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Sunday, June 10, 2012

Adventures in Potty Training

From the moment I could talk
I was ordered to listen
— Cat Stevens

Nothing was exposed
in this exposure…
We’ve begun the arduous task of potty-training a toddler. Given Mason’s family tree—one branch is Type A, another branch just stubborn and contrary—it’s going better than one might expect. We’re getting into the habit of putting him on the throne when he wakes up (morning or nap) and that ’s going well (no pun intended). I think he’ll be out of diapers by summer’s end.

For now though, it’s the Atomic Diapers that are the problem. He just doesn’t want to take time off from whatever’s got him interested, and thus loads up his diaper. He knows by now that he loses TV or outdoor privileges when we gives us a nuclear waste dump, but hasn’t taken steps to avoid it yet.

But he does know when he has or hasn’t done it. Yesterday, we were going home and I smelled something. “Mason, are you atomic?” I asked him.

“No!” A very vehement “no” it was.

“It wasn’t him,” said Daughter Dearest. That was all that needed to be said, but who’s going to pass up the chance to say more?

Friday was better. His Grandmom was in the bedroom, and he came in and took her hand. “Come here,” he said.

“Where are we going?”

“Come on.” He led her into his bedroom, where he had a diaper and the wipes laid out on the bed.

“No spank.”

“What… did you put those there?”

“Uh-huh. No spank, okay Grandmom?”

He did avoid a spanking on that one, yes. But it would be better if he said something beforehand.

If Planet Georgia wasn’t so bug-heavy, I’d do what Mom did to me: let me run around all summer flapping in the breeze. For whatever reason, I wouldn’t go if I didn’t have something on. But I wouldn’t get the kind of pictures she did…

8 comments:

  1. Is a punitive response to soiling his diaper effective? I'm not at that point with the Helpful Toddler yet, so I'm speaking from my limited experience as puppy potty trainer (and children = puppies AFAIC, lol), and it usually doesn't work to punish the doggy when it potties indoors. They just get scared of the whole pottying thing in general and anxiety makes the behavior worse. Of course, you also can't crate toddlers to keep them from pooping when you don't want them to do it... ;)

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  2. I think potty training is one of those things, that each child takes to in their own time, you can't force it you have to just encourage it, rewards might be the way to go rather than punishment. Reward them when they do with something they really like. (PS I'd never want to go through it again, once was enough for me ^__^)

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  3. Potty training - BLARGH! I'd rather have dental surgery than go through that again!!!!

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  4. Hey all!

    I should have made it clear that we're not all punishment based. I was raised all-stick no-carrot, and made a conscious decision not to repeat that cycle. Mason gets plenty of rewards for success, and the punishment is fairly flexible. For example, this evening he called for assistance, but too late. I changed him and explained that he wasn't going to be punished because he did at least try.

    Training Daughter Dearest was pretty easy, because she watched The Boy and her cousins. But that led to some hilarity: I found her a couple times, standing in front of the toilet, holding her belly button with this "WTF, why isn't this working?" look on her face…

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  5. Hey Larry don't forget to come over to my place and collect your Award I've given you ^_^ http://helen-scribbles.com/2012/06/08/ive-been-given-the-kreative-blogger-award/

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  6. Good luck with that, Larry. The b2 boy took until the ripe old age of 4 before he finally got the hang of things. Thank goodness for that as he was literally getting too big for diapers. Now he's displaying teenaged obnoxiousness, another milestone of sorts. ;-)

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  7. Aww! Hope you have better luck with it.

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  8. Hi Helen! Thanks much, I've stopped by. Will try to have it done Wednesday.

    Boran, that's just too long. i remember having the occasional accident when I was 4, but those were pretty rare. At least teenage obnoxiousness doesn't involve "forgetting." ;-)

    Thanks, Cherie. I think we'll be doing pretty well by summer's end.

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