I hate potty training. It's like Groundhog Day for mommies; discuss, cajole, bribe, clean, repeat. Dozens and dozens of times.
I had fooled myself early on. The boys often take baths together and of course, HRH always uses the potty prior to entering the tub. RC was always fascinated with the process and HRH was only too happy to show off his skills in the art of urination. I said to myself and Andy, "potty training with this one's is gonna be a piece of cake". Um yeah. Pride cometh before a fall - or in this case, summer. For a while, RC has clearly displayed all the signs of readiness and I've half-heartedly tried to introduce him to using the toilet. He is not interested. Let me repeat; he wants no part of it.
Last week, RC stepped it up a notch. In addition to removing his own diaper if it was wet, he's begun to take it off immediately after he poops as well, sometimes allowing the contents to drop onto the floor. Upon the first such incident last week, I was dealing with the diaper and the floor while he started running around trying to back into everything - and practically sitting on our poor dog, saying menacingly "I'm gonna get poops on you!"
So now we've got the sticker chart, I've purchased the Halloween sized bags of M&Ms as a bribe for sitting on the potty, I've told him kids with diapers can't go to preschool, and I've promised the kid a BIKE once he's done with diapers.
He's just plain not interested. If it weren't for the shitting in the house thing, I'd probably just blow it off for another month or two. But clearly this activity has upped the ante and it needs to be addressed. The problem is that like so many areas of RC's personality, I'm out of ideas. I don't want to make it a negative but clearly he can not relieve himself where ever he damn well pleases.
Help me Obi Wan; you're my only hope.
Signed -
Pouting About the Potty
Is My Child Gifted?
6 hours ago
17 comments:
Holy cow that was funny. Not that I am LAUGHING AT YOU, I am LAUGHING WITH YOU. Take it from me, the mom of three boys. Boys are much different in their ability to potty train. Ground hog day about covers it. I feel for you. I am just avoiding it with my youngest. Totally avoiding it. Hmmmm...wonder what I will be saying about that tactic in a few years...
Oh! Your blog looks amazing. It is really, really cute and I love the tag line.
Oh dear... that does not sound like fun. But I totally understand what you are going thru. A is only about 50% ready, but under the bribery of marshmallows, we are trying. But teaching E keeps flashing thru my mind. While he never really took his diapers off... He did like to stick his fingers in and then paint the walls to get the icky's off his fighers... ahhhh here we go again. Potty Trainers of the world.. unite... only we can recognize the stench of a hidden poo.
Jack recently went through a phase of sticking his fingers in his dirty diaper and then wiping the evidence on the wall, sofa, floor, himself, his sister, me... Thankfully it was a short phase.
Maybe you could duct tape his diapers on?
Disclaimer: I am the last person in the world who can give advice on this topic.
That said, considering he is totally aware of what he is doing, you have absolutely nothing whatsoever to feel guilty about for swatting his poopy bottom the next time he does that. It's not like a 2-year-old who doesn't know what the heck is going on at the other end. This child knows, and he thinks it is funny. You just need to show him (not tell him) that it is not funny at all. You know best how to do that - no TV, a swat, confinement in his room for a bit...whatever motivates him to think, "Hmmm, maybe this isn't so funny after all..."
Good luck.
From the woman who has a just-turned-three who won't poop in the potty, but at least she isn't sitting on the dog...
I say, make RC clean up his messes! And, if you really think he's ready, but unwilling, let him go around with nothing on his bottom for three days.
Pretty much guaranteed to work.
love this post! going through this right now with a stubborn little man!! i just was given a new "trick."
pour a cap full of downey in the toilet. let them pee and watch the bubbles grow! i have tried twice. he seems amused! next i'm promising him a car....
- audrey
Have you tried the MnM trick?
OH, I am sorry. Potty training is so hard. My son potty trained on the later side. He was about 3 years old and 3 months. He had barely shown signs of readiness before then and so I tried to let it go. He did that thing with taking the poopy diaper off, too. Did your boy start pulling the diapers off after you started potty training? If so, he may be rebelling. Lovely how they do that at such tender ages... I would completely back off and take all the pressure off. It is very HARD to do, but it will pay off. When we did start potty training, my little guy was ready. He had been having fairly long periods of being dry. We put him just in underwear with the understanding that I'd have to clean up some poopy underwear and that there would be lots of accidents. He was potty trained in about a week. Still had occasional accidents, but that is to be expected. It was SO much easier once I waited and there was no battle. Then we did the chocolate treat thing just for poops. It worked like a charm!
This is very rambling. I'm sorry. Probably didn't help. But, I am thinking good thoughts for you.
Oh, one more thing on the readiness. My friend's boy is almost 4 and he is just now potty training. It is such an individual thing.
I am right in the trenches of this now too. I HATE it! There are two things I loathe about this job and it's potty training and laundry. My Little One could TOTALLY TOTALLY do it. She just don't wanna. Oy.
THIS is why I am putting off PT as long as possible. Good luck!
p.s. I found you on All Mediocre (and I am going to have the Bangles in my head all day now)!
I have no advice because I am going through the same thing.
Today we had our first pee IN THE toilet though. Progress, I guess. But I'm getting tired of cleaning up pee puddles around the house...
Dude.
My kid just started throwing WICKED temper tantrums and she just turned ONE. I'm so. so. effed.
I got nothing but a lot of sympathy.
OK, love the boys dearly.
But I'm afraid I'll be unavailable for babysitting for the next while... I'll be, um, washing my hair.
Every potty training is different. I think it's the single worst part of parenting. A month ago Max said "No more diaper" and never looked back. Oh, I am not bragging, Max is 3 1/2. If you wait long enough they do it on their own, I swear. Just act like you don't care.
I just gave up on my boy after three days and put him back in diapers. I feel your pain. Poop on the floor is not the stuff of parenting dreams.
Now I only have a girl so I don't know what the difference is between potty training biys vs girls, but what worked for us (and I think someone mentioned this) is to just do it. Like Nike said. Take off the diapers, bypass the pull-ups and just put on the underwear. The Phi (my kid) was too smart for pull-ups so I just switched to underwear and she was totally potty trained in a few days. If your son does not like being in a wet diaper he probably won't like wet underwear even more. Good luck!!
Yikes! Definitely not socially acceptable, but at least you weren't at the grocery store when it happened. Sounds like a power struggle maybe. He'll probably get the message before he starts dating. Girls hate that sort of thing. :)
(After going through the potty training thing with 4 kids and a dog, I'm here to say that all mastered the art-- eventully.) My advice: patience, lots of lysol, duct tape to reinforce the tabs on the diapers, and lots and lots of m&m's.
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