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Saturday, August 16, 2008

Could We Really Be...Dare I Say it... Diaper Free?

It started a little before I left for BlogHer. My younger son (YS) announced one day that he was a big boy. This was followed by his request for underwear. I thought it was very cute, but there was no way I was going to let him be potty trained. After all, I was an expert on potty training. I successfully potty trained my older son (OS) with minimal work and, more importantly, published two blog posts on the subject. You can't get better credentials than that!

In fact, I was even quoted on this blog as saying:

"This experience reminded me of why I'm a big fan of waiting until a child is three to be potty-trained. At three they'll potty train in a couple of days, and their bladders are large enough that you'll never have to abandon a shopping cart of frozen foods to explore the scary bathrooms in the bowels of the grocery store while hoping that the creepy teenage sales clerk who's lurking around will go back to playing with his...iPod. Not that parents of young children don't get to enjoy the memorable grocery store bathroom experience for other reasons, such as pregnancy or when shopping after a workout during which you have drunk an entire large sports bottle of water. Potty-training is even better if you wait until children are 8 because they can do their own laundry. So maybe I'm kidding about the last part.

"I am back to my plan of holding off on potty training until YS turns three or hires an attorney to convince me that he was ready."

As you can see, I did not intend to permit any unauthorized potty training in my house. As usual with parenting, just when I think I have something figured out, I am proven wrong. Hmmm...I wonder if this blog is going to provide ammunition for my sons in their teenage years. YS was pretty persistent about getting underwear when I got back from BlogHer and I really meant to get him some, but I didn't have a chance before we left for our vacation. When we were in the Catskills we forgot his swim diapers, despite the fact we have about a million of them in our linen closet, and he was able to tell us in advance of needing the bathroom except when IN one long line in the water park where he peed on my foot. However, he was scared of the toilet and we didn't have a potty chair with us so we gave him a diaper to use until we were able to get more swim diapers. Now we are the proud owners of 1,000,005 swim diapers.

The Big Giraffe and I discussed it when we got back. He's only 25 months and we didn't want to push him. However on Thursday he asked for underwear again so I took him to the store to let him pick it out. Knock on wood big time here, perhaps I should take a moment to knock on every tree in our backyard as well, but so far no accidents! He even managed to successfully pee in the bathroom at Old Navy today, which the Big Giraffe said was actually somewhat more upscale than what might have been found at a grocery store. Everyone was very proud! We'll see where we're at on Thursday. I'm scared to say it, but we might actually be diaper free; at least for the daytime anyhow.

A. Elliot's Lesson Learned: Sometimes parents don't know everything; just don't tell my kids!

Labels: , ,

posted by Alex Elliot @ 7:19 PM   16 comments
16 Comments:

  • At 8/16/2008 9:23 PM, Blogger Heather said…

    Oh man, my son is 4 and still refuses to not poop in his pants.

     

  • At 8/16/2008 9:27 PM, Blogger Alex Elliot said…

    Like I said, ask me how we're doing on Thursday. It could be a completely different story!

     

  • At 8/16/2008 9:37 PM, Anonymous CableGirl said…

    Man,my almost 2 year old will not keep a diaper on short of duct tape... which I have seriously considered. She has been asking and asking and asking for big girl panties for weeks.

     

  • At 8/16/2008 10:15 PM, Blogger Count Mockula said…

    Wow, how exciting!

     

  • At 8/16/2008 10:24 PM, Anonymous Chantelle said…

    Sometimes parents don't know everything?
    I think some days I would settle for knowing anything.
    Isn't there some rule that the second child is supposed to do everything different than the first so that the parents can't make any generalizations? That is how my mom makes it sound.

     

  • At 8/16/2008 10:24 PM, Blogger Suzanne said…

    Although I only attended law school for three days, I would like to act as YS's legal counsel after the fact and request that my godson be allowed to continue his quest to be potty trained. You'll have our "briefs" soon. Ha ha ha.

     

  • At 8/16/2008 10:56 PM, Blogger Lady M said…

    WOW! That would be terrific. My older son is finally making progress with the potty. Maybe his baby brother will be interested at a younger age, like YS.

     

  • At 8/17/2008 6:34 AM, Blogger Mayberry said…

    Whoooo! You lucky lady!

     

  • At 8/17/2008 9:40 AM, Blogger Goofball said…

    in Belgium children start school (kindergarden) at age 2,5 years....so we potty-train them around 2 years.

     

  • At 8/17/2008 10:44 AM, Blogger Jen of A2eatwrite said…

    Congrats! Kids are pretty good at letting you know when they want something!

     

  • At 8/17/2008 11:13 AM, Blogger Tracey said…

    This is EXACTLY what happened with Corinne.

    I was dead set on not potty training till she was 3. After the boys, which took FOREVER, I didn't want to cave.

    She proved me wrong, and did it in a day or so at YS's age.

    It ROCKS.

     

  • At 8/18/2008 1:09 AM, Blogger Nora Bee said…

    Very exciting! I love those moments that remind me that I'm dealing with a little person with free will.

     

  • At 8/18/2008 6:35 AM, Blogger Jenn in Holland said…

    I think I may have told you before that is how my daughter did it as well. Just announced that she would be needing big girl pants and basically took care of it herself: At TWO YEARS OLD! And my first experience being over THREE when he deemed the toilet worthy to use, I wasn't expecting it at all from Emma, and yet, there it was. In HER time. Shows just what cumulative parenting knowledge gets you, eh?

     

  • At 8/18/2008 10:57 AM, Blogger skiplovey said…

    That's awesome! I guess he knows when he's ready.

     

  • At 8/18/2008 2:30 PM, Blogger Jennifer, Playgroups Are No Place For Children said…

    I yearn for this day. What I wouldn't give not to wipe smeared poo off my son's bum.

     

  • At 8/21/2008 6:47 AM, Blogger jodifur said…

    Can I say I hate you? Is that ok? I have a 3.5 year old who I thought was trained and then this week, on vacation, nothing but accidents. Vacation potty training regression can happen, right, right?

     
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Name:Alex Elliot
Home:MA, United States
About Me:Professional Mom of two cats, a dog, an ant farm, and oh yeah...two boys: a 6 year old and a 3 year old. Also found in my house is my husband who is known on this blog as The Big Giraffe.
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For those of us who didn't get an instruction manual with our babies and for whom parenting hasn't always gone as planned. On a more serious note this blog is about supporting a woman's ability to make her own choices about parenting including the choice, for whatever reason, to bottle feed her babies formula.

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