Thursday, November 12, 2009
Riding the Potty Train
D:
Some call it cold turkey.
Others relate it to ripping off a bandaid quickly.
We call it the 'Diaper Fairy'.
Last Saturday the boys woke up to a big surprise. As if it were Christmas morning, they were joyfully told that the Diaper Fairy had come and taken all their diapers away and that she left them a huge stash of new big boy Spiderman underwear in their place. Their initial reaction was mixed with excitement and hesitation, resulting of course in an all out tantrum. (But what doesn't result in a tantrum these days?) We explained that because they were not able to pee and poop in their diapers any longer they needed to learn how to use their potty instead. (Funny side note... All day F kept asking me if we could go on a ferry boat and then later O told me that all the diapers were in the water. It was then that I realized that the boys had understood that all their diapers were boarded on a Washington State FERRY Boat never to return again!)
The plan was fairly strict. For three days, 'Potty Time' would be every hour, on the hour and they sit on the potty for 5 minutes regardless if there is any bodily function or not. We set an alarm so they knew when it was time to get off the potty. (The alarm was fondly referred to as the Potty Train, by the boys.) There would be lots of praise. I mean LOTS of praise, and even some candy. The first day both kids did great... there were only a few accidents, and both kids were fairly agreeable with the new arrangement. Day 2 was an improvement in some areas, yet also a regression in others. Two step forward, one step back. And by the end of day 3, our strict "plan" was slowly going out the window and was replaced by our handy parental instincts and intuition.
Potty training twins is an interesting social and biological science experiment. They both respond very differently to the exact some approach from the exact same parents. It is ridiculous to think that they would learn this very daunting task the same way. I'm glad that we started off so strict, so we can know right off the bat what the kids are capable of... which, to be honest, was actually WAY more than I ever would've given them credit for. I feel that we have mastered a really huge hurdle in a very short amount of time (no more diapers in the house!! Yeah!), but that we now have a very slow and steady route ahead of us that involves building confidence, self control, routine, resiliency, and self awareness in each child in very different ways.
Overall, at this point, I am SO proud of each of my boys. When the day comes that they will both finally 'get it' I know they will be just as happy with themselves as we are in them.
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Impressive Dana! I am scared shit-less to do potty training no pun intended:) Oh, and yes you read my blog post correctly:) It has been so long and it would be fun to catch up one of these days!!
Great job, F and O!
Just like your guys, ours responded in different ways as well. Although the training technique that we used worked very well with our guys, we found ourselves having to adjust along the way. For example, we used the "tell mom and dad when you need to go" approach. This worked great for Finn (and we repeated the phrase a gazillion times with him), but with Reid, he just got annoyed and would hold it just to spite us (or so it seemed). Parental instints and intuition definitely rule over any silly plan.
Good luck!
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