If you’ve never potty trained a child but read all the books, you will know what potty “readiness” is. There are all these “signs” that a child is ready to potty train. What they often don’t talk about is all those little steps and signs that happen after your child *begins* to potty train. It’s as if you notice the signs of readiness, you decide “it’s time” and then rest is history!

Let me tell you, the rest is not history!!! It’s the stuff after you begin that’s the major ordeal!

Here are a few of the common “milestones” you might experience once your child starts potty training that will remind you just how “deep” into it you are:

• Pee Obsession. You might recall that this very issue sent us to the pediatrician a few weeks ago in fear of a UTI. But, if I recall, all my kids went through this compulsion to practice their “new skill” practically every few minutes for a few weeks upon early potty training!
• Practicing Independence. This is a fun one. At some point your proud child will sneak off to potty by themselves and attempt to “take care of it” the way you do - dumping, flushing, etc. Of course they tend to forget to wipe and you only discover this little issue much later!
• Pee is Power. This is a really fun point when the kid learns that saying “I have to go potty” will make the parent absolutely stop whatever they are doing, focus on the child and redirect any current activity to the potty. You will know you’ve reached this milestone when you are out in public and the child asks to pee 100 times but actually manages to urinate only once Or when your child asks you to pull over to a rest stop every 5 minutes in the car!
• The Poop Battles. Despite what Freud says, I think the poop battles are extremely common. Even if a child is proficient at peeing in the potty, they hold off on #2 as long as humanly possible, insist on a diaper, hide off in the corner to make a deposit on the floor (or in the pants), etc. I even had a friend who, as a child, would only poop into a jar. Really creepy. Don’t cast stones, you would be amazed at how your rationality goes out the window when your kid is in pain and has refused to “go” for many days except under very bizarre circumstances.
• Afraid of The Big Scary. The Big Scary is, of course, the adult toilet which could easily swallow a child whole and eat them for dinner. I’ve had more than one kid fall in so this is not at all an irrational fear! The transition from tiny potty to adult toilet is not always easy or fun. I always say I’ll just skip the small potty and start with the big toilet but having a small portable potty is just so…..convenient! And let’s face it, time is of the essence. If the toilet itself is not scary, the flushing (especially the public toilets) is totally frightening.
• Staying dry at night. Potty training is nothing compared to night training in a lot of kids. Many parents are disillusioned to realize that their little one who potty trained so easily at 2 years old continues to wet the bed until sometimes adolescence or even later. One child I know even wet the bed during naps and never outgrew it - he just outgrew the naps!
• Public Potty Mental Maps. Parents of potty training children suddenly revolve their life around where the public toilets are and make sure they are within a 30 second jog at all times.
• Resurgence of the diaper bag. Just when your child is weaned off bottles and no longer needs diaper changes so frequently and you’ve pitched the diaper bag, you start potty training and suddenly carrying a practical suitcase full of spare clothes, underwear, pull-ups and wipes is a requirement upon leaving the house at all. And don’t forget the change of clothes for YOU becuase when the child pees, you’ll have to pick her up to carry her to get changed and just try to pick up a soaking wet child without getting wet yourself!
• The Full Undress. This is where your child HAS to get totally naked in order to use the potty. Combine this with the first bullet point and you have just spent your entire day peeing and dressing and undressing.
• T.P. Obsession. As if all of the above weren’t reasons enough for constant potty visits, there is the obsession with toilet paper that inevitably occurs at some point during the process. Suddenly your child will “need” to pee all the time just for the toilet paper!! You will find tiny pieces of toilet paper ripped all over your bathroom or floating in the toilet randomly throughout the day. And if you are REALLY lucky you’ll find the entire TP roll unrolled all over your house!

Anyone who thinks “I can’t wait until my child is out of diapers” is in denial For at least a little while, your life will revolve around poop and pee like it NEVER did during the diaper days! So enjoy the ease and convenience of diapers while they last.

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 14th, 2007 at 8:58 am and is filed under Parenting. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.