Adventures in Potty Training
Saturday is apparently our crazy day because we did something crazy again today. Last week we left on a six-hour road trip on a whim. Today we put underwear on everyone just to see what happens.
This wasn’t done on a whim. This week Abbie’s spring break aligns with mommy’s vacation time. If we’re ever going to lock the five of us in the house and not emerge until everyone is potty trained, this is the time.
We know Abbie is ready to use the potty. She’s been using the potty irregularly for several months, but she’s backsliding. She used to happily pee on the potty once or twice a day, but for the past month we’ve had to drag her into the bathroom. Even if we convince her to sit on the potty she always screams, “there’s no pee in there!” until we let her off the potty, or until she realizes there indeed is pee in there and deposits it in the potty. She’s been perfectly happy peeing in her pull-up and letting us change that a few times a day. We believed that making her wear underwear would help her realize that sitting on the potty was a valuable use of her time.
The boys may or may not be ready to potty train. They loved sitting on the potty a month ago, but ever since they realized that I wouldn’t wait in the bathroom while they ran around climbing on and off potties for 20 minutes, the bathroom has been less alluring. Underwear might be the kick they need to convince them use the potty so they can quickly return to climbing on and off other furniture in the house.
Abbie’s potty training went fairly well with “only” two or three accidents. She understands that peeing in her underwear is a bad idea, so she holds it well. She doesn’t like peeing on the potty, but she’s realizing that it’s more enjoyable than sitting in wet underwear, so there’s advancement. She’s never pooped in the potty, though, and she didn’t poop today, so I’m afraid something is going to give tomorrow, and it’s probably going to be the underwear.
The boys aren’t using the potty as well. They’ll happily pee in the potty if we sit them on it. Unfortunately, they’ll happily pee in their underwear if we don’t sit them on the potty. They don’t give us cues that they need to use the potty either.
I printed off a couple of potty charts. I’ll try them tomorrow, letting the children place a sticker on it each time they successfully use the potty. Ideally, placing a sticker on the chart will be a reward, and they’ll start looking for cues when it’s time to go, and let us know so we can help them use the potty. Realistically, they’ll forget about the charts, and when they do think of the charts it will be to play with them by removing the previously stuck stickers and getting mad when they don’t stick again. Good thing we bought a lot of underwear.
This wasn’t done on a whim. This week Abbie’s spring break aligns with mommy’s vacation time. If we’re ever going to lock the five of us in the house and not emerge until everyone is potty trained, this is the time.
We know Abbie is ready to use the potty. She’s been using the potty irregularly for several months, but she’s backsliding. She used to happily pee on the potty once or twice a day, but for the past month we’ve had to drag her into the bathroom. Even if we convince her to sit on the potty she always screams, “there’s no pee in there!” until we let her off the potty, or until she realizes there indeed is pee in there and deposits it in the potty. She’s been perfectly happy peeing in her pull-up and letting us change that a few times a day. We believed that making her wear underwear would help her realize that sitting on the potty was a valuable use of her time.
The boys may or may not be ready to potty train. They loved sitting on the potty a month ago, but ever since they realized that I wouldn’t wait in the bathroom while they ran around climbing on and off potties for 20 minutes, the bathroom has been less alluring. Underwear might be the kick they need to convince them use the potty so they can quickly return to climbing on and off other furniture in the house.
Abbie’s potty training went fairly well with “only” two or three accidents. She understands that peeing in her underwear is a bad idea, so she holds it well. She doesn’t like peeing on the potty, but she’s realizing that it’s more enjoyable than sitting in wet underwear, so there’s advancement. She’s never pooped in the potty, though, and she didn’t poop today, so I’m afraid something is going to give tomorrow, and it’s probably going to be the underwear.
The boys aren’t using the potty as well. They’ll happily pee in the potty if we sit them on it. Unfortunately, they’ll happily pee in their underwear if we don’t sit them on the potty. They don’t give us cues that they need to use the potty either.
I printed off a couple of potty charts. I’ll try them tomorrow, letting the children place a sticker on it each time they successfully use the potty. Ideally, placing a sticker on the chart will be a reward, and they’ll start looking for cues when it’s time to go, and let us know so we can help them use the potty. Realistically, they’ll forget about the charts, and when they do think of the charts it will be to play with them by removing the previously stuck stickers and getting mad when they don’t stick again. Good thing we bought a lot of underwear.
posted by Matt at
11:40 PM
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