Friday, November 20, 2009

Am I alone here?

I have several friends with little ones around Little Mister's age (i.e., 16 months).

An awful lot of them seem to be potty training their kids right now. Most of them are also expecting a new arrival before their toddler's second birthday.

I have no desire to even try. Boys typically train later than girls and, granted, most of these people do have girls.

BUT, this is why I think this isn't the best idea: Regression. With the arrival of a sibling, most newly-potty-trained kids regress, some to the point they are back in diapers full time.

Plus, it's much easier for your kid to wake up one morning and say, "No more diapers." They then potty train themselves in one day and you have only one or two accidents *ever* to clean up.

And yes, that is really how Kiddo did it. (I confess, we did talk about it an awful lot before that and had a "potty" book that made flushing sounds and a potty movie and panties already). She also weaned herself in one day at 17 months. She woke up, got in position for her morning nurse, patted my boob, and said, "No more." She got down, and that was that.

I only hope Little Mister has some of his sister's self motivation in these matters. After all, I am lazy and have failed miserably at trying to wean him thus far, let alone teaching him to go potty in the toilet!

3 comments:

evitafjord said...

Having retrained more kids than not, I'm with you. Sam (30-1/2 months) can tell me if he needs to pee if I ask, will sometimes tell me first that he needs to pee, knows how to make the pee come out (or not come out) - and has no desire to make poo in the potty. He's been at this stage for a long time. I'm waiting for the day that he decides diapers suck and then we'll think about it. Josh was at least 3 and it worked out quite well. I wouldn't try, even with a girl, at 16 months, unless she basically demanded it hahaha.

treen said...

I'm with you too. I was pregnant with Rosemary when Summer was 16 months, and there was no way I was going to try it for exactly that reason - regression. In fact, Summer JUST NOW finally finished potty training at 3 1/2, when Rosemary just turned 2. And I'm not working with Rosemary on it yet either. We put her on the toilet a few times when we were working with Summer, to see that encouraged Summer any. (Not really.) Rosemary had zero interest. I'm not sure when I'll work with Rosemary on it ... maybe after this next baby is born (when she's 2 1/2) and I'll get my mom to do it when she's here to help with the new baby - HA!

stewbert said...

Thanks for the sanity check ladies!