Potty Learning, Week Two
09.9.2010 THE GOOD THING is that two weeks into the fits and starts of potty learning, Harper has made marked progress from the first few days with #2. In the first couple days, I found her laying on her stomach behind the recliner, head face down like a prisoner, forehead on folded hands. Going in her Fancy Nancy underwear. But hey, yesterday, she went #2 in the potty chair. She has pretty much trained herself 100% with #1. She is so determined to “No, mommy! I want to do it by my yourself!” that on Saturday, I found her in the powder room, dumping her urine from the potty chair into the toilet, obviously having undressed herself and gone without any help from an adult. She then pulled up her tinkerbell panties and began washing her hands, and that’s when she saw me. “Mommy, I went pee pee, I get a crouton!”
THE NOT SO GOOD THING is that peer pressure potty learning doesn’t necessarily work. I could hear Mateo running towards us from the living room, and when he arrived “Mommy, I want a foo-time [his pronunciation of ‘crouton’], too!” But for a handful of times going in the toilet, the extent of his interest in potty learning is in celebrating in Harper’s successes, and thus her rewards. “Mateo, no, you only get a crouton when you go pee pee in the potty,” she’ll say to him as she’s walking away. And then we slip him a crouton anyway. Because his incentive, when he indicates more readiness, will be stickers that lead to A THOMAS TRAIN.
THE UGLY is that my car smells like the cat lady’s house. A cat lady say with kittens who aren’t litter trained quite yet. Oh, we’ve got the piddle pads, but they’re not completely effective…that 35 mile one-way commute from school/work to the house is a long one, especially for potty training toddlers. And we put him in pull-ups most of the time because sorry, swishing his soft-serve poo off his Percy underwear in the toilet four times a day isn’t a sustainable practice. Not while the other one has to go at the exact. same. time.
THE PLAN is that we’ll continue doing what we’re doing: celebrating successes, comforting and cleaning after accidents (Harper gets REALLY upset if she goes in her underwear), reminding them every 20 or so minutes to go and taking them to at least try. We’re tweaking things as needed. For example, two days into potty learning at school, their teacher reported to me that Harper was crying and shaking and asking to go home every time they put her on the toilet. That's when I learned they don't use rings or potty chairs there and that hole is really big for little toddler. So I asked if we could bring in a potty ring, and Harper hasn't cried since. See, we'd rather them learn in a way that's comfortable for them, become familiar with their body movements and dressing and undressing themselves first, than to force the "right way" to the extent that they become scared or lose interest. Also, at home, in an effort to get them to want to go on the toilet instead of the potty chair (I hate cleaning those things!), we’re offering M&Ms. We use overnights at night. We’re finishing out our diapers on Mateo. In a few weeks, when Harper is further along, we’ll work with him more closely.
And starting today, I’ll be asking the school to put them in a pull-up for the ride home.
Come Saturday, I’m headed to the self-service car wash with a handful of quarters and water-torturing their car seats.
Reader Comments (5)
Can I tell you my ONLY genius idea of potty training? (Read: here's my assvice).
When they don't want to try and I know they need to go (or we are leaving the house), I make them sing the alphabet song twice while trying to pee. If they can make it through twice without peeing, they don't need to go, but 90% of the time they need to go.
Nate has a bladder like a horse, so this is particularly effective on him. He overflowed the toilet at school one day, got scared of the toilet, and held his pee for EIGHT HOURS. Thus A B C x2.
PS. I just realized you will NEVER get to take Mateo to a public urinal as a two mom household. That is best freaking part of being potty trained. Jon takes both boys to the urinal.
Wow, that sounds... EXACTLY like our house was. Rebecca got the hang of it pretty quickly, and when she did have an accident, it was terribly upsetting.
Daniel could care less, he just wanted an M&M.
I don't know what the "right" answer is, but we ended up backing off on Daniel and re-boot-camp-ing several months later, and it seemed to "take" a little better. He was still a much slower process than his sister, and sadly peer pressure never had ANY effect on him, but I had regrouped enough to have some patience to work with him, and he was that little bit older.
And wow, a 35-mile daily commute with potty training in progress? UGH.
We have two 19-month old girls who have discovered the potty chairs. They "asked" three times today to sit on the potties, which means removing two sets of pants, diaper covers, and diapers, so they can sit on the potties and chatter to each other. It also means big brother (almost 4) has to join us for a "potty party." On the plus side, one of our girls is a very vocal pooper, so we have managed to sit her on the toilet three times in the last week in time to save us a dirty diaper. On the down side, her sister then has to have her turn too!
I love the way you write. This post was great and I could hear the kids cute little voices.. For the record.. Each time I eat a crouton.. I think Harper.. :-)
love you guys...
T