Yup, we're potty training flunkies, for now. We had some wins, but way too many losses and it was turning into my kids training us and not the other way around.
First, I'm admittedly stating that I had temporary insanity to think I should be potty training them right now. I distinctly remember talking to a neighbor on the 4th of July and saying that I had no interest in potty training them anytime soon. Twins are difficult, especially two that are completely different from each other (plus they are only 27 months old right now). For some reason though I got it into my head to try.
Basically we gave up last night. I can honestly say we (me, Ryan and my in-laws who watch them during the day) gave our best effort. We tried to catch every accident and we praised and praised and awarded prizes every time. In the end they simply were not interested. They never told us they had to go or initiated going (unless you count Ce using it to get out of timeout once). Marshall could hold it fine but would fight us going to the bathroom every time. And Cecilia, well she stopped pooping on the toilet after the first 4 days and she turned into a stealth pisser. The girl gave us no cues. One minute she'd be playing with a toy and the next second there would be pee down her leg without missing a beat, every 30 minutes too sometimes. And when there was an accident, they never recognized it or told us. They didn't care if their pants were peed on, they went on playing.
Selfishly I also think we needed to stop because the home situation was getting ridiculous. We had to keep them in a small area of the house (especially if you were going at it alone) so we could catch every accident and all you could hear constantly out of our mouths was: "Tell mommy/daddy if you have to go," "Keep your undies dry," and "Do you have to go?" while our kids basically watched 8 hrs or more of TV a day. They had us trained to take them to the potty every 50 min because we didn't want them to have an accident. The personal responsibility of going to the potty never shifted over to them. And honestly I didn't want to spend September and possibly October confined to my house (when there's still plenty of outside time left) or taking them to the potty every hour. One kid would be too much for that process, let alone two.
So that's it for now. The potties are still out and Marshall and Cecilia are free to use them. That's the beauty of using cloth diapers, we don't waste a disposable when they come off and they're easier to get them right back on. I plan on waiting until the dead of winter when we're forced to be confined to our house to try again - unless of course they potty-train themselves before then.
4 comments:
excellent try, mama! I was wondering if we should try, but in the end I do not think I have the stamina you displayed to do so just now. And I know Cbear is just not there yet either. Good first try!
excellent try, mama! I was wondering if we should try, but in the end I do not think I have the stamina you displayed to do so just now. And I know Cbear is just not there yet either. Good first try!
I could not fault you at all...for trying or for postponing. I'm hoping that Anna will do as she has done with most other things and just do it all by herself when she is ready. She is so clearly not ready right now.
I applaud your effort. I think I would have gone nuts!
Our girls are 20 months old, and my hubby is so anxious for them to be trained. :) Of course he's not going to be the one home to do it...nor will he be the one cleaning up all the accidents!
That's a really interesting point about the time of year, though, one I hadn't thought of yet. I think it makes a lot of sense to be more home-bound when the weather is not so nice, either when it's really cold, or even oppressively hot, like it's been here this summer.
Congrats on the great try...and just think how much smarter you'll be next time around. :)
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