Let’s talk toddler potty training, oh yeah!
I do not understand Kevin sometimes. He is a brilliant child and unnervingly smart in grasping things being said to him. He is very polite, say “Thank you” at appropriate times and let me know when he is hungry.
So for all the right reasons I thought, toddler potty training is going to be ‘easy peasy’ with him considering his capabilities in communicating. We started the process with enthusiasm one summer after he turned two and a half. My husband and I were in quite high spirits and we even skipped the portable potty seat and made straight to the potty seat on the actual toilet, him being already a big boy and all. Then the reality hit.
He wouldn’t understand the meaning of potty at all and started being stubborn in not telling us when he wants to poop or pee. He accomplished all his needs in his pull-ups and did not bother to visit the washroom even once on his own! I tried various means to make him listen- explained quite patiently of the importance of toilet training, showed him the merits of being independent if he succeed in this, rewarded him with stickers, toys, chocolates ( oh you name it!), and threatened him out of exasperation that I will take away all his favourite Thomas and Friends toys from him. NOTHING WORKED.
My mother in law is now telling me to get rid of the pull-ups and get him into underwears right away. Perhaps that will change his attitude towards the toilet and start using it soon. She says if Kevin realizes that he is wetting his clothes and making himself dirty, that will change the way of his actions. I don’t know. I am not sure if I will be punishing him by transferring him from pull-ups to underwears without him being ready. Like, you know, without giving him a warning of some kind. I am hoping to somehow reach out to his smart absorbing self and make him listen to me. Or eventually, I have to resort to extreme measures like denying him pull-ups once and for all. I wonder if there is any other way that I haven’t tried out yet to solve this mystery. Why is a smart child like Kevin not at all interested in trying out something new and exciting like this? Maybe I haven’t exhausted all ways of trying yet or maybe it is just a matter of trying a little more harder… only time would tell.
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Having had four kids go through potty training, I can say one thing. Allow your child to go at their pace. Don’t stress unless they hit kindergarten and are still daytime wetting.
Heidi! I am happy to report I am over it now. Both my kids are now potty trained and they are doing really well.. Thanks for your tip 🙂