I have 4 boys so potty-training has been, well, interesting. And each of them was very different so what worked for one kid did NOT work for another. Heaving a big sigh.....Some of them took much longer than others. Each did it in their own time though. And joyfully, it DID happen. Even during the most difficult times I would remind myself that most 18-year-old boys were potty-trained and my boys would be too...someday.
Today I just wanted to share a trick we learned with our youngest. He was 3-and-a-half-ish when we introduced underwear. His response, "No thanks. I'll just go potty in my diaper." We figured if he was old enough to think logically through the whole situation he was old enough to use the toilet. He didn't see it that way. We started a battle of wills. Not our best parenting moment, but it can really chap your hide to pay $80 a month for diapers when your child TELLS you he's just going to 'go' in them. (We tried Pull-Ups but those were just extra-colorful diapers to him.)
One day when my husband was feeling especially impatient, I took over and asked if our young son would like to wear underwear. No, he wouldn't. So I replied, "But underwear is fun to wear. It's FUNDERWEAR!" His little blue eyes sparkled....fun??...underwear was FUN to wear??? Well, he wanted anything to do with fun so he put those things on and was potty-trained within a few days.
To this day, a year later, he sings the little song I made up to go with it, "Underwear is fun to wear." He even calls them his Funderwear, or Fundies for short.
It's all in the marketing!
LOL! I love it. Found your blog through a friend and love it. You sound so much like me it's scary. My boys have been the same, no two potty trained the same. With my second I felt like I tried everything to no avail. One day he was sitting on the potty needing to go #2 but no letting it happen. I was basically pleading with him with any words I could think of. For some reason I told him that his poop wanted to go in the potty and get flushed with all the other poop so they could go have a party! It was a poopy party. For some reason he loved that idea and immediately went in the potty and never looked back. For the longest time he'd talk about his poopies going to the poopy party and would do a little dance before he'd get on the potty. I can laugh about it now, but at the time I just remember feeling sheer relief that we had found SOMETHING that worked, I didn't care how ridiculous it sounded!
ReplyDeleteP.S. We are stealing your gratitude wall idea, starting tonight!