Potty Training

 

Potty Training. I hear the organ playing ominous music in my head, ESPECIALLY when you have a boy, because everyone says they are harder. The majority of my friends have girls, and were telling me things that worked for them, and some of these tips were helpful for sure, but Jake’s sitter kind of helped me pull the trigger. 

My original plan for potty training Jake was to do it a year ago. I wanted him potty trained before the baby, and thought I had the perfect opportunity since my doctor put me off work because of covid. Problem was, Jake wasn’t even close to ready. I had read this “I trained my son in three days” article and was attempting this crash course type method. I sat my just turned 2-year-old down on his potty and he sobbed. He was not ready, he was scared. For the next several months, we suggested the potty to him, but he was dead set against it. Come to the first week of August, and he was finally ready…keeping in mind, Brock was born August 10th…not a great time. So needless to say, that didn’t happen. Doing any kind of bunce back after a baby takes some time, then it was Christmas, then it was hard because I was nursing. Why this matters, I have recently discovered, toddlers like to shout “I need to pee” at the worst times. I was talking to his sitter about it and with her son (Jake’s best friend) she had to just rip off the band-aid. This is what that article said a year ago too. We got him a couple packs of underwear and some chocolate easter eggs because bribery works, and went to it. Another thing I put into play, I made it a game. We were on “Team Potty” and we made a score board, if he got to the potty, team potty got a point. If we had an accident, team accident did. We even had a victory dance (which was adorable might I add). I am pretty proud to say, Team potty had like 18 points, and team accident had like 4. 

The actual training part is over, he knows what to do. I am basically support staff now. Diaper budget just went down (now Mommy is doing our victory dance).