Mom Fail: Potty Training

This post could alternately be titled:

Mom Fail: Why you shouldn't potty train your toddler in your third trimester of pregnancy when you can't bend over or get up from the floor without sound effects and some sort of assistance.

or my personal favorite

Mom Fail: Why you shouldn't potty train your toddler sober.

Like all parent's I think I've got one smart cookie on my hands.
Our little Lauren amazes us daily with her vocabulary, memory, comprehension, etc. etc.

So when she turned two and started randomly telling me she needed a
'diaper change'
and hiding, to do her other business,
I thought she was ready.

She was ready to be potty trained.

Maybe not completely.
Not over-night. But she was surely capable of using the 'potty' during the day.

And if I'm being completely honest, I've had this fantasy about having her potty trained before we welcomed another diaper wearing sweetheart to the family.

Lauren was introduced to the potty many months ago and had used it successfully a number of times.

So after doing some research, I decided on going the '3 Day Method' route, in which you stay home for three days straight and do nothing but focus on getting your toddler to the 'potty chair' each time they need to use it, while they walk around in cute little toddler undies and you try to keep them off the carpet.
According to my research, it was quite messy, but by day three, it clicks and you have a potty trained toddler.
Pretty straight forward.
And to sacrifice three days for such an outcome sounds like a pretty amazing deal to me.

Well, I still think it sounds amazing, because it didn't happen.

I'll spare you the play by play details, but we had a lot of cleaning up, changing of pants, holding it for hours, treats, prizes, frustration, and failure.



It wasn't perfectly executed.
On Day 3, {the day the magic happens, but hadn't happened at our house} our babysitter came over for a few hours to get reacquainted with Lauren before Matt's Christmas Party and since this was the only time that worked for her, we were forced into a date night.
I didn't want babysitter practicing the three day method, so I put a pull-up on over Lauren's Ariel undies. Same outcome.

The moment I realized I may have to wave the white flag was at the end of Day 4.
Please note: Day 4 is not a part of the 3-Day Method.
Lauren and I sat on the potty for a long time.
Well, she sat on the potty.
I sat on the floor.
But it was a long time.
Sitting on the floor, next to her, singing every song we knew, reading book after book,
and...
nothing.
I set the timer for 15 min,
{because that's what it had come to at this point}
told Lauren I was going to put my pajamas on
and we would try again before bath time.

Within three minutes of me slipping into sweatpants, I walked out to my daughter in a puddle
{more like a lake}
of her own urine.
Did I mention she was laying in it?
Playing Disney princess?



And here's where the FAIL happens.

I was upset.
I was angry.
I was frustrated.

All things you shouldn't be when potty training.

It was then I realized that my stubborn self had to let this one go.
She wasn't ready.
That's what my similarly stubborn little daughter was trying to tell me
in all those wet little undies, messes on the floor, and refusals to tell me she needed to use the potty.

It was a big lesson for me.
And the hardest parenting moment I've had thus far.
But I have a new understanding for allowing her to do things in her own time,
not on the time line I believe they could or should happen.

And this big lesson
probably came at the right time.

Right before we mix things up and add another sweet
{hopefully not as stubborn}
little darling to this family.

But my goodness gracious,

she does look cute in undies.

And despite the 'FAIL' this go around, she's still one smart cookie.

She now tells me she needs to go potty...
right around bed time.