needs to be completely potty trained by school time. Not just a little potty trained, but like pull up her own pants and underwear, wipe herself kind of trained. I am in a panic. I put off going cold turkey from the pull ups due to our trip to New Jersey. The last thing I needed was the extra challenge of an early potty trainer on a road trip. Of course, this girl eats well. She eats big meals, and she likes "grown up" food, so you can imagine, this produces "grown up" poops. And, she poops once a day, so she makes it count. I have been teasing her that I was going to have to switch her to Depends if she didn't figure this potty thing out soon, but it can get quite messy. And while it makes for funny stories, it is time for the poop to go in the potty...
So Potty Training Bootcamp has begun. I have found this girl in more puddles than I care to admit. She has peed on my floor at least 6 times now, and she fails to mention it most of the time. If you ask her, she will confess, but she doesn't stop midstream to sit down on the potty, she just finishes the job on the floor. I have caught her in the act, and redirected her to the potty. She even pooped on the dining room floor the other day. I heard a "thump," and turned to investigate. The dog was even staring at the floor and the child in horror. It was as if the dog was trying to say "Do you see what your puppy just did?? I bet if you rubbed her nose in it, it might stop." Molly just looked down at the floor, and said "oh no!! Mommy can you wipe my butt?" The dog has ratted her out more than once by coming to get me, and I am sure it is because she wants to make sure she doesn't get blamed for the pee on the carpet. Sadly, if I step in a puddle, I know exactly where to go for more information.
Today has been a good day so far. She has been pooping and peeing on the potty since this morning. She is demanding her chocolate each time she goes, but I will invest in Hershey's if that is what it takes to get this kid to use the potty. If anyone had ever told me that potty training my kids would result in carpet cleaning, I would have never believed them. Little did I know what could be involved in this process. After our trip to Florida this weekend, we are going straight to panties...Lots of laundry, perhaps a little booze, and extra prayers will be needed in the next few weeks. I am praying for that moment of enlightenment that people speak of...you know, where the kid all of a sudden just "gets it." A girl can dream, can't she? Until then, I may need to invest in some more Whipped Cream flavored vodka, and some more princess panties, for Molly that is...The panties, not the booze
Heidi,
ReplyDeleteOh my Lord, I remember those days. You are not alone.
Everyone told me to start Tall on PT when he was 2, but I was pregnant with Short, so I waited. Then I had a newborn, so I waited. Finally (like you, because of preschool with strict rules), I knew I had to make my move. We also went "commando" (no clothes) and that is what finally helped. Notice I do not say "did the trick." It helped. But Tall would inevitably need to go #2 right when I was putting the baby down for a nap, so he would call out, "Mommy! I need help wiping!" and wake the baby up.
I definitely questioned my sanity in those moments. It is hard to be the nice, calm mommy that everyone expects of you. I yelled, for sure. Threatened. Bribed. Cried. Drank. Not necessarily in that order.
My kids are now 6 and 8 and everyone goes when/ where they should. But I do have to be pushy and remind them if I see them doing the "hold the pee" dance ("Do you need to go to the bathroom? Why don't you go real quick! Really! Zip to the bathroom!).
The younger one still wears pull-ups at night because I got tired of changing sheets and pajamas in the middle of the night for several weeks-- I just gave in to Huggies, thank God.
Good luck with everything. You will get through it, I promise.
best,
MOV
Pull ups are a must at night...are you kidding?? I am just praying that I can get both of them to do what they are supposed to do during the day :) One day, I will laugh about this, and it will seem absurd that it was so difficult. Until then, I have coffee...and wine...not at the same time though
ReplyDeleteHello Heidi, I am lucky that your mother was a good patient person during your potty training. I was at sea or at work when most of this training was done. So all I can say is to stay patient, Love Daddy
ReplyDeleteThankfully, thankfully, thankfully those days are well behind me. I had a set of two year old twin boys (not mine) but lived with me. I finally sat "the slow learner" one on his potty and gave him glass after glass of water until he peed. And after an hour or so, it happened and we had the biggest party.
ReplyDeleteThe pee pee doesn't seem to be the problem. She can produce pee on demand. She just seems to forget that it shouldn't go on the floor as well. I also appear to have her older brother convinced that purple medicine (aka Motrin) helps him poop. When he gets really scared of pooping, he asks for purple medicine. I guess we have to do whatever works??
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