I have four children. The oldest is nine. We obviously have not had to deal with puberty or the teenage acting out yet, but we are ¾ of the way through one of the dreaded milestones: potty training. If you have a child and live in the modern world, at some point you are going to have to transition from diapers to using the toilet. Some people start way early with elimination communication, which is basically reading your infant and making sure they are in the bathroom before things start flowing. I personally was never a supporter of that method. We make enough messes, thank you.
Potty Training is my Kryptonite
When it comes to potty training, I can honestly say it has been a struggle every time. I try to find the right way to communicate with each child. For the oldest, the trick ended up being sending her to her aunt's house. This is because she wanted to be like her older cousin, so she followed her to the bathroom, copied her and never went back to using pull-ups. This was on her third birthday, and I felt like I got the best gift out of the lot. My second child is a boy. I figured that was going to be tougher, since I don't have the parts to appropriately teach him. However, we got to the point I knew he had all of the parts of process down, but he was still wetting underwear or pull-ups. Whatever we put on him, he would just pee whenever he felt the urge. He didn't make a move to go to the bathroom. Why? Well, he was intensely interested in whatever he was doing and did not want to stop to go to the bathroom. This was particularly true of his technology – a Nabi tablet and a cell phone that did not have service specifically that had a few games on it to play. Therefore, taking away technology and keeping it until he learned to use the bathroom was the secret. He had maybe one accident after he started wearing underwear. Removing the distraction was the answer, and being able to get his stuff back was the incentive.
For the third child, I believe it was a mixture of my laziness, too much going on in our lives and a later development of her body to be able to control her bladder. Honestly, I have trouble admitting when I am slacking in certain areas of parental responsibility. However, my third child was three and not making much progress in potty training when her youngest brother was born. That set us back considerably. However, she finally potty trained at the age of four after numerous accidents in underwear. She could go for days with no issue, then have three days in a row with accidents. That was tough to get through, but we managed.
This time, however, may turn out a bit different.
They Say Every Child is Different; Boy, is That True
My youngest is a boy. At 1 ½, he is a very hands-on type of boy, if you know what I mean. His hands are in his diaper whenever he has the opportunity.
It is an issue because it has become a struggle to keep his clothes dry, since things tend to get wet when the diaper isn't where it is supposed to be. On the plus side, he is curious about the process and goes to the bathroom with his dad when he is home. He isn't afraid of the toilet flushing or the bathroom in general. OK, all of that is good. We are getting there; the clues are pointing toward potty training. I am very OK with that. We have had kids in diapers for nine years. I'm ready to be done with that part of parenthood.
Attention Mom: Here Is Your Sign
Yesterday, I realized the time has come. What was my logic? Well, I figure that when he has it out, has it gripped and is distance peeing across the living room floor, aiming for the coffee table – I'm going to take that as a pretty clear sign it is time to teach him there is a place and time for those bodily functions.
So, we're off on the potty training journey once again. Our approach is going to be a potty chair in the living room – a fun one with sounds. He is going to wear pull-ups, since they fall back into place easier when his hands aren't in them anyway. We're going to encourage him to use the potty to sit on and get comfortable with, and in the case that another distance peeing incident occurs, we'll teach him he has a place to use as a target. We are going to regularly encourage him to use the potty when he feels the urge. Hopefully from there, we can eliminate the distance aspect – at least until he gets older. I have seen the commercials, and I imagine my two boys will challenge each other to some version of a distance contest at some point in our lives.
I am hopeful that with his level of interest and the signs all pointing in the right direction, I'll see the light at the end of the diaper-changing tunnel soon. Wish me luck.
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