When I became pregnant with my oldest daughter, my husband and I often reflected upon how we would approach parenthood. In the evenings, I would sit with my feet up and read several different "expert" books explaining how to determine your child's temperament and how to approach things like sleep training, breast feeding, dealing with teething and so on. But whenever I got to the section on potty training, I would skip that section thinking I would read that stuff when we got to that point.
Fianlly the time came when we thought our eldest should learn to use the potty. She was about 18 months old. We bought a couple of potties (one for each floor of our 2 story house). We let one sit out in the living room for a few days so E. would get used to it. I made up a chart for success's along with a bunch of stickers in addition to m and m's to use in a reward system. Other moms told me that they managed it in a weekend. "Oh we just let ----- run around in underwear or with nothing on", they told me. The point was to allow the child who had been using a diaper to learn the sensation of urinating so they would know to go potty. So we tried that. Soon enough, there were accidents galore with me using a lot of vinegar to sanitise where the puddles were. My child simply did not care at all that she was peeing all over the floor. And absolutely no interest in the potty. We would tell her it was time to use the thing and the response would be a very resounding and absolute "NO! I don't like potty!" Neither stickers nor chocolate were motivating. So we let it go for a while. A few weeks later, we tried again...same response. Then again a couple weeks later. No progress. Once, I said to E. "Time to go potty." My sweet daughter then turned toward me and said in the coldest tone I have ever heard from her, "I don't want stickers."
What can I say? She had the better of me. For once she had control, and she knew it. At this point I was 8 months pregnant with our second child. I felt I just had to get her trained because there was no way I wanted 2 in diapers. I also had fears of E. going down the isle in diapers on her wedding day.
Well, second baby came last October. E. handled A.'s arrival fairly well with mild bouts of regression behavior. Although she still isn't fully potty trained, she is further ahead than she was. This thanks to maturity and decorating her potty with Dora stickers and the use of a "potty" piggy bank. She'll pee in the potty for a penny, no problem. But the other function? Ah the elusive poo. Perhaps if my child understood the value of money, a quarter or dollar coin might actually be the convincing motivator.
I suppose that I will have to wait until E. understands our monetary system before our world is rid of poopy underwear and pull ups. In the mean time, perhaps I can train my child to become a financial advisor.
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