Thursday, March 4, 2010

Potty Training

Potty training is never funny when you are actually going through it. Cleaning “accidents” off the carpet. Scraping poo off the panties. But when you take the time to look back, there are certainly more than a few good laughs. Although my oldest daughter’s tale is too disgusting to repeat, my youngest daughter’s is a story of sheer will power. For about six months she would repeat to me every day, “I will go pee pee on the potty when I’m three”. So five days before her third birthday I began a countdown. “Guess what? In five days you get to pee on the potty!” I continued this until the day before her birthday. Then when she woke up on her third birthday, she walks in my room and says she changed her mind. She wanted to keep her diaper. Now I’ve read all the articles telling moms to just let their kids tell you when they are ready, but I just knew she could do it. She hadn’t even wet her diaper at night in over a year. So a few days after her third birthday, I decided we would start potty training.

The day started like every other day. She woke up with a dry diaper. But this time, I immediately took off her diaper and put her on her toddler potty. I told her today she was going to become a big girl. She sat on the potty for about ten minutes and began to complain that she wanted breakfast. So against my better judgment, I let my naked daughter go down to the breakfast table. After a quick bowl of cereal, back to the potty she went. She sat and sat and sat and sat….. We read stories. We sang songs. We colored. We argued. By 11:30, she still hadn’t gone potty. Now remember she woke up with a dry diaper. She hasn’t gone potty for about 16 ½ hours and she is hurting. I continued to give her positive encouragement and reassurance that she could get off the potty as soon as she went. Right about now, however, I’m starting to second guess my strategy. She is crying because it hurts, but she refuses to go. She is so stubborn that at 12:30 when a little bit gets by, she is able to stop the flow (how many of you out there could do that?). She looks at me and sees my excitement. “Mommy!!! It didn’t hurt!” And with that…she let it all go. My little baby continued to pee for the next five minutes. She nearly filled the entire toddler’s potty! Despite all her stubbornness, from that day on, she has never had an accident!  Do you have a funny potty training story to tell? I am always ready for a good laugh!

Grab a latte, put up your feel, and join the discussion!

16 comments:

Missy | Literal Mom said...

Ha! Like you, my Oldest's potty training story (multi-year saga is more like it) is too disgusting to tell and like you, my Youngest was very determined. She basically potty trained her self - God love HER! At 2. With my only historical reference being my Oldest's long drawn out affair, I truly couldn't believe how easy it was for her. Thanks for sharing. :)

content2be said...

Oh this story is great. I have a little hard head too. My MIL tried to get her to go while she was here for a quick visit, and she refused. Sat on the pot for over half an hour after a dry nap. Nothing. Within a minute of my MIL's departure, she peed on the floor. Argh!! Nonetheless, it made me laugh, because my MIL is just as hardheaded (or more) as my daughter, and it was funny to see her get her comeuppance.

Melissa said...

Too funny! I have a feeling that my 16-mont-old will be similar to your daughter when it comes to potty training. She is very stubborn, and does things in her own time. I'm sure that I will have many stories in a year or two!

Kelly Jo @Typing One Handed said...

OH my gosh, this story is TOO funny! My 2 year old is potty training right now (a never-ending process, I swear) and one night she was sitting on her potty chair, holding her princess cell phone. She "picks it up" and says "Hello? Pee-pee? Poo-poo? Bye." And hangs up.
I have also had many opportunities to say things such as please don't eat M&M's off the toilet seat, and we must never put our foot in the toilet. I could go on and on...
Thanks for the laugh!!!

Lanita Moss said...

Fortunately for me it was summer when I trained my first. Having her set on the potty all day just wasn't working, so I stripped her down...naked and let her run around the back yard. After a little while she walked over to the potty and went. Then I moved the potty inside, and she went again. I kept moving the potty chair closer to the real potty and finally we were done! My second was so easy, frankly I can't remember anything about it. It was no big deal.

Wonderfully Chaotic said...

My son was incredibly stubborn. People kept telling me it was "awful" to have him still running around in Pull-Ups but I knew he was not ready. We tried a few times unsuccessfully and ended up with tears, frustration and big messes. So I waited. We watched a couple videos on potty-training and constantly read books about how to use the potty. He seemed more interested and I used school/homework as an incentive. (Probably the ONLY time I'll ever be able to use it for that! haha) He heard other kids talking about homework and wanted to do it too so that was his motivation to get potty-trained! I printed out papers with letters & things on them for him to trace and color - his "homework." Seems silly but it worked! :)

Kel said...

These stories are great! Keep them coming!!!! :)

Jessica said...

So, I think we all know that boys have a fascination with peeing outside. Something about being able to do that easily makes them giddy with excitement! When potty training our older son, my MIL, who had potty trained 2 boys, told me to not let him go outside because, while it can be easier, she had a very embarrassing experience with my husband involving an outdoor mall. I listened to her advice and my son was beyond frustrating while potty training.

One day, my husband & one of his friends decided to teach our son how to pee outside (in is defense, we do live in the country). As expected, the boy thought this was awesome, but I still tried to discourage him from doing so. Fast forward about a month.... My father is visiting and we're talking at the table after breakfast. Our son comes running into the house (he had been playing on the swing set) ecstatic and these words come out of his mouth: "I just went poopy outside & not in my diaper!!!!!" Being the responsible adults, we of course all almost fell out of our chairs laughing. Once that was over, I turned to my husband, told him this was his fault, & he would be cleaning it up. I'm happy to report that this never happened again & my husband restrained from teaching our younger son to pee outside!

Unknown said...

Oh - I'm going through it with my 2 1/2 year old son. He absolutely refuses to go potty unless it's right when he wakes up in the morning. Last weekend we stuck some briefs on him and let him run around - he peed in them, freaked out, and then cried when I tried to put more on him. Lol...

Before the briefs tryout - we'd tell him to run around naked, but he would just lay in the floor crying for a diaper. I don't know what to do anymore! I might just try the outside peeing idea when it gets warmer :)

Unknown said...

Oh the things I have to look forward to...well, I'll just tell you this, at least you probably aren't planning in telling you child's potty training story at their wedding...like my dad did! Ha! Good luck with potty time!

http://thepursuitofmommyness.com/

Milk and Honey Mommy said...

Kel,

That is funny. I have a little hard-headed three year old. He is definitely my match and then some. Fortunately, he didn't give me much of a challenge w/the "potty-thing." It's kind of funny how they think something is going to hurt or how it freaks them out to release themselves in the toilet. I think sitting in pee and poop should really prepare them for that and that they should happily look forward to not having to sit/play/sleep in it.

I hope that determination continues w/her and carries her to high places.

I am following you through Friday Follow. Thanks for visiting my blog, Milk & Honey Mommy, and following too.

Debra from Bungalow said...

After many unsuccessful attempts and screaming fits, my g'son, who just turned 4 two wks ago, has started to use the potty. He was just too busy, busy, busy to be bothered and would have no parts of it. So rather than turn it into something stressful and negative we waited until he was more receptive...finally!

So Who Is The Crayon Wrangler? said...

I can't tell you any of my stories, because I don't want to chance the fact that you might be eating ;)

I found you through FF and am now following you to see what wonderful stories and recipes you have!!

Debbie said...

We're just starting to try with my 2 year old, and I don't know if I should laugh or cry at these stories! He isn't showing any real interest in the potty, so we're taking it slow. Against my better judgment, I let him eat some chocolate on the potty today, and the only thing that ended up in there was a small slobbery piece of chocolate that dripped out of his mouth and between his legs. When he (finally) got up (three books and a million songs later), he looked in the potty at the piece of chocolate and said in this deep voice "BIG BIG POOP!" Uh.. not quite. Hee hee :)

Andrea said...

Man, I wish I had pushed the issue as my daughter said the same thing about "her birthday and turning three," but we're nearly a month into being three and nada. :( I'm still working on it. She's not ready, but I am getting there!

Brenda Susan said...

Great stries!
My son had mastered the potty part but not the clean up afterward part, so one day my hubs sent jr back to do a better job of cleaning his butt.

I heard this through the closed door,
"Wipe, wipe, wipe, bet they don't have to wipe in Heaven!!"