Adventures in Potty Training

I’d been dreading this day ever since the boys turned three. That was my time frame you see, the acceptable amount of time for us to go without even trying to potty train the boys. Considering the fact that they turned three in October and I still managed to delay the slightest attempt at potty training for several months – yeah, I was dreading it. But, here we were. No more excuses.

I began to do a little research, collect tips from my friends who had been there, buy supplies – which took some time in and of itself because we certainly couldn't afford to buy 30 pairs of underwear all at once! I even found a method that I wanted to try – Boot Camp Style! It promised to have your child potty trained in three days if you used the method correctly. Could it happen so quickly? I was ready to give it a shot. Was all of this just more stalling on my part? Perhaps, but I did eventually reach a point where I was standing on the edge of that cliff, ready to go.

I had this post all written out in great detail (well, to a point anyway) about each day’s successes and failures and how the boys responded, but then I deleted it. Because does anyone really want to know about how many times my kids pooped in a week or how many times we mopped pee off the floor? I doubt it. Suffice it to say, there were many ups and downs. On day two I was seriously ready to run far, far away from all that my life had become at that point in time. It was so bad that I actually started reconsidering my desire for future children. I’d committed - consciously or not – to potty training the three children I already had, but what kind of lunatic would actually have more children, knowing the hell you would go through during this phase? And then, very suddenly, things just sort of clicked. They got it. I was thrilled.

The 3 day boot camp method ended up taking us four days to really master. Factoring in that we were training two children at once, I consider that a pretty good success. It’s been almost a month now and I’m happy to report that the boys are doing great. There have been a couple accidents here and there, but that was also expected – at least for the first couple of months. It is such a relief to be done with three kids in diapers and it’s amazing how long one box of diapers lasts us with just one baby using them. The boys are so proud of themselves, and I am very proud of them myself.

Luckily, just like the pains of labor are graciously erased from our minds over time, I’ve found that the horrors of potty training are beginning to fade as well. And that may be the biggest blessing of all.