Monday, January 18, 2010

The Potty Training Dilemna.....

or should I say nightmare????

Seriously, I'm about to lose my mind.

How did it get to this place......I am a "cloth diaper" Momma who cherished the extra moments it took to put on a cloth diaper. I never found washing the diapers a chore....never, not once. It was an act of love I gave my children each and every time I did a load of laundry (which is really three loads each time, but that's another story....).

I think it's the "in-between" time that I'm not so good at. Or maybe, I'm just over it. I'm really not sure.

Squeeker was so easy to potty training -- he defied the myth that boys are harder, because honestly, he wasn't. When he was 3 years and 1 month old, he and I took a 900 mile one-way road trip to Connecticut over Christmas. I remember contemplating the route around NYC and decided the longer way via the Tappan Zee Bridge was a much better option than trying to take I-95 through the Bronx with a boy who was on the verge from waking up from his nap. Stopping in the Bronx by myself, with a small child was not an option I could ever consider. Surprisingly, he made it not only over the Tappan Zee Bridge, but way into Fairfield County of Connecticut. I'm fondly remembering that moment as I struggle daily with two pre-schoolers in the throws of potty training.

But I regress........

Each day I pray for strength as we navigate through this stage. A homeschooling Mom I spoke to last week told me about her "natural potty training" method, which honestly, makes a whole lot of sense. I realized that I'm doing it ALL WRONG, and I just don't know how to break out of the crazy cycle we are in. That's Mommy going crazy.......and my kids not potty training.

Maybe it started 6ish months ago when we came home from Ethiopia. Pickles, aka, Pop Star, was close to being potty trained. When we added the two children to our home, chaos took over and I made the huge mistake of putting her in Pull-Ups. Let's just say I'm not a fan of pull-ups. Sure, they are convenient for the child to "be like" big girls, but honestly, it's not different than a regular diaper....they don't feel wet, so how on earth can there be natural consequences for wetting your pants.

So, not only has she regressed, so has Little S, who still struggles with where she falls in the birth order. She's tiny and petite, shorter in stature than her younger sister, which leads to confusion as to who is older. Let's save the competition conversation for another post..........Pickles has finally figured out that Little S is her BIG sister, but I'm not quite sure Little S has figured out she's not the youngest. Daily we struggle with this.

To be perfectly honest, I just can't stand pee. Gee...never thought we'd see that on a blog~! But I am OVER it! OVER IT! I'm over the peeing on themselves to get attention, I'm over all the negative attention it generates, I'm just OVER IT!

And maybe, it's because I'm OLDER that I have little or no patience for it. Every morning to wake up and start the day knowing I'll be fighting the "pee battle" wears me down. I don't want to get up.....it's like I just don't want to face it....deal with it.....I just want it to be over. I want everyone to wear big girl panties, pee on their own....and not have to constantly say "go potty Pickles and the going out of her two's with attitude 'NO!" ....and Little S...do you need to potty?????" Everything revolves around the potty...and frankly, I'm just OVER IT!

I'm not a very good Mommy lately because everything is revolving around "going to the potty." Seriously, there has to be a better way.