Posted on by Jenny

Scratch That

Potty training is hell!

We tried to do Potty Boot Camp with Sophie this weekend, and it was miserable. It exhausted her as well as Bobby and me. At the end of the day, when I was holding her on the potty while running her bath which she needed because she had peed all over herself like 897 times and she was screaming both for a diaper and asking to be put “straight to bed” instead of having to sit on the potty, I finally thought, “Gee, maybe Sophie’s not ready.”

Here’s what I learned from Potty Boot Camp:

1) Sophie would prefer to use our office chair as a toilet, rather than an actual toilet.
2) Sophie will hold her pee until you leave the room to make her lunch or get her a clean shirt or ironically, check to see that her brother wiped himself correctly after taking a poop.
3) Sophie does not care whether she wears training pants, big girl undies, or a diaper, so long as she can pee in them and not on the toilet.
4) Sophie will not answer questions that contain the word “potty”, “pee-pee”, “poop”, “wet”, or “dry”.
5) Sophie will take a four-hour nap if it means she can get a break from potty training.
6) I would rather give a raccoon a pedicure than potty train my kid.

It was that fun!

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20 Replies to “Scratch That”

  1. Too funny! I had to bribe my daughter with M&Ms to use the potty. I tried everything else, but that’s what finally worked. I imagine the parenting books wouldn’t approve, but I was desperate. šŸ™‚

    Good luck!

  2. I had 4 children, all within 7 years of each other, and I am happy to report that each mastered the skill, in spite of my best, or sometimes, my worst efforts. But I must admit, itā€™s a period of childrearing about which Iā€™ve probably developed selective amnesia. Hereā€™s a post I wrote a while back about the whole process. Itā€™s listed under the heading, ā€œPotty Training is overratedā€“I like to call it ā€˜Survival of the Fittest.ā€™ā€
    http://tadpolesandteacups.blogspot.com/2008/05/queen-for-day.html
    The best piece of advice came from a pediatrician who told me that honestly, there is nothing the mom can do to force complianceā€“-he said to give it time, keep a sense of humor and donā€™t sweat the ā€œset backs,ā€ and always, always, ALWAYS keep a change of clothes (or two) in the car.
    Best of luck to you!

    Cathy

    P.S. 3 of my kids have now entered college and none are in diapers, if that makes you feel better

  6. My nephew was the same way! He was nearly three and still wearing pull-ups, cool-alerts!! I used to watch him every weekday when my brother & sister in-law were working so I had to figure out something..I put a jar of hershey kisses on the window ledge in my bathroom and a sticker chart on top of the toilet..He got both a hershey kiss & a star sticker each time he used that potty..After a few weeks he was trained! I think he enjoyed getting the chocolate LOL Although it made my day terrible when he was so hyper from it!

  7. We just went through potty training with our 3 year old. He’s stubborn and still will not tell us when he has to pee, we just put him on there every couple few hours. When he has to poop, half the time he tells us he has to go, the other half he hides in the kitchen and goes in his underwear. Some kids are stubborn.

    “Nearly three” is hardly late, especially for a boy, to be wearing pull-ups.

  10. Hated potty training. It sucked. We started once with pull ups and quit – we said because Sabrina wasn’t ready but it might have been that I wasn’t ready. She would poop but not pee on the potty and it made me insane.
    I finally decided to wait until Sabrina was really ready. About 3 months after our initial try, she started demanding a new diaper every time she peed. I figured that was the sign. Thankfully, it was pretty easy – no pull ups, straight to panties. 2 accidents and she was trained. Mostly because she hates to be dirty or wet. I know Tessa isn’t going to be that easy.

  11. Jenny!!! You are scaring the, um, POTTY out of me!!! Annalyn seems VERY ready to potty train, but I am terrified. She talks about potty-related things constantly, wants to wipe herself and put on her own diapers, and has been excited to receive both panties AND a pink potty from my parents. But I AM SCARED!!!

  12. I’m a big believer in when they are ready, they are ready! (And Sophie’s just not there yet… she will be soon.) I have friends who kids are “potty trained” yet, they have accidents all the time. I’d rather just deal with diapers!

    For awhile O had pee mastered like a champ, but poo was another story. He would tell me he needed a pull-up and had to go “in the dark place.” (The shadow of my nary-used treadmill.) I thought he’d be pooping in a pull-up (and not a diaper–had to be a pull-up, which are EXPENSIVE!) forever. He got it one day. Gum helped. šŸ˜‰

  16. AAAHHHHH! You just described my week last week! I mean, described it perfectly. My 3-year-old daughter begged for diapers, begged for bedtime… all the stuff you said! I thought it would work better to train my twins separately, but now I’m thinking not training them at all sounds like the best plan.

  18. WOW. I’m sorry. That just sucks.

    I’d not even TALK about it for like 4-6 weeks, then broach the subject differently.

    Start with books and videos, not even saying that she needs to do anything. Feel it out.

    Then call me. lol

    xoxoxo

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