Saturday, September 14, 2013

Potty Training The Boy Wonder

Parent - someone who attempts to transform tiny half-crazed animals (AKA "children") into socially correct human beings. This involves teaching them to eat with utensils, cope with their feelings, not smack their sister in the head with drum sticks, stay out of the knife drawer, and use the bathroom.

We've been working on the last one with T for the past GAZILLION YEARS month or so. Supposedly it's harder to potty train boys. Since I've had A LOT of time to reflect on this while waiting for "magic" to happen, I've thought of a few reasons why.

Potty training boys is harder (in most cases) because:



1) Boys LIKE peeing. It involves their favorite body part.

2) Boys think pee is cool. When I don't catch an accident in 0.2 seconds, T starts running toy cars through it. I'm pretty sure his thought process is, "OH BOY! A PUDDLE MAKING MACHINE!" -_-

3) Boys have a one track mind. Sexist? Probably. True? Absofreakinglutely. If T is watching TV, he is WATCHING TV. If having to go interrupts Elmo, well that's just too bad for the carpet. If, however, I put him on the potty chair in front of the TV, he usually ends up going. Eventually.

I count this a success.

4) The bathroom is boring. Even grown-ups think so. I'm think this is part of the reason we've experienced some success with the sit-on-the-potty-in-front-of-the-TV-for-hours method.

That's a method ... right?

5) Boys don't mind being dirty. They don't care if pee is pooling in their shoes/on the couch cushions/anywhere they may be standing (LIKE THE PILE OF CLEAN SOCKS I'M SORTING. Thanks, dude.) As T would say, "It's not a big deal, Mom."

Yes, he really says that. With a bonafide eye roll and everything.

This is going to be  a looonnng process. I'll try not to do this ...


No promises.


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6 comments:

  1. Hahaha! This is so hilarious! and so true! Great post.
    I potty trained 2 boys and the winning ticket for me was figuring out their motivation for keeping dry. One had to stay dry for a whole week in order to be allowed to move out of the church nursery and into a big boy class. My second son wanted to wear the Superman underwear I bought him.

    Wouldn't you know it, the eldest STILL loves church and the second STILL cares more about his clothes and look than anything else! Ha!
    Susie

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    1. The intersection of potty training and psychology. Hee hee. Maybe we should develop a method based on that!

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  2. I got all 3 of mine (Boys) trained pretty easy. A friend use Cheerios in the toilet and let her boys shoot them worked for her. LOL Mine liked sticker charts. If the peed the got a star other they got a bigger sticker. When they got a week they got a small toy, Month a big toy, then you know if they can go a month they are done. Pretty much anyway. Middle son was easiest. He is only 15 months older than the youngest. I kept asking him to get me a diaper for the baby, he looked at me and said "Are diapers for babies?" I said yes, he looked me in the face and said "Well I'm a big boy!" changed into underwear and never looked back. Happy training! It will give you memories to laugh about later.
    Nana April

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    1. Thanks! We've been doing sticker charts. When he finishes one he gets a treat like going out for ice cream or something. We tried the Cheerios thing, but he just kind of sat there like, "what do you mean, I'm supposed to aim?" Lol. He's been doing really well over the past week as long as he's not wearing any bottoms. I wonder how long we'll have to go without pants ...

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  3. We did a bribery system. Charts are great if you have a kid with an attention span....we didn't. On the walls we taped new, small, cheap wrapped toys, way up where the kid couldn't reach. Then on a different part of the wall we taped small wrapped candy. We told them, "if you put a pee in the potty chair, we will give you a candy....and if you put a poop in the potty chair we will give you a toy". It was like INSTANT REWARD....they caught on pretty quick. I don't know if parents now-a-days are against candy...... oh and we restricted the sweets otherwise, so the only sugar they got was the reward for the pee in the potty. This only went on until they were trained. Hope it helps.

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    1. We're doing a sticker chart. It seems to help. Except he's now trying to negotiate for TWO stickers instead of just one. Maybe it's time to start phasing it out.

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What say ye?