What a Toddler Thinks About Poop and Potty Training

Parenting is only as hard as you make it, but as a proud Grandmother I can honestly contest to the fact that it only gets better! I have been helping my grand with her "potty training" and taking that life changing step from diapers to panties. To say the least, she keeps me in stitches, laughing at her "view' of potty training! Whether motherhood, parenthood or grand-motherhood, the "Terrific Two's" are a very enjoyable time in life!

I ask her repeatedly throughout the day if she has to go potty and she will say yes or no. However, if I ask to many times she would tell me... "Nanny, I don't have any pee".

One day, she was busy with her coloring books and she pooped in her diaper. I smelled it and asked her if she needed dry pants. She stopped coloring, looked at me, thought a minute then said "No" and went back to her coloring. I was trying to get her to "feel" the reason to go on the potty and that icky feeling she will get if she goes in her disposable diaper so I let a few minutes go by and asked her again. "Do you need dry pants?" Again, she thought about it and said "No". By this time the smell was getting rather strong, so I said. "Pumpkin, do you want dry pants or do you just want to stink?". She thought a minute and then proudly said, "Stink" and went back to her coloring page!

So she was finally potty trained... or so I thought! She was great at telling me, "I have to go potty" and then take off running into the bathroom. She had it down perfectly! But she continued to poop in her pull-ups and then tell me she had done it. I kept telling her she needs to poop in the potty chair, not in her diaper. Her response was..."Nanny, I am potty training, not poop training".

Trying to hold back the hysterical laughter that was bubbling inside me, I continued to try to deal with this on her level and agreed with her, yes you are potty training and now she will start poop training and explained that she can poop in the potty chair instead of her pull-ups. Again...nicely and calmly she explained to me...."Nanny, I have a potty chair, not a poop chair".

What parents have to know is that kids are smart and you can't push their natural instincts. They'll pick up the potty training and other "must learn" issues when their little minds decide they will. A few short weeks later, not a diaper in the house! Just goes to show, we make it hard on ourselves when all we need to do is ask the children!! Isn't parenthood just wonderful! Yes.. it is!