Before the twins were born, I SWORE I would not be someone who waits until their kids are three to potty train. I didn’t want to deal with diapers longer than necessary, and dang it my kids were going to be SMART and train EARLY.
Today, they are 5 months away from turning 3 and, you guessed it, not trained. Miles has had a couple successes, and both will “try”, but largely the sh*t still hits the pull up.
Sadly though, the reason why they aren’t trained isn’t because they aren’t SMART and couldn’t train EARLY. Both get the concept.
Mom is lazy.
I am lazy.
I like waking up in the morning without having to rush someone to the toilet.
I like taking them for walks without worrying about when the last potty break was, or having to figure out how I’m going to run BOTH of them home when we get a block away and someone declares he has to pee.
I like taking them in the car for the same reason.
I like being able to let them play in chick fil a without having to drag both toddlers, one peeing, one screaming, because I simply can’t leave one in the play area alone while I take the other to pee.
Still, this has to happen sometime, right? We did kinda try this attempt once a couple months back, and then once last weekend. What we learned was that Abby is a stealth pee-er, and while Miles doesn’t appreciate peeing on himself, it isn’t enough to motivate him to stop.
Tonight, Miles declares he has to pee potty. Hooray! I think. So we will pull out his potty and he declares:
“Pee potty, lollapop” (lollipop)
Because in the past, I’ve given them one for just sitting on it, and now he thinks all he has to do is sit on it and he gets one.
“Pee potty lollapop, mommy”
“Sorry buddy” I say, “but if you want a lollipop, you actually have to pee IN the potty.”
He is silent
“Peeeee potttttyy lolllllapoooooop”
Sigh.
“Is there pee in the potty? You can have a lollipop if you pee IN the potty.”
He is starting to lose it now.
“PEEEEEEE POTTTTTTTY LOLLLLLLLOPOOOOOPPP!!!!!!”
Sigh.
There was no pee potty. There was no lollipop. My kid went to bed unhappy, and we have reached failed attempt number 2387293649827643.
Hand me a pull up.
December 10, 2015 at 11:18 pm
Relax, I’ve lived a long time and I’ve never known any high school graduates who were still in pull ups. I’ve also worked with children my whole life and my experience is that before three years old exactly zero children are actually fully potty trained.
December 11, 2015 at 4:47 am
No worries I’m not losing sleep over it 🙂
December 10, 2015 at 11:33 pm
Girl! You’re not alone! My 2-year-old has been showing signs of readiness for potty training for MONTHS and people keep suggesting I give it a try and I’m just like, “Hmmm…who wants to deal with THAT right now? Not me!” And so I don’t. Sometimes, I half-heartedly let her sit on the potty during a diaper change, but nothing has happened yet (no potty pee or poo) and I don’t even have it in me to care. I can’t even imagine trying to train two at one time! Whenever you decide to go for it, good luck!!
December 13, 2015 at 10:49 am
Oh girl. I have all the feels for this post. I don’t know if it’s just me but I think its so discouraging when your kid is so smart and picks up on everything ELSE so quickly (talking, walking, sleeping all night…etc…) and then you feel like you hit a wall with the potty. I am so intimidated by this. Especially with one failed attempt under my belt.
We are trying again around Christmas when i am home for 2 weeks when school is out. I am still so nervous!
January 9, 2016 at 3:44 am
I empathise entirely 😉