Potty Training?

Potty training is hard. Or, that's what I've read. And have been told. And heard on TV. But I gotta tell ya, today is Day 5 and my son is fully trained.

No, I'm not some miracle mommy. Far from it. Truth be told, I didn't even want to potty train him. In fact, in order to force myself to let go, let him grow up, and train him, I had to make myself run out of diapers! It's not that he's, like, 4 or something. He's only 2 ½, but he's been ready for some time now. I just haven't been.

The thing, though, that I think worked in my favor, is the fact that he had been ready for a while. I'm no expert, but I wonder if, had I jumped onto the potty training bandwagon right when I noticed him being ready, if that would have delayed the process. I've noticed many times with my son that if I let him get used to the idea of something for a little while, and then start to make the change toward that something, he does a heck of a lot better.

So anyway, potty training commenced on Tuesday morning when I sadly informed my son that we were fresh out of diapers. He was none too thrilled with this and promptly told me to go buy some. "I can't," I told him, "Why not?" he asked. Good question, but then, I'm used to those, so I have decent answers. "Because, honey, Daddy took our van to work today." Which was the truth, actually, but not at all the answer to the question of why we can't buy more. Oh well.

And so day one started off with a weak argument until I finally gave him the option to choose between his Thomas the Train underwear or his pull-ups. He chose the underwear, but was gravely disappointed to find that they were WAY too small. Pull-ups it is!

Once the pull-ups were in place, and a comfort zone was created, the only thing I had to convince him to try was going #2 on the potty. He didn't want any of that, so I let him go in his pull-up. I did, however, send him off with a warning. "Nate," I said, "those pull-ups will not hold your poo, so be ready for a mess."

I'm sure you're thinking that I'm crazy for letting him create a poopy mess, which I would be if that were the case, but it really wasn't a mess. (squeamish stomachs skip to next paragraph) The poop ran down his leg, but nothing more than that.

After that "fiasco", he was convinced that using the potty was the best choice, and since then has been very diligent about going. In fact, today is the first day he had an accident! He got new Spiderman underwear and was talking to me while wearing them, forgot he wasn't wearing a diaper, and peed a little. Bit whoop!

And here I end, because I want you to know my point in telling you all of this: while so many people may be pushing you to push your child, you are really the best judge. If you don't feel that your child is ready for something, no matter their age, then don't push it. It will only make life harder for everyone.