A Potty Training Story

One of the most difficult things about potty training is the feeling of being alone.

No one wants to be embarrassed or think that someone else is doing something better than they are.

Yet we all have ups and downs. Why should potty training be any different?

Aren’t the odds even better that we’re going to feel a bit down in the dumps when most of our day is piled with poo?

On that note, I thought I’d share a potty training story involving Jackson, one of our students.

Jackson’s mom Teena bought a potty for Jackson a week before his second birthday. It had all the bells and whistles – every color inside a decent rainbow, removable parts, front-loading bowl, sure grip rubber tickled sides.

It might’ve even come with a warranty.

Jackson, stubborn as any boy you would ever want to meet, wanted nothing whatsoever to do with it.

At least not with respect to its purpose.

Jackson used the potty in every way his two-year old mind could conjure. It was a fort, a plant stand, the cat’s house, the dog’s house (they didn’t have a dog). It was constantly moved around the house like a favorite blanket. It got chewed on, colored on and stacked on.

Sat on, it never was.

Teena grew beyond frustrated. The one time she insisted he sit on the potty, using the sort of stare that only a mother can muster, Jackson pulled down his pants and baptized the floor with a smile that was spread about as a wide as a sunset.

It got worse. From that day on, Jackson started to hold it in. One might think this would be difficult for a two year old, but that person probably hasn’t met Jackson. If Jackson decided to hold it in until the next election, I wouldn’t lay one of my Andrew Jacksons against him. Teena knew this too, which is why she decided to go against her instincts and slip a pull-up on her boy. She was afraid if she didn’t, little man was going to poison his insides. For Jackson, he was just happy as a hyacinth in the sunshine.

He had been pulling on the arm of the slot machine for a while and finally got his payoff. He was in his pull-up all of five seconds before he filled it to a muddy brim.

Jackson, needless to say, was holding his own. 

Though Jackson was a student at our school, Teena had not told us what was happening at home. She had spent a handful of weeks engaged in constant battle, too embarrassed to tell us what was happening at home.

Once the problem was solved brought to our attention, in was solved inside a day.

Everyone has their currency. For Jackson, it was wanting to be like the older boys. The older boys NEVER wore a pull-up. Once this was articulated to Jackson at school, first by explanation and then later by dividing our activity groups into those who wore a diaper and those who didn’t, Jackson decided that going to the potty in the toilet just like the big boys was something he wanted to do as well.

He never had an accident again.

Find your child’s currency; that one thing that they are willing to compromise for. That is the key that can unlock your potty training.

Potty Training Power…AWAY!!!

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