I have three boys.
Three boys, y’all.
I have THREE BOYS and ya wanna know one thing I’m really bad at?
Potty training.
I don’t get it and I have no patience for it. (Lord, help me.)
Now, I know some mamas out there who are AMAZING potty trainers. Boys, girls, puppy dogs, doesn’t matter! They have all the patience. They have all the helpful hints. They go forth and conquer. All their kids were potty trained by 18 months (and that’s because their one under-achiever took a little longer than the rest). And you should know, said children are creating computer programs and looking for their own apartments by age 2 1/2. (Ha! I jest, I jest. You know I love and respect all y’all, and I should probably ask the Lord to convict my heart over coveting your potty training beastiness.)
But see as a general thing, I feel like no one tells you how hard it is! While discussing this topic with an empathetic mom friend, she asked a valid question:
“Why did no one adequately prepare me for this? Everyone focuses on the no sleeping babies or the angsty teenagers. Not a word about potty issues.”
This is so true! Anyone else??? They should tell a person before they ever decide to spend nine months creating their little human that there is no guarantee of how long you will be wiping poopy behinds. They don’t come with an automatic potty train button. (Although that would be AMAZING.) Oh, and Google does NOT know all when it comes to this topic! Potty training is super, crazy hard for some of us. Even with the unending list of ways to go about it, there are just times that NOTHING seems to work. And yes, I should definitely wait till he’s ready, but I find it hard to figure out how long is too long…and when does it simply become a war of the wills?
So, I have no answers. This is not my “helpful hints” blog! This is not my “how to” blog. I have nothing to offer you.
This is an SOS blog.
This is an “I’m going kinda insane” blog.
This is a “I might not take your suggestion, since there’s a big chance I already tried it, but feel free to tell me anyway” blog.
Side Note: if your advice is to, “Let them run stark naked, or just in undies,” I must tell you under no uncertain terms that, no, my child is not bothered at all by being wet, and I might go crazy if he pees on any more furniture, outdoor plants, or the sandbox. And I don’t have the time to wash underwear 15 times a day. It is simply not a route that works for me. But more power to ya for all that patience and ability to stomach that lovely dried urine smell!
Still, if you have any other tips, please share them! Or if you have a story of why waiting longer was the best route, I’d love to hear it! It would be prideful and unhelpful of me and unhelpful to anyone reading to turn down any advice.
But let me say, above all, this is for the moms who have tried everything, both the striving and the waiting…
This is also a “Perhaps I’m not alone on being the exasperated mom who feels like I’ve tried all the things, and although I don’t mind waiting, I have a three old who expels man poop and it’s starting to create awkward situations” blog.
This is a “Maybe don’t jump to conclusions when you see an older kid in diapers, cause it may not be for a lack of trying on moms part.” blog. (I say this without malice cause, honestly, this used to be me.)
So yeah, this is nothing revolutionary. I’m really just venting a bit and I’m empathizing with all the mama people out there who have moved passed 2T, 3T, 4T, 5T pull ups and are truly beginning to doubt the age old antidote that “no one goes to college in diapers.”
The struggle is real. And potty training stinks…in a million different ways.
That is all.
Much love!
My Family Freedom 