Katherine, over the past six months or so, has shown an on-again, off-again mild interest in potty training. She will sometimes come and tell us when she needs to go potty, but half the time it’s “after the fact,” and usually it just seems she can’t be bothered — she has games to play, rooms to run around in, a trike to ride around on, dirt to dig in, etc. When she does perform on cue, she’s very pleased and proud, but, clearly, not enough so.
She’s had some interest in the trappings of potty training — wearing her “Minnie Mouse” pull-ups, for example — but not enough to really follow through.
Well, that’s been fine, pretty much, and we’ve been taking a “encourage, but don’t sweat it” sort of attitude, as recommended pretty universally. Unfortunately, things are beginning to get a bit, well, sticky.
She’s of an age where an increasing number of activities require her to be potty trained. For example, the summer school classes at the rec center require it (or require that the parent be on-hand, to change any messy diapers). Didn’t think of it, and it wasn’t spelled out in the rec district class booklet. It is spelled out for the pre-school class she’s lined up for in the fall, so the clock is sort of ticking.
So now we begin to figure out how to encourage without obsessing, how to nudge without provoking rebellion. We also get to deal with the “I’m a Terrible Parent!” stuff that comes with it. Joy.
Oh, I can’t wait to hear how you go about this. Our daughter is two and we are constantly seeing Hannah-like themes from your posts. You are living in our future, man. God help us and you.
I don’t know whether it’s scarier that we’re the ones responsible for warping Katherine, or that there are other folks looking to us for inspiration. 🙂
Our son did this. When he was 3 1/2 or so, we had to put the kids in daycare and found a place that would “encourage” the process of potty training. Sheer peer pressure had the boy using the potty every single time within a week. He could care less what we said but let little Johnny say, “ooh, you’re still wearing diapers!” and bam, he was done.
Now that Molly’s 3+ we’re looking for a similar sort of daycare, just a few days a week. 😀
Hmmm.
She’s going to be taking swimming lessons for the coming weeks — they require swim diapies for kids not yet potty trained, and it’s fairly obvious. I’m hoping for a bit of peer pressure will rear its ugly head.
You know, Doyce said the same thing when I told him that I read his Justin entries for future advice for my son.
Well, that’s different. I’m taking lots of notes from “Bringing Up Justin.”