Wednesday, March 30, 2011

The Potty Train Express


I dread potty training. It was the hardest, most frustrating thing I ever did as a new mom. When Colin came around I did not want to do it. I tried with him for a while but he wasn't getting it so I stopped. Then a few months later we tried again and he was trained in about a week or 2. With Logan I just didn't want to do it again. We're busier now and I knew I would need at least a week where we were home all day. But with the boys in school and errands to run I just didn't know when I'd have the time. Logan's been going pee in the toilet for a while now, just not consistently. I never pushed it or encouraged it, just let him go when he wanted and got excited when he did. I heard stories from friends who told me their 2 year old boys were potty trained and I felt like I was behind somehow. But then they told me how long it took (1 or 2 months) and I was not ready for that. A while back I decided to try and potty train Logan over Christmas break, but the first day he had like 5 accidents in a row and I was not going to do that. I pretty much wanted Logan to train himself. I wanted to just wait until he totally wanted to do it. On Monday we jumped on the Potty Train Express. Logan asked to wear underpants like Colin and Trevor did. He had some in his drawer that we kept around for when he was ready. We put them on and the rest of the day he went to the bathroom in the toilet. He had a few accidents but he did pretty good for the first day. Tuesday was even better. We took the boys to school, went to Target and he stayed dry the whole time. He had maybe 3 accidents. And he went good ol' number 2 all by himself. Today was even better. One accident all day. He pretty much trained himself. But don't think I'm bragging here. I'm not. I'm just letting everyone in blogging land know that it's okay to have a 3 year old in diapers still. For real. It's okay if everyone else has kids younger than your kid potty trained already. It's totally okay to wait until you kid is ready to potty train. I am sure some of his success has to do with being the youngest and seeing his older brothers go. But I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that this was very low stress, no pressure at all, no expectations, no worries. If he went, great! If not, oh well, we'll try again. I sure wish I knew all of this 5 years ago when I potty trained Trevor. Who cares what other people do? Who cares what they say or think? All that matters is what's best for you and your kid. Raising kids is hard enough. The last thing we need to do is put more pressure on ourselves and our kids to be like everyone else. I love my Logan. I love that he did it all himself.

1 comment:

Erika said...

It is so hard not to compare. Potty training is not fun. It's totally worthless if your kid is not going to participate. You are right, it's between you and the kid, and each one is different. My three year old is fine during the day and has been for months, but the nights are terrible. Ugh!