There’s only one thing I hate more that changing diapers – a newly “potty trained” child. And with two potty trained children, there’s only one left. Once he turned two, people started talking…
Drew is not an easy child but he was an incredibly easy potty trainer. At 18 months he peed on the potty for the first time. He progressively got better and better until he was 100% potty trained by 3. I never even really thought about it, it was just a natural progression. Disclaimer is that he was also in daycare and the teachers helped to encourage him (although he rarely ever had accidents).
Gabby was really my first attempt at potty training since I was home full time at this point. She peed on the potty for the first time at 18 months like her big brother but decided it wasn’t all it’s cracked up to be. At about 2 years 7 months I bucked up and did a weekend of serious potty training. Thankfully we have wooden floors. It was one of the most stressful things I have done. Once we finished the weekend, I felt like she was still not 100% and continued to feel that way for probably a year. She had accidents everywhere! I was so mad at myself for sentencing both of us to this potty training punishment because once we went forward we certainly couldn’t go back. It was very painful.
Noah only recently would sit on the potty without crying. He’s embraced it a little more now and occasionally uses it. Just recently he even asked for it, and went! He’s definitely making signs of getting there but I will absolutely not pressure him the way I did Gabby. I will, however, continue to encourage him. And if it means that I’m sending him to college in diapers, so be it…right?
Or wrong? Is it part of a mother’s job to buckle down and teach your kid to be potty trained for better or worse? Once you cross that threshold into the world of underpants, you can’t really go back. Or can you? Can potty training be as casual as I’d like to make it? How do you turn your kid into one of those kids that says “no more diapers” and never looks back?
I'm a mother, wife, daughter, and friend. Until recently I was also an employee. Now that I'm a full time mom, I've decided to make my thoughts, concerns and feelings public.
