Alternative title....If you Have to Go Potty, Stop and Go Right Away! (Thank you Daniel Tiger. This song really does help Henry but now I sing it when I have to go *eyeroll*)
So when Henry was around 18-20 months old he started taking
an interest in the potty. He wanted to
sit on it, because well we sat on it and Henry likes to do EVERYTHING we do. He wanted to “go pee” which normally meant he
would sit there and play with toilet paper.
We thought 20 months seemed a little early to take interest in the
toilet and potty training, so we kept it casual and kept emphasizing how cool
the potty was and if he wanted to try to go we let him and got excited for him,
but all without pushing anything.
We got a built in child seat that just folds up into our
toilet seat and he loved it. HERE. Shortly
after his second birthday he was going more and more on the potty and we
started talking to the teachers about potty training. He would yell “pee coming, pee coming; poop
coming poop coming” while running to the bathroom and loved to go and was
starting to make it every single time to the potty! Again, this was all because HE wanted to do
it and not pushed by us. (Our child is
VERY strong willed and does things on his “own” terms.)
We actually bought underwear and thought….dang, at this rate
he will be potty trained by the first of the year!!
Yeah...silly first time parents.
And then Henry started getting sick more and was basically
sick on and off from Halloween through the end of the year. When he was sick he wouldn’t always want to
use the potty so we didn’t push anything.
(Perhaps our mistake?!) When he started feeling better during that time we
got back into our routine, not anticipating he would be sick again a week or
two later. Well after his sickness was
over after the first of the year we and the school got back into potty
training. Diaper only at night and
underwear the rest of the time with the occasional pull-ups on..
At school Henry is better about going to the potty, though
there is a #2 issue.
But I think he is on a set schedule and other kids go and he wants to do
what other kids do and he is just use to going at school. So he will have an accident maybe one of the
three days at school, but does really well there.
At home, well Henry has all of a sudden taken an aversion to
going at home. He will be grabbing like
he has to go and we will ask and he says “NO” and when we take him in to try he
usually fights and screams it the entire way.
It is SO weird, because he use to want to spend 30 minutes in the
bathroom and now we can barely get him in there for 1 minute to pee.
Now, I get that it is still on the earlier side for potty
training as he is 28 months. But I feel
now that we have started and he does so well at school we are kind of in it. I don’t want to go back because he IS doing a
great job most of the time. But this new
found aversion to going at home is just odd to me and we are not sure what to
do next.
I talked to his teacher and we have their “potty schedule”
and try to stay consistent with that at home and make him go at those
times. But again, he just doesn’t want
to do it or will say NO and fight it when you can see full well he has to
go!! Again, he is stubborn. He will also wait until he is about to pee
and then say he needs to potty and then pees right there because he waited too
long. And as for pooping….he loved to
poop on the potty a couple months ago.
He would read his “mag” and thought it was funny to flush his poop. We would spend 30 minutes in there!! (Typical
man) But the past week we will take him in and make him pee and ask if he has
to poop and he says NO and literally in the time it takes for him to wash his
hands and go into the living room we catch him pooping in his underwear.
DUDE! We were just in the bathroom!!
Sigh.
This week it happened once at school (he hates pooping at school anyways) and twice at home. Last night alone it happened and then a
little later I saw him make the face and got him into the bathroom with a
hanger…but had I not ran in there with him, he would have done it twice
yesterday evening.
Now, in regards to accidents we are calm. No yelling or getting mad. (we have plenty of
other things he does to get mad and yell at him for!) We just explain the importance of going to the
potty IN the potty and that he is a big boy now, blah blah, blah….
And then this week we have resorted to bribing with M&M’s.
(I KNOW, DON’T JUDGE!) We were giving
him stickers after he peed to put on a potty chart and he loved that but I
think he is a bit over it so now he gets one M&M if he pees and two if he,
well #2’s :-) Note: My parenting book will be out this fall with many other amazing tips and ways to bribe your kids to do stuff. It is called..."Go Fetch; Now Here's Your Treat" which is the sister book to "My Son, The Man Servant".
I digress.
We are also wondering if we need to get him his own small
potty, though I would prefer him going in the BIG potty as I really really do
not want to clean out the small one.
YUCK.
So let me ask, how do YOU potty train your kids? I get that every kid is different, but I am
curious what has worked/not worked for you.
Did your kid ever revert back a bit or get tired of going in the
potty? What motivation did you use? Did you use pull-ups? Was your kid stubborn and wanting to do it
all on their own terms?!
Talk to me!!
