I kind of thought Emma would be close to ready to potty train by now. She’s 6 days away from being 22 months old, and I hear about 18 month old kids who are potty-trained.
My mom tells me to quit reading and quit listening to others, but I don’t learn. Now we know where Emma gets it.
You see, Emma usually tells us when she pooped her diaper.
And she wears cloth diapers, so she can feel the wetness. She’ll sometimes walk uncomfortably to me so that I can change her diaper.
All things that are supposed ‘signs’ that she’s ready to potty train.
But nope.
Apparently, she told Ken this morning that she needed to pee-pee, and he ran and got the potty. She dribbled a little on the floor but finished in the potty. YAY! She got candy and cheers and hugs and more candy.
But then later this morning, she peed all over 12 of her toys.
I don’t think “naked time” is the method I want to use. I am tired of cleaning up pee.
Clearly, I should have learned from my past “trying to get Emma to do something on some ridiculous schedule” mistakes.
I tried to rid her of the bottle at 12 months, but she dropped the bottle at 16 months. On her own.
We tried and tried to get her to sleep through the night from 9 months on, but she slept through the night at 18 months. On her own.
She does things on HER schedule, and there is nothing we can do to make her do anything she doesn’t want to do. It ends up making things a hundred times harder than they need to be.
Guess I better get used to the diapers.
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
From a mom whose children were over 3 by the time they were potty trained, don’t rush. Pushing it will only cause more headache/heartache for you and Emma. Sounds like she gets it now it’s just a matter of when she wants to do it all the time. I never thought my kids would get it but they did…when they were ready, not me.
Love that ladybug pic. : )
Keli, this is such an important parenting tip! I, too, fully fully agree that kids will do things and hit milestones at their own pace. You are smart to have figured this out early on.
It’s hard when you hear about your friends’ kids hitting these milestones and your kid isn’t there yet. The tendency is to think, “What is wrong with my kid?” But every kid is different.
My son was 3.4 years old when we started potty-training. It took two days. : ) It’s sooo much easier if you just wait until they are good and ready.
Hi there Keli! Hope you’re well! I had to comment. We thought our Emma was ready at 18 months (she’s SO smart, you know!), but alas, she only potties when she wants to. My son learned in one day and has never ever had an accident. He’s almost four now and he trained at 26 months. I’m convinced he was so successful because we just let him do it whenever he was ready. I never even really talked about it with him – he just wanted to be a big boy and put away the diapers! Hopefully the same plan will work with Em!
gracie turns three in may, and she has successfully used her potty, oh, probably a half a dozen times. some people ask me about her potty training, and i always respond that it’ll happen when she wants to. right now, though, she is not overly excited, and i am not going to create some lifelong issue for her by forcing her to sit on the darn thing. ;)
so yeah, don’t stress.
I was told to share this with you from a friend, Erin. I just designed this.
http://i227.photobucket.com/albums/dd268/momma2carsonbelle/More%20shirts/potty_image.jpg?t=1236809173