To begin with, I have always understood that teaching a child to leave his diapers behind in lieu of the loo (ha ha - couldn't resist) was a big deal for the parents and have shown what I believe to be the appropriate amount of excitement over each accomplishment that was brought to my attention. With that said, as with many other things in the parenting realm, I never REALLY "got it" until I was walking in those potty-obsessed shoes.
Louwerse Operation "pee on pot" is slow going thus far, and I will admit it already has me frustrated. The rational part of me knows it is ridiculous to get beaten down after one morning. The sick-of-changing-diapers part of me was really hoping this would just be a raging success from the get go. It seems to come down to the fact that he CAN go where he's supposed to but really doesn't want to. And I'm not sure what to do with that. Not that it doesn't fit his personality - Mr. Strong-Willed. A friend loaned me the book Potty Training 1-2-3 and the basic premise is that the child gets rewarded for keeping his diaper dry, not actually going on the potty. The whole point is to keep the diaper dry. So we check his diaper every 15 mins. or so, and if he's dry he gets a treat (today it's Cheetos - brilliant move, Mom. On top of everything else I have to be vigilant about avoiding cheesy fingerprints everywhere). If he actually goes in the pot he gets a DOUBLE treat and lots of praise (Cheetos AND peanut M&Ms. Ok, I'll admit it, I keep sneaking some of the treats too. I deserve it!). So this went relatively well. After about an hour and a half he actually went in the desired spot - hooray! We ecstatically ate our Cheetos and M&Ms and called Daddy at work who also doled out lots of congrats and "phone - fives". Later on my enthusiasm crashed when I realized he was going in little bits, then waiting until the Pull-Up was back on to really let 'er loose. Grrr.... I have continued with this process, however, as I don't want to be a quitter in the first 3 hours of this task. However, feigning joyous fervor over a dry diaper only to find it filled a few minutes after getting off the potty is wearing me down. I'm thinking when he gets up from nap time (with a full Pull-Up, no doubt) it will be time to just switch to underwear so he doesn't have the safety net. In which case I will need to guard our new couches with my life and imprison J.J. in one area of the house, preferably one with pee-proof flooring. Sigh - I KNOW we will get there. This is just a different type of milestone to hit because it requires patient and consistent TEACHING. With things like crawling, walking, talking, although we did some instructing, for the most part he just got there when he was good and ready. Maybe that's the exact advice I need to take to heart just now.
We are open to thoughts/suggestions/encouragement/tough love.....bring it on. In the meantime if you need me I'll be in the...well, you know.
2 comments:
We had major issues with James as well. Someone told me to do naked potty training and it worked like a charm. We stripped him from the waist down, gated ourselves into the kitchen (only room with tiled floor lol!) and started pumping the fluids. Every 5 minutes we sat on the potty. When he went on the potty we got an M&M and then went to flush it into the real toilet. The biggest excitement for him was being allowed to flush the toilet. Within 24 hours we were dry 90% of the time during the day. He still has an accident if he's having too much fun doing something, maybe 1 every few days. And we still can't get him to go #2 in the potty. We just keep trying! Hang in there!!
YES! Thank you,Sal! These are the things I need to keep hearing. Especially the part about "keep trying". I give up so easily and know that I can't in this case!
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