Potty training.
The 2 words I didn’t think I’d dread so much, until I did. If we’re being honest, I didn’t even think of potty training. Somehow my mind just skipped right over that huge milestone and went straight to “oh it’ll be so much easier when he’s fully potty trained,” not even thinking I’d be the one to have to train him.
I’ve always heard more horror stories than victorious ones, which didn’t help my mindset going into it. You know the ones where parents let their kids run around naked for 3 days straight, but the kid didn’t care and still peed and pooped on the floor. I even had one friend who said their 2 year old had shown interest at age 2, but she didn’t think he was ready so she waited and then he didn’t show interest again till almost 5. Cue the anxiety attack. It’s not even the fact of them having to wait that long. I think it was just putting so much pressure on myself for us to succeed in it that made me dread it so much.
One day, I finally decided to try it out. Mav had been showing some interest but not really succeeding. So I took on the timing method; I timed him every 45 minutes and we’d go sit on the potty. The first few times it went smoothly, but the rest of the time was horrible. He would just sit there and cry and yell no. Clearly he wasn’t ready … and I felt bad because I shouldn’t have pushed him because now he’s probably going to be scared of the potty forever. I turned off all of the alarms, and we went about our day at home. About an hour later, he came and tapped my leg and said “Momma I pee pee” and we ran to the potty. Sure enough, he went.
And he’s been successfully going for a little over a month now. We still wear pull-ups when we leave the house because I’m just not THAT brave yet. And we haven’t mastered bedtime or naps, but I’m not pushing it. I’m trying to learn to do things on his timing and not when it’s most convenient for me.
I know this situation may be the exception to the rule, but hopefully this changes your outlook on potty training, and maybe it’ll give you peace knowing when they are ready they will let you know. You just need to be there to guide them.
