Sunday, December 28, 2008

Potty Training Hell

Despite what our parents say ("you know, we had you potty trained by 18 months..."), the "experts" say that you shouldn't start potty training your child until she is ready - whatever that means. Despite the fact that Emily is 2 1/2 and regularly tells us when she is peeing or pooping, she has shown absolutely no desire to use the potty - but because we are getting pretty darn sick of her saying "change me", we thought that it was high time that she get potty trained. We decided that between Christmas and New Year's, Lee and I would do whatever possible to get her trained. Emily is none too pleased, to say the least. The first day, she screamed "no potty train, no potty train" over and over again and basically held it all day - peeing only twice. Day two started with Emily rolling around on the floor screaming "put my diaper on, put my diaper on" first thing in the morning, although she did pee on the potty about 8 times (and once on the carpet, when she found out that she couldn't go to a party because she was potty training). Every successful visit to the potty brings on new demands - 3 M&Ms, big girl underwear, a video, you name it - Lee and I, desperate to get her out of diapers, give in every time. The thing is, despite all of our efforts, she is showing no real signs of progress - if we actually put underwear on her, she promptly pees in them. Arghhhh!!

1 comment:

America's Next Top Mommy said...

Oh man, I really feel for you guys. I had a really hard time training Bubba. I remember a lot of bargaining, tantrums and crying (on my part). I think the boy ate so many fruit snacks that it's a miracle his teeth didn't rot and fall out of his head!

Maybe I pushed too hard. Oh well, Bubba will have plenty of stuff to tell his therapist when he grow up! And he did finally get potty trained which is a miracle because many times I thought he would be the only child in the history of children that would just NEVER GET OUT OF DIAPERS!