Clive's 2nd birthday has come and gone and I've yet to truly dive into potty-training. Isn't it funny how your perspective changes on parenting issues with the second child? I imagine parents grow more and more laidback with the addition of each new kiddo to the brood . . .When Chloe turned two I was stubbornly determined to potty-train her. I was intense. We embarked on 7-10 day stretches where Chloe sat on the potty for most of her waking moments until her body was forced to eliminate. Looking back, I'm certain my intensity level and the pressure-filled ambiance I created made Chloe fearful of the big transition from diapers to potty. It took 4 long months of on-and-off training before Chloe was consistently tinkling in the potty. It took almost a year for her to be fully training (including undies at night).
That is an experience I do NOT want to go through again. I'm convinced that potty-training can be one of the all-time worst aspects of mommyhood and can seriously threaten this mom's sanity and patience-level.
Fast forward to Clive. We've talked up pottying and given all the explanatory talks to him about human excrement. Both Matt and I often take Clive with
us so into the bathroom so he's definitely aware of the process. Even before Clive turned two we began sitting him on the potty regularly. He's had 4-5 successes but what usually happens is Clive alerts us when he needs to go, we race him up there and inevitably, we're too late.Today we had a quiet day at home with nothing on the agenda. So I took the opportunity to break out his new big-boy undies. Even though I've often let him play sans-diaper (forgive me if that's too much information -- it's supposedly a sure-fire way to train), he's still not going consistently on the potty. I hoped the transition to big-boy undies might do the trick today.
Clive did great! While he wasn't successful on the potty, he didn't have ANY accidents even though he was in big-boy undies almost all day long. Let's hope this is a sign of good things to come!
The added and unexpected blessing of this potty-training experience is Chloe. She's incredibly helpful and patient with Clive, often sitting with him and showing him books to keep him occupied.
What's your stance and experience with riding the potty train? Any good boy tips for me? Any and all encouragement and tips are welcome!
4 comments:
With my first two I waited until they were almost 3 yrs. old to start training them and they trained in about 2 weeks. Malachi (my 3rd) took the longest to train. That was because I knew I was going to be teaching in the fall (his 3rd birthday was in November), and in order for him to go to pre-school he had to be potty trained. So I worked on it all summer long. Finally in February (3 months after he turned 3 & 9 months after I started training him) I could officially say he was potty trained. Thankfully, the pre-school allowed him to wear pull-ups as long as I was the one who changed him. He still has to wear a pull-up at night, although his night time accidents are getting fewer and fewer. I think the reason he took so long to train was I pushed it before he was ready. He was never resistant, in fact he was really excited about the whole process, but it just didn't click with him. Well, anyway, that's my two cents, for what it's worth. Hope you and your fam are doing well Alicia. Your kiddos look like little cuties!
I'm not pushing it with Eli at all. I've heard that boys are harder to train, and I'm not going to pressure him into going on the potty. We put him on there throughout the day, and after he wakes up, and especially when his diaper has been dry for a while. He has his rewards for when he does use the potty. He's just not that into quite yet, which is fine by me. I'd rather him be totally ready and be able to tell me, then to force him to do something, just because he's in "that age range" where he should be potty trained. He's 2 1/2, so we're starting to work a little bit more with him, but with both Vince and I working full-time, it's really hard to devout all the extra time to sitting him on the potty. I'm hoping during my maternity leave (12 weeks), I'll get him potty trained. That's my goal at least!!
I've only trained one child so far;). Michael was 2 years 4 months when we started training and he trained successfully in a week. It took one more month of "training" to be rid of diapers for good. When he would wake up dry in the morning, I knew that it was time to be brave and see if he could do without them permanently. He had a difficult time with going #2 on the potty. He wanted a diaper to do his business in. He finally learned to do it though;).
I have no idea how Marcus will do. He pretends to go potty on the little potty and tells us that he's going "poo-poo" in his diaper every time he goes. He's not quite 20 months old and I'm not going to push it.
It seems that each child has a different timetable for when/how they will train. We can take comfort in knowing that our children will be trained before they graduate from high school;). Hopefully, Clive will breeze through his potty training!
Oh, your post made me smile. I was remembering about two years ago when we were pregnant and potty training.
I actually just started potty training with Krista yesterday. She is 2 years and 3 months, but our life was just too hectic to even consider adding something like that to it. Not that our life is "not hectic" now, but we are just coming off vacation so I felt up to starting and besides the baby is due in 2 months! I'm doing things pretty much the same as I did with Kayla because I came away with good feelings about the process, but my low expectations (as in she's not going to be potty trained completely in 1 day, 3 days, or 7 days) make it easier this time around. Plus, we have no carpet and we're not living in someone else's place so I feel relaxed about accidents. I won't even give you an opinion about how it's going because as I learned last time -- there's no way to tell this early in the game.
Absolutely no advice from me but my encouragement is that I love how happy you're sounding in your laid back approach. Great job, Mom! And Chloe's picture of reading Clive the book is so precious!
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