On Potty Training

First off, let's make one thing extremely clear. I am NOT an expert on potty training, I mean I tried 4 times for crying out loud, but this boy is finally potty trained! Wahoo!

Isn't this funny? He leans forward so it doesn't shoot out. Ha ha!

That being said, I do feel as if I can offer some advice, to my future self when I have to potty train Alexis, because I tried 4 times. Four awful times with this kid! I really think potty training is the worst part of parenting. I always thought teething was. Nope. Potty training.

First, don't compare. I found myself comparing my child (which I never really had a problem with until this last year) to other children. One of my facebook friends wrote "Don't compare your inside life to someone else's outside life.". Very good advice! I mean, some people would say on facebook, or articles on pinterest, how their child was potty trained at 18 months, or at 2 years old. And because those few people said that, I thought my child needed to be like that too. Who cares, right? I took it personal like they were saying "look how awesome and smart my child is because they pee in the toilet and they are only two years old". Blah to them! I think those children who are potty trained around 2 or younger are few and far between. Most people I asked said that their child was potty trained around 3, and others 3 1/2. I realized then that it's ok if Jonas isn't potty trained by the time he's three. Plus, I know some people are potty training for 5 months or so when they start when their child turns 2. Jonas took only 9 days (this time) to get completely potty trained. Why would I want to do it for 5 months? Cleaning all that pee and poo. Not fun! I guess if you put together all the times I tried with him, it took a month and a half. Still, less time than others.

Second, don't push it. I really really wanted Jonas to be potty trained because I wanted him to be. I didn't want to buy diapers for two kids. He didn't care as much, and therefore I think it caused him stress because I tried to push it on him. Plus, I tried at the most inconvenient time! Right after a new baby joined the family. Never ever do that.

Third, just because you read an article doesn't mean it's going to work. I was so prepared to potty train. I felt like I read everything there was on potty training. The rewards, being positive, picking out his own underwear and his own toilet, etc. etc. etc. Jonas is S.T.U.B.B.O.R.N.! All of those "things" didn't work with him. I mean I offered to buy him a bike and that didn't work. And trust me, he really really loves his bike now. :)

A lot of people also said, "he's not ready."  Or, "Don't worry, have you ever seen a kindergartener not potty trained?" I still tried. I didn't just wait for him to potty train himself, because a lot of people said he would do that. Either way, I didn't want to wait till he was 5 to be potty trained. So instead of waiting, I asked him probably around 3 times a week if he wanted to wear his big boy underwear. Finally, he said yes. If he said no, I didn't push it. I also reminded him that he should try pooping in the toilet, or peeing in the toilet. I figured if he heard it enough, maybe he would want to try. Maybe that helped, maybe it didn't. But either way, I knew it was going to have to be his decision because he was so stubborn and defiant, so I tried to put the thoughts in his head. Hee hee.

And last, rewards. I think they do work. I saw this article that said don't give them rewards. Let them do it because they want to. Umm....I don't necessarily agree with that if you have a stubborn child. This time around, he ate an otter pop every time he went potty. And the thing was, if I said "let's go potty and then you get a popsicle", he wouldn't always go for me. But if I showed him the popsicle, like "I'm being serious, you can have this popsicle in my hand", he went just great for me because he could see it. Weird, right? Maybe that's why the bike thing didn't work because he didn't believe he would get it? He couldn't see it? I don't know. I guess he's the type of kid that has to see to believe. Teaching him faith might be hard later on in life. ha ha!

So there you go. If I could go back, I would have waited until things calmed down after having Alexis to start trying. However, because I tried a couple times before, I knew he knew how to pee in the toilet and he knew when he was doing it. All those other times helped him understand that. I just had to get him to have a desire to do it. That was the difficult part. But either way, he's doing great, and he doesn't need a popsicle to go potty anymore. He loves his bike, and I love that I don't have to buy diapers for him anymore. I hate potty training, but I'm glad it's over. Ya, there's still the whole staying dry at night thing, but we'll tackle that when it comes. I'm not worried about that. Some nights he's dry and some nights he's not. Oh well. At least he goes during the day now, even by himself sometimes.