Potty Training Update

Ok, so we have been at this a while now. Owen knows what to do, he knows when he has to go, he knows that he should be always going in the potty, he knows that dry is better than wet, he knows that we don’t pee pee in our pants, he knows we poop in the potty, he knows mommy and daddy and MM and PP and Gaga and Pops use the potty. He knows it all. HE DOESN’T CARE.

There are many ideas on potty training out there. Here is my new one…having and older kid in diapers is terrible. Pull Ups are terrible. Accidents on the floor, carpet, etc are terrible. It’s all terrible, until the child decides that they don’t want it to be terrible anymore.

Recently, our method has been focused on praising him when he does something good (using the potty) and shrugging it off when he doesn’t (accidents happen). It has been working for us. Jen got new boxer briefs for him (just like daddy) and that was great, for a few hours (we praised and potty danced), then it wasn’t (so we had to shrug it off). He has #2 down but we are still trying to master #1. We are pretty sure if it is a matter of being too busy, not wanting to stop what he is doing. Hopefully with enough time, he will want to stop being wet and just want to go to the bathroom regardless of what he is doing.

It is aggravating to go through pull ups, but we have been pretty good time keeping it to #1 so we have been happy with that. The long and short of it is, that Owen currently doesn’t care that he is wet, but he does care if he is dirty. He says he is dry, probably because he is pretty dry in a pull up (stupid absorbing technology). So we figured that switching him to just underwear would get him to hate being wet…until he ate his entire dinner in wet underwear. So we continue to try, going from the standard pull up to big boy pants, to big boy pants underneath a pull up (to give him the wet feeling, but not having to clean up an accident), to “snakey” around the house…that is actually the most successful. He knows he can’t pee anywhere if he doesn’t have anything on!! We are keeping up the routine, going after we get up in the morning, before and after his nap, before and after we go anywhere, and before his bath and at bedtime. Any other times, he is on his own to tell us he has to go (or just go himself) and we are making progress, but aren’t fully there yet. He has good days and bad ones, but we have figured that he will get it eventually and we can move on to potty training two at a time…which will also be terrible.