It has been interesting and I can proudly say at this point that Max is doing GREAT!
We bought a potty chair in August when Max turned 2. He loved the thing and would sometimes go on it (mostly when I was also using the potty, he would sit on his next to me and go too). I never once asked him to use it or asked him if he needed to go, I mostly just wanted him to become familiar with it. He knew what it was for so that was good enough for me!
Since I spent most of the fall newly pregnant and nauseous, I had zero desire to potty train. I was tired and sick and I didn't have the patience to deal with it. Plus, I also didn't feel that Max was totally ready. Yes, he had used the potty several times randomly but I didn't feel that he was ready to go full time and I wanted to make sure that he was to make the dreaded process as easy on us as possible.
We spent Thanksgiving week at my parents house and Max started using the toilet on his own. Numerous times that week I would say "where did Max go?" And we would find him in the bathroom sitting on the toilet alone. Maybe it was because he had been watching his 3 year old cousin Mabrie go on it all week, I'm not sure. But for whatever reason, he was using the potty! One night he drug his uncle Luke by the hand into the bathroom and went #2, one night we were at a restaurant and he told Mike that he needed to go and he went in a public restroom! I was in shock!! My sister in law who has potty trained my 3 nieces said "I've never seen a kid do that! He is definitely ready!"
And so, he had left me no choice. I was forced to start putting him in undies and commit.
I started out by putting him in his big boy undies and explained that if he needed to go pee or poop, he needed to go on the potty and not in his big boy pants. He said "okay mommy". I put his potty chair out in the open for easy access and began asking him every 20-30 minutes if he needed to go. Sometimes he said yes, sometimes he said no, sometimes he took off his pants and went on his own without being asked. I rewarded him with M&Ms for a few days until one day he peed on the potty and I said "Yay! Let's get an M&M!" And he replied "No tank you. I don't want a MM." Which was adorable and made me realize that he wasn't just doing it for the candy. He was basically over getting an M&M every time.
Most days he has had ZERO accidents!!!! There was 1 really rough day last week that I wanted to give up. After several days of no accidents, he had 4 in 1 day-- one of which was poo-- and I wanted to shoot myself. BUT I didn't want to ruin all of our progress and so we kept on and he has done AWESOME ever since that 1 awful day. We have even ventured out of the house a couple of times and have had zero accidents on our outings! Yay!!
Advice given to me that I found helpful:
1. Don't ask, tell. After the one brutal day I tried to stop asking "Max do you need to go potty?" And started saying "Max, take off your pants and go potty real quick and then you can continue ___" And he would. As the days go on, I have to remind him to go less and less. He mostly does it on his own but if I notice it has been a while since he has, I will remind him to use the potty.
2. Praise, praise, praise. I told Max that it "makes mommy SO happy when he goes on the potty" and so now when I go to the bathroom he tells me that he is happy for me as well LOL "Me happy mommy!" He says.
3. After the day I wanted to run away, a friend suggested to me that I give it another week and see if there was progress. If he was having more accidents in his pants than going on the potty at that point, I should re-evaluate whether or not he is ready. I thought that was a great plan and so I decided to go with that. I am happy to report that he has made major progress and so, Max is wearing underwear full time during the day!
With consistency and A LOT of patience, we have made it! So proud of my big boy!!!
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