Zen and The Art of Toilet Training...
Feb 07 '00
Over the years, I have gotten more and more relaxed about toilet training and in the process got mine and the kid's life easier and less stressful. I think the main thing is that I became less and less focused on it. With the first one, toilet training was much more of a big deal, especially with seemingly everybody asking me whether he was trained yet. With the fourth one, it was like, 'Oh, she will be toilet trained some day'. So where I was more involved with the first 2, I was totally laid back with the next 2. I never really pushed, but I definitely encouraged a lot more with the first 2, prompting them whether they had to go etc. Cees, my first one toilet trained early, just over 2yo, the next one, Tim, was later, he was over 3yo. With Cees, I let him initiate it, which he did easily, but getting him totally toilet trained got some work anyway. With Tim, I did more encouraging, because he needed to be as toilet trained as possible to enter the preschool we had chosen for him. And although I tried to stay nice to him, I found I got very frustrated when he just didn't seem to get it.
With Tara, number three, I was lucky, because she was one of those toddlers who liked to rip off all her clothing all the time and run around naked. So after cleaning up a lot of pee and poop, she finally got it when she was a little over 3yo. But I didn't really do anything, apart from telling her that these excretions belonged in the bath room. Actually, she was very interested in the bath room and had been sitting on the toilet and peeing from the time she was 18mo, but she also peed in different places LOL. The worst accident was when she wanted to wear underwear to the grocery store. I was checking out at the register and the clerk said 'Um, I think your little girl just had an accident...' And yes, there she was standing in a HUGE puddle of pee.... I didn't go to that grocery store for a while :-)
Jane, number four followed the same running around naked method, but when one or two days after her second birthday, she came walking funnily to me and told me she needed to go to the bathroom. So I put her on there and she went. Within a few weeks she was totally trained!!! She actually trained exactly at the same time as Tara did, even although she is 13 months younger. So I went from 3 in diapers to 1 in diapers within just a few weeks! That was nice.
I will just follow the same naked method with my fifth one, Kate, although of course, it might not work that easily again, but then, I am sure, something else will work :-) I really feel that I am much less frustrated if I don't have high expectations of the kid and don't try to push them into toilet training when they are not ready or willing. Being relaxed and laid back about it, and trusting that yes, one day, they will be toilet trained, even if I don't push it, gives much better results in our house.
Also it helps to recognize that even if a kid is able to pee when they want to, that does not mean that they are ready to toilet train. Like I said, Tara could pee in the toilet when she was 18mo, whenever she wanted, but she still didn't train until she was 3yo. Imagine what a stress it would have been if I had been actively trying to get her to toilet train all that time, and what a frustration that would have been for the both of us. Of course, I was excited and enthusiastic if she did go in the toilet, but I didn't expect her to be toilet trained any time soon after starting the peeing in the toilet thing.
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Epinions.com ID:
nursing3
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Member: Karen Plomp
Location: New Hampshire
Reviews written: 62
Trusted by: 39 members
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