While we were on our family visiting road trip, Luke took an earnest interest in the little potty at my in-laws’ house. As in, he would thrash during diaper changes and say “potty,” and he actually peed in it twice! I’ve had multiple resources emphasize not to ignore the “window of readiness” for potty training—defined as either generally “between 20-30 months” or “when he shows interest in it and awareness of potty actions.” We’re definitely within both of those windows right now.
So, I decided early last week: We’re taking the diaper off first thing Monday morning after getting home Sunday evening!
I just finally potty trained Miryam this past summer, at over 3 years old. I realized when she fully caught on to both day and night in under 3 days that I had waited too long. I had been buying diapers and letting her be a baby for far too long. I’m sure you don’t care to hear all my excuses for why I waited as long as I did to pull that trigger. Let it suffice to say that after going through it with M, I firmly decided that I would at least try potty training with Luke “sometime this winter” (around his 2nd birthday, give or take).
And here we are, less than a month before his birthday (and it feels like winter, anyway), jumping in head first with a naked bottom half and the little potty in the middle of the room.
Now, Luke is a little rascal. He excitedly got his pee in the little potty twice within 30 minutes of waking up this morning. I love how he says “Dit!” (I did it). The rest of the morning, however, he waited for me to turn my back for 12 seconds to pee on the floor multiple times. Once, while I wiped his sister’s hands after lunch. Once, while I put his juice box back in the fridge. Once, while I got distracted watching the movie I’d put on for the kids.
“How can I have been watching for drops so intently today, and still have missed them?!” I asked myself as I accidentally sat in a puddle, which I hadn’t previously noticed, on the floor. He’s pantsless, so no problem there, but I am in my second outfit of the day.
On the plus side, the fact that he waited for me to be not paying attention to him, and ran to the other room to pee out of sight, reinforces my conviction that he is ready for this. The last two times before naptime, he even ran to the potty immediately after peeing on the floor, which means we’ve successfully gone from “clueless” to “I peed,” which is progress!
After nap time, there were two full-on “accidents,” and then a bunch (I stopped counting….I hope he’ll start consolidating soon) of I-see-you-are-peeing-let’s-RUN-to-the-potty and getting significant amounts into the little potty; even a couple of the, “Hey there’s your potty just sayin” and within a few minutes, he’d go sit and say,
“Done! Dit! Dump!” Big grin. High fives.
One day in, I was a little flabbergasted at his evasion of my eye. However, he only peed on one dining chair and in the empty bathtub where we were blowing bubbles (other than the floor, of course). Overall, I feel more positive than negative about how the day went. We’ll see how the rest of the week goes, though.
Before potty training Miryam, I read this book. Reading at least one book on the topic before embarking on any new project, phase of parenting, etc., is my M.O. Thank goodness for the library, am I right?
Aside from the step-by-step process the author describes, which took some of the guess work out of it and also gave me the confidence that “it really can be done,” even before 2 years old, my biggest takeaway from this book was what it actually means to be potty trained.
Before, I had it in my head that “she’s potty trained” meant “she tells me when she needs to go and rarely has accidents.” If I was going to have to constantly remind her or “do it for her,” it didn’t count.
After reading the book, my definition of “potty trained” has changed: “Sometimes she self-initiates, sometimes I tell her it’s time to go; bottom line, she rarely has accidents.”
Even if I have to say, “Hey, sis, it looks like you need to pee. Let’s go to the potty,” if her pee gets in the potty, not in her undies, not on the floor, it counts! If she says, “Mommy, I need to go pee!” and she still needs my help getting undressed or getting toilet paper, it counts! If I have to offer a lollipop to get her to do #2, and she does, it counts!
I don’t want to point any fingers, but I did have the feeling while reading the book that many of my veteran mom friends had failed me, by encouraging me to continue to “wait till she’s ready” without mentioning that maybe I missed her “window” and that she was absolutely never going to potty train herself—I was going to have to insist on it eventually.
And so, I am potty training my second child—a boy at that—almost a year and half earlier, relative to each of their lives, than I did with my daughter. I’m still nervous about it (even though we already started!), but I’m pumped about the number of diapers I will be saving myself from buying and changing; and I’m still convinced that this is a good idea. Wish me luck!
A title that sends chills down any mama’s back…
P.S. you’ve got this!
A bit of advice? Go buy a BUNCH of little boy underwear and make him wear at least those. (Less laundry than full pants) and maybe he won’t feel so “free-to-pee” wherever he wants. Might not work, but it’s a thought! 🙂 <3
That is what I would have thought, too, before reading the book. The author gives 2 main reasons for not doing that: 1. If he has on undies, by the time I see pee on/in them, he’s done and there’s none left to put in the potty for practicing. And for us, since we have hard floors everywhere it’s just as easy to clean up a puddle as it would be to change wet undies! 2. The author has a theory that underwear feels too much like a diaper and triggers muscle memory to just go whenever/wherever. She even recommends going commando for a month or more once you do put pants back on, which should be after 2-3 days (once he starts noticing what’s going on and I feel confident that I recognize his “signal”—his physical indication that he’s about to pee or just started to pee).
I’ll have to report back later how the theory works in practice. But throughout the book, her logic seemed sound and she’s been a potty training consultant for hundreds of kids, so I’m willing to give her ideas a try!