STOP! Potty Time

This winter I had decided that my son will once & for all be potty trained! With nothing but cold weather for as long as the forecast was showing, I felt this was probably the best time to do it.  Let me tell you, it was more work than I ever thought it could be.

I had a lot of great advice from people.  From my friends from school to my close girlfriends, from old neighbors & even guys chimed in, everyone has great tips.

The biggest debate was small potty or the grown up potty.  Being that I was trying to teach my son how to pee standing up like his dad, I felt the big potty with the little seat was perfect.  I thought for sure I could entice him with a Lightning McQueen potty seat & stool. Not so much. He was having difficulty going #1 on the little potty (pee everywhere) so I told him it was broken.  He eventually warmed up to it.

One classmate from grade school suggested having him play target practice with Cheerios.  While this worked for the first day, the novelty of hosing down one of his favorite breakfast cereals faded quickly. Guess my big hungry boy figured that he'd rather eat them. Luckily he took to standing up peeing with out much hesitation. Unfortunately, he has some real issues with going #2 on the royal throne.

This is where bribery came into play.  I am not sure that is even worked either.  I hung a Matchbox or Hot Wheels car from the bathroom door.  I thought of it as inspiration.  My little guy wasn't fully convinced that he really wanted the cars THAT much to just go poop.  As terrible as this may sound, it was actually kind of funny. He would sound like he was giving birth trying to go.  There wasn't anything wrong, he was just simply terrified!

After a few weeks of this, Mason had to stay with his Grandparents for the night.  Funny how he had NO problems going up there.  And he didn't need anyone there for moral support while he went. I am very thankful that now he goes to the bathroom on his own.  We still have the Night Time Pull-ups for bedtime.  Even though most of the time he wakes up dry.  I will take those off of him once I get the proper mattress pad for his bed.  

Every kid is different & one thing may not work that worked for someone else. Patience was the key for both of us.  We both would get frustrated, but we survived! And here I thought boys would be easier, lol!