With two toddlers, I know I must keep my life simple. James Dobson (Focus on the Family) said in one of his parenting discussions that there are four main areas that cause parents and kids tons of stress throughout the early years. These are: eating, bedtime, potty training, and clothing. Jb and I have decided that we are going to attempt to avoid getting stressed about those four areas ... If we can help it.
With a 2.5 year old and almost 2 year old, potty training is looming on our horizon. However, I have decided that I am not going to stress about it. If they are potty trained tomorrow ... great. If they are potty-trained when they are 3 or 3.5 or later ... great. I am just not going to worry myself about it. It doesn't matter to me. They'll be there eventually.
So we've been just "introducing" the idea of going potty. We have a little potty and whenever the boys want to, they can sit on it. They can sit on it with their clothes on or off. Whatever they want. Sometimes they want to sit on the big potty. Sometimes the little potty. I don't make them. I will sometimes ask them. They'll sometimes ask me. Simple.
Tonight after church, both boys had dirty diapers. I stripped them both down and let them both take turns sitting on the potty. Isaac sat for awhile and like he often does, he talked to his nethermost region saying, "C'mon potty. No, the potty isn't coming."
He jumped up, I picked him up, put him on the changing table, and watched as Elijah sat down.
Right in the middle of changing Isaac's diaper I discovered that little Elijah had gone potty in his little potty!!!!! Half of it had gone on the floor, but still! JB was in the bathroom at the same time (it's a very large bathroom) so we all danced around. We truly partied in the upstairs guest bathroom.
Isaac then wanted to try again, and we made a big point to praise him for trying even though no potty tinkled out. We want to make sure that none of this a competition between the two of our boys. Ever. Isaac is a sensitive, soft soul. Elijah an outgoing, passionate soul. Both souls require careful handling in different ways.
Potty not in a diaper. I know this means very little in the grand scheme of potty training. But it was still way cool!
6 comments:
Yeah for both of them for trying! Even though it was only once, it was at least a start!
YEAH! That's a huge step.
Bethany
The first time is very exciting. We took the no pressure approach and our 3 yo has been pee trained for over 6 months and poop trained for about a month. Night time and naptime are coming along too. See older kids going potty helped our boy.
This is the same approach my husband and I used with all 4 of our children (ages 14-3.5). We just let it be something they let us know when they were ready for and never stressed about it. (My parents and in-laws stressed enough for all of us...I guess potty trained before 2 is how they all remember it:) My oldest was about 3.5, took about 3 months to be fully potty trained. Next one was 3 exactly took again about 3 months. Our easy-going 3rd child was a few weeks past 2 (seriously!) and I just said one time to him maybe you should try using the potty and that was it...weird and awesome since I was due with #4 just 2 months later! Our baby of the family is day potty trained but still wears a diaper at night. She will be 4 in Dec.
I never understood stressing about things like potty training or using a bottle or pacifier too long. Our pediatrician told me when my oldest was a year old, "I promise he won't have to take the pacifier out to say I do, don't worry." Best advice EVER!
I think waiting for potty-training is the best idea ever! With out first, we started at 1 1/2 and it took like a year! With the 5 subsequent, they all wanted to start somewhere around 2 1/2 and 3 and it only took a matter of weeks. And I always kept them in pull-ups at night and naps for quite awhile after that. Whenever you can cut out stress, do it!
We took the same approach and training JK was really easy. We struggled a bit with the #2 process, but from first step to last, it took maybe two months. I didn't want to be stressed by it either. And now that I know my son more as he gets older, he would have been the type to dig in his heels if I'd pressured him.
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