At this point I have cleaned up five puddles in the carpet, two poopies in underwear and endured long hours of sitting on the cold bathroom floor reading stories, singing songs and explaining over and over why we are doing this. It is quite possibly the most challenging thing I’ve ever tried to do. How do you communicate to this little man how to know when he has to go potty? How do you explain the importance of going in the potty and not in his pants? How do you help him to see that it isn’t good to pee on the carpet or to poopy in his underwear? He isn’t getting it, and my next question is…do I keep trying or do I wait another month or two and try again. He wants to wear the underwear, he gets upset when I put a diaper on him at nap time or bedtime. He wants the candy for going on the potty but there is nothing discouraging him from going in his pants. He doesn’t seem to mind. He doesn’t understand hygiene or offensiveness…he only knows he’s comfortable in his underwear and less comfortable in his diaper. If a little puppy can be taught to pee outside, than there is no reason my two year old can’t be taught to pee in the potty. I am determined, and we are going to do this.
A soul that walks on water leaves no footprints, but will make waves."
Well, we already voiced our joint frustrations on the phone this morning, but I am SO there with you. Dean and Owen need to give their mommies a break!
I’ve tried and tried potty training…I’ve finally decided that we’re just going to wear pull-ups and go sit on the potty about every hour and work from there.
Maybe try to just let him wear pull-ups. They slip on like real underwear and he won’t mess all over the floor, and if he has to go potty you can sit there with him.
My experience has been when I try to make them potty train when I am ready it is much harder than when I wait for them to be ready. I HAD to train Cody in order for him to be in the 3 year old room at school…it was hard, very hard, and he was like 3 years and 2 weeks old when he did it. Dylan trained much easier and on his own terms at probably 2 and 5 months. Jackson, I thought he would never want to train and he was trained in literally a day, but he was more than 3 and he decided he wanted to do it and that was all it took. Hayden has shown interest, and can do it, but only if I stay on him about when he needs to go. I am waiting for him to be able to know when he needs to go without my asking and also to want to go on his own. I find it is easier this way and I don’t spend all that time cleaning messes/washing clothes and sitting in the bathroom. I am laid back about stuff like this though..I am in no hurry to ditch the diapers and I hate nothing more than getting to where I need to go in Target only to have to drop everything to go to the potty…which is nasty!! The older they are the better able they are to hold it when they say they need to go to give me that 5 minutes to get to the bathroom in Target rather than have an accident on the way. Just my 2 cents, fwiw…which is about…2 cents. ha
We haven’t really tried with Clay yet. I know he doesn’t understand peeing in the potty when we talk about it so I haven’t bothered. Sometimes I cathing him on the first grunt of a #2 and ask him if he’d rather go in the potty and he says yes and heads upstairs, but other then that we’re waiting. Most of my friends here have told me their boys didn’t fully potty train until 3 1/2. There is a book you can get from Amazon called Potty Training in One Day or something like that. It’s an interesting method.
Well, for my 2 cents…I made Chloe walk around naked for a couple of days. If I put pull ups or panties on her she would just “go” in them because it was easier. For her it wasn’t a matter of not understanding, it was just more convenient to go in her diaper. So for two days with nothing to catch it- she had to go in the potty and she’s been potty trained since then. I hear that boys are different though- I feel for you.
I am right there with you. Bella thinks I am crazy. But she is more compliant that she was a few weeks ago. Still no success yet.
Traci