After all my senseless worry I am excited to announce SWEET PEA IS NOW POTTY TRAINED!!! Our two oldest were ready to take on this step at the age of two and a half. You see Sweet Pea will be four in about two months. I am sure we could have pushed her harder and celebrated the success sooner, but that is just not the way we do things around here. We decided long ago when it came to life changes as this we would not be forceful. We would rather introduce the idea along with positive encouragement. After this allowing our child as an individual to know when he or she is ready to make this change.
Of course we would have become more involved with the structure of change if any of our children reached an inappropriate age. What so many do not realize is that the appropriate age is in fact a wide range. Somehow we are influenced to believe all children should take this large independent step at the same young age. Why would we believe this? As we know each child is different. They will continue accomplishing milestones in their own unique time, for the rest of their lives.
After all this is said I am here admitting my senseless worry and questionable doubt over the parenting Allen and I chose for our children so long ago.
I can clearly call it senseless now that she is in fact potty trained. Not so much a few months back. As senseless worry is being stated in a positive way to tell you, not to worry. Never is it senseless to be concerned over our children. We are mothers, that is what we do!
With this let me reassure you worried mothers out there. You will not be changing diapers forever. In fact if you are beginning to worry, I'd say you will not be changing diapers much longer. How many four and five year olds do we know that are not using the potty? Not too many. So as we have heard, they will not go to school in diapers. Before you know it potty training will be a distant memory. A memory you will even be able to laugh at. So relax and enjoy your child. Give them the encouragement and self esteem along with the tools to know how. After this let them decided. I am almost certain you will not be left with the last option of pushing your child to make his or her deposits in the potty.
Thank you to the sweet mommas that gave me the reassurance to relax and wait.
You know I can not leave without saying something about our love for cloth diapers. We truly paid ourselves back time and time over. In fact we will continue to use them at night and in the pool this summer.
So, what about you? What advice would you give the worried mommas out there?
So, what about you? What advice would you give the worried mommas out there?
7 comments:
Great post, and I agree! We only had one potty train at age 2, and she regressed when her baby brother was born a few months later. We just relaxed and waited. She was using the potty again a few months later, with no issues. All three of my boys were 3-years old when they potty trained. I know it can be stressful at the time, but the parents' reponse and methods will have a much greater influence than the age of potty training!
Congrats, girl!
I agree.
Why push it?
I pused both of mine. And like you, they too were trained at age 2. Now that we are expecting number 3, I'm going to try to relax.
Take life slower.
Appreciate the simple things more.
And certainly not stress of potty training:) Especially since we plan to cloth diaper and they are just so darn cute:)
But,
I am celebrating with you in the success and I think 3, almost 4 is a fine age:)
Congratulations!!!
that's great, and so true!! we need to remember each child has his or her own learning style and timeline --- encouragement, praise and practice are so key ..... but yay on the accomplishment!! : )
Congratulations! No more diapers! Hooray! Trinity started potty training herself (seriously, she would come to get me, drag me into the bathroom, and strip herself as best she could) when she was about 18 months old. And I was really not ready for my little girl to grow up, so I was probably too unenthusiastic at first. We sang and clapped and cheered, but I didn't really push her hard. When she turned two, we really started working on it, because she was so obviously "ready" to leave diapers behind. And she's pretty much potty-trained now.
I'm with you-- kids aren't all the same, and it's much better to let them do something when they are ready, even if their "readiness" comes later (or sooner) than you would expect. Congratulations to Sweet Pea!!
I can relate to the late(r) trainer~ our # 5 was almost 4 before he "got it", the previous 4 siblings were trained around their 3rd birthday, and our last one figured it out on his own at 2, go figure. ;^)
Such v.i.c.t.o.r.y. in the accomplishment of toilet training, eh? *smile*
~Sheri
I never reushed either. Well, my first one we did, because every one told us they should be potty trained at 18 months. Wow was that a faliure! After that, I decided to never push. Mention it A LOT. Talk about it and ask id they want to to try. Let tem try once in awhile. Then when a summer hits and they are ready, I let them run around in nothing but panites. It usually take a day or two. No stress, very few accidents, and far more smiles and giggles that way.
I also think when too much stress in potty training can lead to more accidents as the child gets older too.
Yes, I did not even talk about my thoughts on the negative effects of pushing your little ones in potty training. BUT, I have many thoughts on this I may just write about one day. Thank you all for posting. Love your ideas aswell!
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