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Monday, December 15, 2008

We failed!

My middle son was 3 in October... and is not potty trained.

On Thanksgiving my husband and I decided to crack down and get her done! We were going to spend the 4 days he was home after Thanksgiving to teach this little man how to pee pee on the potty! So we started at it, we talked, we pleaded, we bargained, we made promises and that was just to get him to go without a diaper! Then came the hard part, getting him to actually SIT on the potty. Again, we went through all the song and dance, 2 hours later we forced him to sit on the potty and he did... for all of 1 minute, then refused to do it again. And you know how we got him to even go near it? We had his older sister (who was potty trained well before 3 in under a week) show him how to sit on it, and the idea of getting to see her poop sitting in the potty, intrigued him!! Ugh.

We spent the better part of a day and night talking, pleading, promising and we couldn't even get him to sit on it for more than a minute! Yeah, Yeah, we have tried most everything, every reward, every activity, every treat, candy, cookies, Thomas underwear, new potty chair, going on a real train ride, carasel rides, etc, etc, you name it and he would rather go without those things then to have to sit on that dang potty chair, or the toilet or someone elses's toilet, or someone else's potty chair, or try it standing up. So as to not scar the child and leave him permanently traumatized over the potty we are taking a break on it. Don't get me wrong, I would love for him to learn, I am tired of changing toddler poop on 2 kids, plus if he learns he can go to preschool (he knows this and no it does not motivate him, even though he loves the preschool). I have been talking with him about it for probably a year now and he still wants nothing to do with the potty. And to be honest, I feel that if I have to physically force my child to go without a diaper or to sit on the toilet that he probably is not ready, am I crazy?

So, for now I am a potty training teacher failure... at least when it comes to boys! Here is a picture of our attempts, I was trying to read a story to him to keep him on the potty longer, however that too was a failure!

~Molly

2 comments:

Brimful Curiosities said...

We had boot camp training for my 3YO daughter last spring. It wasn't fun but I stuck with it and had her both pooping and peeing in a week. I put a basket of unopened matchbox cars by the little potty and had one huge semi-hauler for the cars as the prize for pooping. I tried to be pretty casual about the whole thing and told her the she would get a car if she went, I also had a sticker chart on the fridge. We did not use diapers so everytime she had an accident she was wet for awhile. I know it is a difficult time, but 6 months from now you'll be laughing about the whole thing.

Robyn said...

Oh he sounds like my L. She was just over three before she even cared. I wish I had words of advice or could tell you what I did...but my mom did it for me while I was in Africa! Imagine my surprise when I returned only to discover that not only was she potty trained but she was done nursing too! ;-)

You're not crazy...he might just not be ready yet. Give it another go after the holidays and see if he responds differently. Good luck!