Potty Training 2
(Read Part 1 here or Part 3 here)
Game Plan:
1. Decide on terminology to use and tell everyone what you’re going to say. We went with “pee” and “poo”. Later, told every adult about toilet ritual actions for consistency.
2. Put kids in reusable training pants or pull-ups or underwear + easily removed clothes (those cute overalls=never going to be used)
3. Warn kids repeatedly about change/ Ask kids repeatedly if they have to go/Put them on potty every 2 hours or after meals or naptimes for about 10 minutes or until action starts (for one week, then as needed)
4. Tell kids they were “big girls” and “big girls use the potty” (Propaganda campaign)
5. Be willing to let them pee themselves at least once to show them what happens (per discussion with childcare professional and parental decision that a little distress goes a long way)
6. Do not freak out if things get nasty
7. Be ready with praise and rewards if things go well
8. Be ready with spare clothes and cleaning supplies if things do not go well
The girls had already seen me use the potty and I had talked to them about the steps before. (Don’t say, “Yuck” at me, sister, that’s how it’s done.) We warned the girls the night before about what we’d be doing and played it all up again the next morning, solemnly putting them into pull ups instead of diapers (still had a lot of diapers but that’s okay). We wanted to try training pants at first, but no one would put them on. We also decided to focus on using the stand alone potties so the kids didn’t have to wait to use it and we could keep them in one room while we trained them. The first rewards we used were candy sprinkles (the current craze), but we changed to stickers and hugs after the sprinkles started going into the potty chairs and little fingers dived after them.
So, how did it go? Surprisingly okay! A was ready for this. She was really ready. She was eager to show us she was a big girl and did not mind sitting on the potty when we put her there. She had a general idea of when she had to go potty and would tell us. Eventually, she did it. Wheeee! Lots of praise! Eventually, she went poo! Wheee! Lots of praise! (Yuck! Have to clean it out.) New additions to list:
9. Warn kids repeatedly Poo and Pee are YUCKY and DO NOT TOUCH.
10. Establish with less enthusiastic adults that they DO NOT RINSE POTTY CHAIR INSERT IN SINK as this puts human waste into a raised basin your kids will be dabbling their fingers in.
11. (Was surprised I needed to tell anyone this but,) Do NOT leave used potty chairs in room with kids while you do something else.
Now, Z was another story. Z was okay with the idea but did not care about the execution. She did it when it seemed like a new type of play but in the middle of better play she’d forget. And pee herself. And cry. Maybe… every other day. She did okay the rest of the time so we didn’t feel that discouraged.
That’s the summary for the first week.
This is getting far too detailed so I’ll hit some important points:
- At night/during naptime we put them in pull-ups and told them pee was okay. We taught them to yell “POO!” if they needed to (we have monitors).
- A had to learn how to “hold it” (important life skill) because she tried going pee every few minutes for the novelty (early in training, about 2 days)
- A asked to use the big potty in the second week and Z followed. They soon learned to flush and wash hands and eventually, how to put the potty seat on and pull up the stepstool by themselves.
- Going out of the house was first accomplished with pull-ups and then, with renewed warnings, in panties (for A). This worked okay, except I had to learn where all the restrooms were in every store I went to. Also, had to carry Kalencom Pottette everywhere (still had use for diaper bag). For some reason, both girls thought it was a scream to make Mommy take them to the restroom in restaurants right after the food arrives.
- Ongoing battle to teach girls not to mess with toilet paper (too much,NO lassos, too little, etc).
- After about two months of both the stand alone potties and the toilet with the potty seat I snuck the stand alones into the garage. I hated having to clean those suckers out.
- Z continued to refuse to wear panties all day and, while she mostly used the potty for poo, often just peed in her pull-ups whenever play was too intense. Finally, I told her we had run out of pull-ups and got her some monkey panties. We told her Sister was a big girl but she was a baby if she kept wearing diapers. At this point she knew she was behind her sister and her friends at school, so she went along with it.
- A and Z go to a small playschool and went through most of potty training when there were only about 3-4 other kids around. Happily, they trained at school just as well as at home. We discussed the entire process with the teacher and made progress reports to each other to keep current. Was good.
So that was the main part of potty training.
Are you exhausted yet? I am. And I’m sure I’m blocking out part of my memories about potty training just like I blocked out most of those early just-after-giving-birth days. It is a means to keep my sanity and forget pain. It is also Nature’s way to try to get you have more kids.
Ha! You think I’m a sucker, Nature?