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Boy sitting on a pottyRemember how I got my kid a potty 6 months ago? Guess what… he’s still not potty-trained. Why? Truth be told, I have no idea. I guess I wasn’t working hard enough to make it happen.

They say in the books, first check if he’s ready. Well, we’ve been through the list:

1. Is walking and can sit - tick that box.
2. Is reasonably independent and can complete tasks - tick.
3. Is interested in watching others go to the toilet - tick. Boy, was I ever uncomfortable with my kid being in the toilet with me. Feels weird and awkward.
4. Has dry diapers for up to two hours - no idea. I change him every three hours :)
5. Tells you (or shows obvious signs) when he does a poo or wee in his diaper. Tick, but only for poo.
6. Begins to protest wearing a diaper - no tick. Quite the opposite, actually - he doesn’t want to let go of the diaper in the morning.
7. Has regular bowel motions. Tick, if regular means every day. No tick, if regular means at the same time every day because it changes.
8. Can pull his pants up and down - No tick.
9. Can follow simple instructions such as, ‘Give the toy to mommy”. Tick that.
10. Shows understanding of things having their places around the house. Tick.

Even though I couldn’t tick all the boxes, most of signs are there - so I’ve decided to give it a try. We went through all the suggested routine:

- Explain how big boys go on a potty,
- Stop wearing diapers, wear training pants instead. For simplicity we decided to wear just normal pants that were easy to pull up and down.
- Get a puppet to sit on the potty,
- Then get the kid to sit on the potty, first dressed and then undressed with his pants down,
- Then keep him sitting there with books and toys until he accidentally does wee or poo.
- Make a big deal of it and tell him how proud of him you are,
- Let him empty the potty into the toilet,
- Let him flush,
- Teach him to wash his hands,
- Stick a star on his potty-training chart.

Excellent. We’ve been there, done that, he understands how big boys go to the toilet and do not wear diapers. He has done some wees and poos on the potty.

There was just one problem: he won’t tell me when he needs to go to the toilet.

No matter how many times I ask: “Do you need to go to the toilet Eric?” he says “NO”, and then in the next 2 minutes we all see him dripping on a carpet.

Some of the books I read suggest undressing the child and having him walk around naked, to make what happens obvious and speed up the potty-training. Sorry, can’t have that - the whole house is carpeted wall to wall, and even if I didn’t mind some wees on the carpet, I bet my landlord would.

This is why I decided that my kid wasn’t ready for toilet training. He was only 18 months when we started, and I didn’t want to push him towards something he isn’t ready for, so we decided to defer the wee and poo hell until he’s 2 and try again.

He is two now. Guess what - nothing changed. He still won’t say to me when he needs to go, but I don’t have any excuses any more.

I am about to begin my potty training journey - stay tuned, as I will be reporting every day! Tomorrow will be all about “Potty training - day 1.”

photo source

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