I Am So Ready to be Done with Potty Training

My son is being really reluctant to be potty trained. He’s about to turn 3, and just not quite ready to take that final step. He uses it at bedtime or during dinner as an excuse to leave the table, but any other time is a battle.

I thought a couple weeks ago I had found his key. He loves the color blue, and had been telling me he wanted ‘blue candy’ for going potty. Fine, if it works to get him trained that’s good enough for me. I found gummy blue sharks, cut them up a little because the whole thing would be too long, and he seemed happy.

For a week or two. Then he said it needed to be ‘blue balls’ (never mind the jokes). One of my sisters happened to have a container of blue jelly beans, excess from a gift basket she had customized. He was really delighted with those, again for a couple weeks.

Now we’re dealing with the disinterest again. He doesn’t care if he’s wet. Worse, he doesn’t care if he’s pooped his diapers, then screams about the ‘fire butt’. He’s stubborn.

But I do so look forward to not having the waste of diapers. They’ve been one of the battles for us, environmentally speaking. You see, my husband is completely against cloth diapers, and not into the alternatives, such as gDiapers. We didn’t hear about those until several months ago anyhow. I don’t win every environmental discussion in the house, although I do try!

We’ve finally decided that it’s just going to take picking a couple days when my husband is off and hauling our son to the potty every hour or so. It’s going to be when my husband can be home because I’ve tried this one before, and there were more tears involved than I like to deal with alone.

But I think my son is about ready to get serious. He’s not ready to just do it on his own, but the idea of ‘Thomas the Tank Engine’ underpants really appeals to him. With any lucky, the combination of the reward for using the potty each time, being taken to it regularly and the reward when he’s doing well enough of picking his own underpants will finally get the job done.

Another tactic we’ve considered is letting him roam the backyard freely for much of a day. We’re in southern California, after all, and even right now we’ve been having days warm enough for that. I’ve heard that it can greatly help kids to be aware of what their body is doing. I’m too much of a wimp to want to clean that up in the house, though. My husband has been working on gardening activities, so there’s be plenty of supervision.

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6 replies on “I Am So Ready to be Done with Potty Training”

  1. karen says:

    Take a look at this Youtube video. The audio and chocolate treats were powerful incentives to fully potty train our son. He too was very stubborn. Good Luck!

    http://youtube.com/watch?v=pMzRT5-8mYU

  2. Stephanie says:

    Very cute!

  3. Lee says:

    Also note that some kids do just take longer than others.

    Our son was almost ready at three, and we backed off because his sister was about to be born, and we knew that would be a disruption.

    About three months after he was born, we made the final step, which involved promising a trip to Disney.

    We did use cloth diapers at first, but gave up by the time he stared walking, as they were difficult for him to walk with

  4. Me too! I’m trying the all underwear all the time approach and today she peed 5 pairs of pants/underwear. Gah! If you figure out what works let me know ok?

  5. Gaia says:

    We had a difficult time with my elder son. We finally sent him to stay on the farm with MIL for a long weekend with just enough diapers for the night. She sat him down and said “we only have 4 diapers, we only have them for the nights, when we run out, you have to go back home”. He made it through and never looked back.

    I had tried “running out” at home, but he knew that walmart and sam’s (I know, I know, I don’t shop at walmart any more) were a very short drive away, so it never worked. He’d just say “we go buy more!”

  6. Stephanie says:

    I love the idea of promising a trip to Disney, Lee! My son doesn’t know much about Disneyland yet, but his older sister could sure fill him in!

    And Gaia I love the idea of having someone else run out on him. I wonder if I could get my MIL to cooperate when she gets back in town. She’s currently in Virginia helping my SIL with her new baby and 2 year old and won’t be back until mid next month, but maybe… something for me to think on.

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