Potty Training.....

So, we've been working on Potty Training with the Princess.

She's been going pee pee on the potty since she was like 15 months. She will be 3 in a month. (It's been a long wait!!!) So, she's been showing a lot of readiness clues, such as: telling me when she pees and taking her diaper off herself to be changed, telling me when she poops and wanting it off immediately after doing it, wanting to wear pull-ups, going potty before getting in the bathtub, going to the potty when requested to do so and usually going pee pee in the potty. It seems like we should be so close. Ya, so close, but yet so far away..... Argh!!!!

I don't really care if she's in panties or not, not really....but I had hoped we'd be there by now, just to save money!! I mean in Oct, Nov, December we have 3 kid birthdays, 2 expensive car tags and of course, Christmas. To say money is tight, is an understatement. She is in Size 5 diapers and the bigger the diapers, the less you get for the money. So, that sucks big time!!


What I can tell you is, we are no closer now than we were 6 months ago. And there's not one thing I can do about it. Thru my past experience (aka 3 kids) I have learned that she will not do this until she's ready. No amount of begging, pleading, bribing, pressuring or any other tactics are gonna work.


Trust me, I know.
I know what NOT TO DO!!


When Logan was almost 3.....I was beginning to feel like a real failure as his mother. Why could I not potty train this child??? He was nowhere near potty training and I felt the shaming judgements from the other mothers. Or so I thought. The truth was, they were actually probably in the same boat as me, but weren't willing to admit it. They had their kid in pull-ups and they were using them exactly like diapers, but they could say their child was in "pull-ups," which put them in an elite group of mothers whose children "were almost there...almost potty trained." A group to be envied.


So, what did I do?

I pressured my poor child.

I bribed him with toys and candy.

I begged him.

I pleaded with him.

I cried.

And one day, I spanked him for an accident.

And as we sat there on the bathroom floor, a shocked child and his guilt-ridden mother. Both of us crying. I realized....there was no way that being in underwear was worth any of this.

So, I apologized to him.
I hugged him tight and I promised I wouldn't mention it again.
And that I would wait for him to decide it was time and he could tell me when he wanted to wear underwear and we'd try it.

Well, it was several weeks after this incident that he asked for underwear.

And, when he was ready....he did it.

And he never had an accident.
Not even at night.

He was ready and I had to be willing to let him "get there."


So....that's the bottom line.
I have to let the Princess "get there."


Because.....


My 35 month old daughter doesn't care one bit what diapers cost.

My 35 month-old daughter doesn't care that I have been changing diapers for almost 12 straight years, sometimes 2 kids at a time!!

My 35 month-old daughter doesn't care about all the other mom's told me that girls potty train early and that I could expect her to potty train at 24 months or so. And so, I've been waiting for a really long time to be rewarded w/ a early trained girl.

My 35 month-old daughter doesn't care that we should have bought stock in Huggies for both the diapers and the wipes for what we have paid to have 4 kids thru diapers.

My 35 month-old daughter loves Dora, but even the Dora panties are not motivation enough to her to even try to wear the panties and stay dry.


Bottom line......

She'll do it when she's ready!!!

And I have to be READY to wait for whenever that will be.


(and for the record.....all 3 boys potty trained between 3 years and 3 1/2.
And NOT ONE MINUTE SOONER than when THEY WERE READY!!!!)


**for KS, another mother in the trenches........miss ya girl**