Monday Free Write

The Adventures of Potty Training!

I have never felt like more of a failure as a parent then the fact that Blue is over three and not potty trained. (Especially when everything I read about "the best way to potty train" says its perfect to start with an 18 month old.) 

I'm not really sure why it happened either. I thought I would start when he was two, but I was about 6 weeks out from having a second baby and I read somewhere that you shouldn't have any major changes with your older child about 6 weeks before or after welcoming a new baby. So I put it off. And then I think I got so overwhelmed balancing the needs of a toddler and a baby, that I just kept putting it off. 

Okay in all fairness, I attempted  the potty train in three day methods, but I didn't really have a clear plan of how to do it and well after three days of trying to move a peeing toddler to the bathroom, I realized it wasn't working (and I felt completely defeated and hoped that I would get back to it soon), but I didn't know where to go from there. All I did know was that if I was ever going to get this done, I was going to need a full couple of days to work with him and I was going to need somebody to help watch Lion.

I thought I would really start potty training over Blue's Birthday. I took a vacation from work to spend sometime with him. But timing just didn't turn out right then. So I put it off again until Lion's birthday.

Long story short, here we are a little over a year later and I'm finally ready to start potty training Blue.

I found some method online that is a version of the 3 day method. In which the first day you put your kid of the potty ever 15 minutes, the second every 30 minutes and the third day once every hour. This seemed to be the kind of direction I needed to get this done.

Convincing Blue the potty is a good thing (and a very important thing to master) is another story. The first thing everybody writes when teaching your kid to potty train is to wait until they're ready. Well I'm pretty sure Blue was ready to start learning the potty six months ago and I blew it (I guess parents need to be ready too!). So he's had six months to grow more stubborn in getting his diaper changed. (He doesn't like getting his diaper changed, but he'd rather deal with that then even think about using the potty).

And well I just started yesterday, so he's not all the way potty trained yet. But every trip to the bathroom (and even the differences between the two days are night and day), it gets a little easier. So far I've got him to want to sit on the potty. And I switched him out from wanting to wear a diaper and now he's excited to wear underwear. I just need to get him to tell me when he has to use the potty.

But potty train isn't done in a day, so I need to remind myself to have patience and not to get upset with him when he makes a mistake. (and keep reminding myself this every day until he finally gets it all the way. And probably by that point I'll be starting on Lion.)