Then today Lissa started walking funny again, so once again I asked her if she needed to go potty and she ran to the bathroom. This time Joshua didn't notice, so I'm positive nothing happened.
So I started thinking about these two instances today and started wondering if Lissa really is ready to potty train. I've come to the conclusion that she is not. She hasn't told me she needs to go - I asked her both times - and I'm not even sure if she ever has gone on the potty. Plus, she doesn't seem to ever have any long dry periods. Besides, she's not even two and I'm not ready to deal with everything that comes with potty training. We haven't even got the toddler bed thing done yet for goodness sake!
I think she thinks this is just a fun game to play. So I've decided I won't ask her again; I'll wait until she tells me she needs to go. Hopefully that doesn't happen for another 6-12 months :)
Okay you moms who have potty trained - Do you think I'm right? She's not ready yet, right???
*********************************UPDATE*******************************
Twice in the 12 hours since I wrote the above post Lissa has come up to me saying, "Poop, poop." I've checked her out and she's not poopy, then a minute later she comes back and she's got a poopy diaper!
It's possible that they are ready, but probably not likely. Although Lissa does seem to be aware of when she needs to go potty. That's a good sign. My philosophy has always been to wait until they are really ready and let them do most of it themselves. My girls haven't potty trained until about 3 years old, but I also haven't had to worry about many accidents, about rewarding them for going, about reminding them constantly, about it becoming a battle. I have heard that boys are harder than girls, but I don't have any first hand knowledge about that obviously. I would say that if Lissa tells you she needs to go potty, try putting her on the potty and see if she goes. But don't stress about it. It may mean she's ready, but it may not. Gabrielle just learned the word poo poo this week and says it anytime she's wet or dirty, but she's definitely not ready yet (but of course she is only 16 months...younger than Lissa and Joshua).
ReplyDeleteAnyway, that's my two cents worth. But ultimately, you should do what works best for you. I know some people get their kids potty trained by 2 years old and some people don't until they're almost 4. It depends on your child and your strategy.
I always let my kids give their cues, except for my youngest. With Max I was a bit afraid, but he came up to me and told me he wanted to go peepee in the potty. So he did. He didn't want pull ups so it was another month before we had a few days at home where I could put him in big boy underwear. He was trained within a few days.
ReplyDeleteSally wanted to wear panties like her friends at preschool. Once school let out and we had time at home, she started wearing them. It took a couple of weeks longer for her to go accident free, but she trained herself really.
With Joey, it took a few months longer to be ready. And in the end, I just had to put him in underwear and it took a few weeks to be accident free. I read this book that Barbara Jean used called "How to Potty Train your Child in Less than a Day" Basically, it said to teach your child to do it all - including clean up from accidents - by himself. It worked eventually.
Anywho, congratulations on Lissa's accomplishment! That's awesome. Very smart girl.
We trained Dallin before he was 2 and he honestly had maybe 3 accidents and then never again. Nathan was a nightmare!! I really think the difference was that Dallin showed us he was ready to do it and we jumped on it. Nathan showed us he was ready and we put it off for a few weeks so that Joel would have a week off for the holidays. We TOTALLY missed the little window of interest.
ReplyDeleteSo if she is interested, I would say jump on it. That being said, I know what a huge time commitment it is and that can be really hard to just jump in and do it as soon as they show interest. I will never ever put them off again though. Seriously, we had to resort to cold showers with Nathan when he was like 3.