I Swear I’m Not Avoiding Potty Training Just Because I Love Fluff

Since we use cloth diapers, blowing money on disposables isn’t a factor in my desire to potty train my almost 3 year old son. So my potty training “method” didn’t lead to quick training like it did with my daughter, but I still stand by it. I don’t think there’s a “one-size fits all” method for potty training, and I think when people swear that xyz had their child trained in a weekend, it was simply because the child was ready & the method was right for them & their personality.

My son isn’t exactly a potty loving genius. At the time I wrote that post, he was around 26 months old, and using the potty a few times a day. I was hopeful that by now, he’d be doing even better. He will be 3 in less than 2 1/2 months, and I’m starting to wonder if I will have to change his diaper at the prom. When my daughter was his age, she was completely potty trained. I just registered him for pre-school, but I’m not sure if he will be able to go in the fall, since children have to be potty trained to attend.

I know he’s just not ready. He’s just not. The more I push, the more he’ll push back, and so I wait. We’ve tried to encourage him; I always cheer him on and tell him how proud I am when he uses the potty, suggest he use the potty and so forth. He has some very cool Mickey & cars underwear and although the last thing we need is another potty or potty seat, we took him to pick out his own, hoping that might motivate him. Nuh-uh.

My husband isn’t as patient. He tried bribing my son with candy (his favorite), offering a tootsie roll for pee & a tootsie pop for poop. He went so far as to tell him he’d make cupcakes if he just tried his underwear on. No go. Not that I blame him, my hubby isn’t exactly a baker, LOL.

What he will do is squeeze out a tiny tinkle in order to get a tootsie roll every few days, or to stall at bedtime. It’s quite possible that I just haven’t found the right motivator, but I think he’s just not ready.

Not only has a pair of underwear never touched his bottom (which makes me sad because they are so darn cute!!) but he won’t even wear trainers. We showed him that they were just like diapers, only pulled up and down, but he wants no part of it. For several months, he’s gotten very particular about his favorite diapers, and doesn’t want to wear any new ones. When I’ve had a new one to review, I have to agree to take it right back off just to get him to let me take pictures! (The Tots Bots Easy fit was the first one he agreed to wear for a while, but who in their right mind would want to take off something lined with soft minky??)

I can hear someone now saying that it shouldn’t be his choice, that I should just tell him this is how it’s going to be and that’s that. While that may be true for that person’s child, every child is different, and it wouldn’t work for my son at this point (though it does work some some things!)

In any case, I still think he will train when he’s ready, and when I find the right motivation for him. I think my husband will go on poopy diaper strike soon though. My son has started to say “euuucch! ‘ats ‘is-gusting!” when I open a stinky diaper, since he’s heard my husband say it so often, LOL. He likes his diapers and does not agree that diapers are only for babies, since his baby brother has little diapers, and he has big diapers!

If he hasn’t potty trained by the time preschool starts in the fall, he won’t be able to go. I think that once he’s ready, we’ll have to take the approach of simply quitting diapers “cold turkey.” He’s definitely not ready for that yet; I tried to get him to just run around bottomless but he wasn’t interested. I just need to make sure I keep trying, and find the right moment to take the diapers away.

Is it pathetic that my biggest worry is that other people will think I’m a terrible/lazy mom for having a 3 year old that’s still in diapers?