About one year ago, for Princess K's two year checkup, I was sitting in the doctor's office asking him about what tact I should take for potty training Princess K. We had a very tough time potty training Super Michael, and I was not looking forward to going through the same mine field with Princess K. He suggested that we just let Princess K decided on her own schedule and that she would just eventually decide for herself that she was ready for the big seat.
At first, that all sounded really great and dandy and we were all ready to follow the doctor's advice. We bought her big girl panties and a new princess potty seat and told her that when she was ready, they were ready for her. We bought her pink Dora and Princess pull-ups so that she could pull down her own pants when she had to go. We even bought special stickers for her as a treat if she went on the big seat. Nothing seemed to entice her to go.
For six months, she peed and pooped in her pull ups just like they were diapers. She would cry and throw temper tantrums anytime we would even mention going on the potty.
About a month ago, we were informed that Princess K would be moving up to the "3's" room at daycare and that the kids in the "3's" room needed to be potty trained. The daycare did nothing, in my opinion, to help her learn to go potty on the big potty. If we put panties on her, she would hold it all day and the daycare people told us she stayed dry all day, but as soon as she got in the car, she would let loose and pee all over her car seat. If we had a pull-up on her, she would have the same one on when we picked her up and it would be extremely full by the time we got to the car. The daycare girls assumed she was potty trained because she was "dry" anytime they checked her.
The day for her to move to the "3's" room was fast approaching and she was nowhere near being potty trained. I would sit her down on the potty and would sit with her for an hour while she cried the entire time. As soon as she would get off the potty, she would run into the living room and pee all over the floor. It was all very frustrating.
In the meantime, I would ask other parents what they did to potty train their toddlers, and everybody would tell me how easy girls were to train, and boys were always the hardest. It should only take a couple of days to potty train, and then we would be free of diapers forever.
Well, six months into this adventure, I can say girls are NOT easier than boys. It is a huge myth.
What DID finally work?
Princess K just decided one day that she wanted to wear her Princess panties and go potty on the big seat. We didn't ask her to do it, we didn't bribe her with anything. She started out the day wearing Pull-ups, and ended the day wearing panties. She has not worn a pull-up or diaper since. We went through the same process with Super Michael, but I think we completely blocked out that part of our lives because of the pain involved. He just decided one day he wanted to go potty all by himself as well.
She has been going potty on the big seat for the past couple of weeks religiously now. She has had a couple of accidents here and there, usually in the middle of the night, or having to wait for other kids at daycare to finish using the potty, but she has been really good about using the potty. Most of the time, if she has to go in the middle of the night, she'll come and tell me and I'll tell her to go use the restroom.
She's very proud of herself now and proudly announces the fact that she's gone pee or poop in the toilet.
There IS one draw back of her using the big seat now: She clogs up the toilet CONSTANTLY. She hasn't yet learned to wipe her butt with anything less than a full roll of paper. Just this morning, I had to fish out several pounds of toilet paper from the potty because it was just too much to flush down. I now have plungers next to each toilet, because I WILL have to plunge at least once or twice a day because of her clogging the toilet. However, I would MUCH rather unclog the toilet then change her diaper any day of the week.
Now, what is the moral of this story? I have learned that there is no such thing as a particular sex that is easier than the other. I.E., girls being easier than boys. It is a complete and utter myth. What is true, just like the doctor said, they will go potty on the big seat when they are damn ready to do so on their own. All the stress that we go through does nothing to speed up the process. Some kids are just ready before others, and these are the "easy" kids. If it just happens to be a girl, well, the parents think that girls are easier.
As parents, our job is to go out and buy the cool underoos that the kids will be excited to wear and not poop in and buy the really cool potty seat that they'll want to sit on. Some kids will want to get in those underoos RIGHT NOW because they are so UBER awesome, while others might have to talk themselves into it over weeks or longer. All the pushing and shoving that we do won't help in the least and could quite possibly delay the final result. We can gently remind them that the potty is there, as well as the cool underoos, but pushing just doesn't work at all.
Each kid is unique and will take whatever time they need to learn this process and I feel so much better now that she has learned to go potty all by herself.
And now that we are saving money on not buying diapers (and the more expensive pull-ups) all the time, PLUS we're saving money at Princess K's school because she's in the potty trained room which costs less we're looking into getting Super Michael into some sort of Karate classes. Out of choices like Soccer, Football, etc, he decided he wanted to get into Karate.
So, stay tuned to hear about our adventures in choosing a Karate school! I'm a complete and utter newbie at this whole Karate thing, so if anybody has any suggestions, please let me know. :)