Let me just tell you, I'm a firm believer in waiting to potty train when your child is ready, not when a book says, not when your friend's kids potty trained, not when your last kid potty trained. . . But it certainly isn't to do things on their terms if your as "bossy" as I am. . .
Tate is going to be four in September and we've been dragging our feet with potty training. Santa brought all of the potty training gear we'd need and we tried it out during Christmas Vacation. He looked at us like we were lunatics. He couldn't figure out what we were asking him to do. After a day of no potty landing in the potty, we decided it must not be our time. So we took a break.
Two months after that, our fosters came and were here for five months. With them, came an appointment almost every day and a lot of craziness! So we decided it wouldn't be fair to him (or us) to add the extra weight of potty training. So we decided this week was the week, we'll give it a shot!
Monday was D day. I got his new Disney underwear out and we said goodbye to diapers and hello to the timer. We set it for every fifteen minutes and he learned really quickly that when it went off, he was supposed to go try. He still want really getting it until he wet about two drops in his underwear and freaked out! He kept saying 'I'm so sorry monsters Inc.! No No Wet!!' After that, he was pretty diligent in going when the alarm sounded which went from 15 to 20 to 30 to 45 minutes apart. He even went #2! (Sorry, too graphic?) That night I got a change of clothes and sheets ready and he went to bed in underwear. I fully expected an accident but he woke up dry! We've had a few near accidents, but he's always been able to stop himself and run to the bathroom. Nothing has been worse than an underwear change.
So now it's Wednesday and things are still going well. . . I'm afraid to post this because I don't want to jinx us! Here are the main factors that contributed to our success. . .
1. We waited for Tate! Were there some embarrassing diaper moments? Yes. Did people say "why isn't he potty trained?" Yes. But when we saw that he was not ready at Christmas, we accepted it and took a break we didn't force him and clean dirty underwear for months.
2. We waited until he could be the priority. We wanted to start last week but we had a lot going on so we waited until we could stay home a few days to focus. It's not fair to a kiddo to put extra pressure on them! Which brings me to the next point...
3. No potty training agenda. I hear often that people get pregnant and decide now the baby needs potty trained or they move or want to start preschool early etc. That is a lot of pressure for a toddler! And it makes mom less patient too! Do you think I wanted to pay for two kids in diapers, I'm the cheapest person you know so HECK NO! BUT I chose to have Emerson when Tate was only two, he didn't. I didn't think it was fair to punish or force him.
4. No pull ups. For Tate, he needed to jump full in and feel when he was wet. Pull ups were too close to diapers and too expensive for momma!
All in all, this is what worked for Tate, Emerson will probably be different. She's already wanting to use the potty and she isn't two yet! I'm not much of a parenting book reader, ironic, but I truly believe in learning about children's minds and physical development and using that information to make informed decisions to parent every child in our home WHILE FOLLOWING THE GUIDANCE OF THE SPIRIT. :) Heavenly Father knows our kids the best, He created them, ask Him how to meet their needs. Every child we have is unique, they each need their own parenting style and Heavenly Father will guide us to what that need is every time!
Happy training!
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