Watch Where You Step! Toilet Training In Progress!
My daughter pooed on the carpet at our house this week. That’s right. I said my daughter. Not the family puppy. We don’t have one. It was my kid that needed to be “housebroken”. Watch Where You Step… Toilet Training In Progress at our house!
I had bathed Mary in the tub in our Master ensuite and realized I hadn’t brought a pull-up for her (her preference is a pull-up with a pair of “big girl” undies over top, FYI future babysitters). I pulled her out of the tub, toweled her off, then ran to her room to grab more diapers. When I returned, I saw that she had followed me out of the bathroom and into our bedroom and had pooed on the floor. Three lumps of poo in a matter of the minute it took me to run back to her. Three lumps of crap (using a polite word here) on the carpet of the room where I sleep.
I can handle a lot as a parent, but that was it. I didn’t get upset with her and I calmly cleaned the mess, then “Green Machined” the carpet. Repeatedly. But that was a defining moment to start to toilet train her. She’d already shown all the signs of “readiness”. It was time to get serious about toilet training.
Dad To The Rescue
And that’s what I told her father.
Yep, I deferred the whole thing to him. I’ve changed the majority of the poopy diapers in the past two years, because Daddy “couldn’t handle the smell.” Well, if he didn’t want to change diapers, he could teach her to use the toilet.
And a week later, I can honestly say the toilet training was almost complete. My husband’s method was putting her on the toilet every 20 minutes or so. He used a timer on his phone, and she came to understand the ding of the timer going off as time to go to the bathroom. After a few days of that, she didn’t need the timer anymore. She could make out the cues and let us know on her own. She still wears a pull-up (including at night), but she tells us when she needs to go to the bathroom. I was so proud when she even interrupted a shopping trip with Mommy and Daddy to tell us she need to “go potty”.
True Story
While writing this blog post, she woke up from her nap, sat with Daddy for a bit then came to find me so I could take her to the bathroom because she needed to poo. As she sat on the toilet, she pointed to me, smiled and said “I. Love. You.”
So there you have it. Even in the restroom, you can have precious parenting moments.
My oldest was easy to train but my youngest use to cry,he was afraid of the potty.
I was really surprised Mary wasn’t afraid of the toilet too, but they have little mini-ones at her daycare, so I think that helped her get used to the idea.
We’re still working on this. She’s not 100% yet, but she’s doing great 🙂
my oldest was a nightmare to potty train. i tried pull ups and he of course used them as a diaper. i tries big boy underwear and he just peed and pooped in them. when i was getting frustrated with that i started making him clean up his underwear and then cleaning the floor if there was a wet spot. when that didn’t work i tried the naked potty training and he would pee that eventually worked but not until he had to clean up his pee and poop off the floor. i had also tried along the way rewards, time outs, taking everything away… anything that i heard worked for other people that i wasn’t against doing. (I wasn’t going to leave him sitting in wet/dirty clothes, spank him or anything else i felt was wrong.) after having some success he was only wearing a pull up at bedtime or for trips out of the house. he would tell us when he had to go and he was dry at night for a while so we just stopped buying them completely because he started getting them himself during the day and regressing to use them as diapers again.
my youngest will probably start potty training soon and i am dreading the nightmare. although this time i am going to wait until i feel he is ready to start and not let others pressure me into potty training him when they think he should be. (this includes grandparents. i got so much pressure from my husbands parents last time.)
Omg training my daughter was a nightmare
Training my son was a pleasure @ 12 months he was using the potty everyday