It’s time for a little experiment. Myself and Hannah are taking leave from work for the next fortnight with a view to potty training the boys. It’s a daunting task, I won’t lie but overall I am pretty optimistic that it will go well. I’m posting this as the before picture and in two weeks I am going to post the after picture and see how close to reality my prediction of events were.
Hannah actually went as far as saying that she was looking forward to it the other day but I suspect that had more to do with the kick she got from buying cute little dinosaur adorned underwear for them.
The case for them potty training quickly;
• They have inherited Hannah’s OCD. They HATE being dirty. This has to be a good thing.
• Assuming that they will love the dinosaur pants, they will really HATE getting those wet.
• They have been pretty desperate for approval the last few weeks. At least four times a day [and more on weekends] they will turn to one of us and ask “Fat Chops good boy?” Once we make it clear that we aren’t all that chuffed about mopping up pee then they will likely try to keep on our good side.
• We’ve invested in every aid we could think of. In addition to the dinosaur pants we have a Thomas the Tank Engine toilet seat, bubbles, Frisbees and a paddling pool as treats for when they successfully use the potty. Last time I checked, bribery was still a valid currency for toddlers.
• Washing their hands makes them strangely happy. This is not unrelated to the first bullet. It should help them get into the routine though.
• Fat Chops has a real independent streak. On the rare occasions that he is not looking for approval he is saying “I do it.” So now is the chance for him to do it all by himself.
• There have been two pee related incidents in the past few weeks. Once, partially due to parental neglect, Monkey Boys nappy was filled to the point that it overflowed. The child hit the roof when the pee ran down his leg. The other time, he was about to get into the bath and dribbled a bit of pee onto the carpet. The OCD kicked in and he insisted on wiping it up with baby wipes.
The case for leaving them in nappies until they are teenagers;
• Despite our best efforts to sit them on the potty when they are getting into the bath, they have never actually peed in it. The only time we have caught any pee in the potty is if they were trying to fill the bath themselves and we threw a potty under the stream. [I could probably do a whole post on their insistence on peeing in the bath before they sit down in it. Why would anyone do such a thing??!!]
• They are very, very stubborn. If they decide that they don’t want to do it, there will be a battle of wills. It is not just OCD that they have inherited from their mother so if they refuse to train there will be a battle of wills [like this]. If anyone is looking for me during that battle, I will be cowering behind the couch!
• You could sneak a full orchestra into the living room [wishful thinking that we could fit more than a violinist and a couple of oboes into our living room] and play an entire concerto while they are watching TV and they won’t take their eyes off Fireman Sam.*
• Change is bad. They like their routines and won’t want to change.
Wish us luck, we start on Sunday and I'll post the results in two weeks time.
*We should light fires in the bottom of the toilet for them to put out by peeing and take advantage of the Fireman Sam obsession.
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