Adventures in Potty Training

Even as a preemie, Brandon had always done everything early or right on time. I never had to fight to take away the pacifier or bottle. We even made it through teething relatively unscathed.

Then came potty training. Me and potty training are not friends. This is the one and only time I ever wished I had a daughter. For a mom, at least this mom, training my son to go on the potty has got to be the most uncomfortable thing for me as a parent. I mean, how do you train someone else to use what you don't have?!

But it's my job as a mom to forge forward. More appropriately, I fell over, hard, on my face. I though like with everything else, it would require little effort and struggle. I imagined that one day my little boy would run up to me and say, "mommy, I wanna go on the potty" and that would be all she wrote. Well, my reality check bounced and it bounced hard!

Now I admit, I never put a true valiant effort into potty training. We tried underwear once, for an hour, had to accidents and that was it. We threw the "do you have to go potty" question out there periodically hoping for a bite, but nope. We were always told tomorrow. I even resorted to bribery and bought trains as a reward. He knew that to get them, he had to go on the potty. After a few months, I was told to send them back to the store, he no longer wanted them.

The battle continued over the course of 2 years, with kicking, crying and screaming bloody murder. I should have sent a disclaimer to the neighbors that if they hear screaming, we are just potty training, don't be alarmed.

Then 2 nights ago before his shower, I asked if he wanted to sit on the potty. After a little persuasion, he sat. He didn't go, but he sat. As soon as he got in the shower, he had to go. I plopped him on the potty, and he went. We repeated this 4 times. It was like a dog peeing on every telephone pole it passes.

We made a huge production about it, called everyone that would answer and ordered him a train. The following day he went 5 times at grandma's. I was sure the train would derail today at school, but he went there too!!! We haven't done #2 yet, but I'll take what I can get! Although, it does seem too easy.

All those times that we made it a bad experience, for all of us, he just needed to do it I his own time.