We have a power struggle going on in our house. Maya vs. the mean potty training parents. How can we be losing this battle to a 3 year old!? Looking back I think we've made some mistakes in our efforts (we're now probably 6 months into this thing). And so in my efforts to figure out the secret, I have to tell the saga...
Maya started to wear pullups when she turned 2, and when we tried to get serious about potty training shortly after she turned 2 1/2 she completely refused to wear the princess panties that we bought. She would scream and cry when we tried to put them on her and she only wanted to wear pullups (mistake #1 -pullups!). So we would take her potty in her pullup. We told her she wasn't supposed to go in her pants and also we kept trying to get her to wear panties. Then on Fathers Day Chris asked if she wanted panties and she said YES out of the blue and she has been in them every since. We were excited but I was very nervous about her peeing in her panties because she did in her pullups all the time. Everyone just assured me that once she had a few accidents and had to sit in wet pants and got embarrassed that she would start telling us she had to go potty. So we had the princess panties but in addition I bought several packages of thicker 'training' panties so if she did pee it wouldn't make such a mess. Well she consistently had accidents just like she was wearing a diaper so we limped along since Father's Day like this - we would take her every hour and we bought candy for the bathrooms and she got candy every time she went potty. But she STILL wouldn't tell us she had to go potty. The only time she will tell us she has to go potty is when we are out in public and I know it's only because she thinks it's fun to go to the bathroom. Half the time she doesn't even go when I take her...grrr!
So she was doing ok, but she would still have accidents several times a week and still wouldn't tell us she had to go. We were frustrated and could tell that Ms. Diana our daycare provider was frustrated as well. So a couple weeks ago Ms. Diana started to put Maya in timeout if she had an accident and then we found that Maya was coming home from daycare in pullups!! NO!! Well we thought maybe consistency would do the trick, so last weekend for the first time ever, we put Maya in timeout when she peed her pants. Poor little thing just sat there and cried (sniff, sniff). Well this punishment idea definitely has not solved our problem (mistake #2). In fact she now pees her pants every day several times a day instead of before sometimes she would make it all day with no accidents, some days she would have a couple small accidents. So after complete failure I am forcing a switcharoo!!
My new plan started today because yesterday was my breaking point, but officially the plan starts tomorrow when we're at home. Plan details:
1) A "Maya's Potty Time" chart in the bathroom, handmade by yours truly. It even has purple glitter on it...ooooh ahhhh :-)
2) Markers and new stickers to mark on the chart for every success in the potty
3) No more timeouts or criticism about peeing in the panties
4) Taking her to the bathroom every 20-30 minutes for the next two days
5) A basket full of small toys that she will get to pick from at the end of the day if she has no accidents
6) A larger toy that she will know about and she will get if, I mean WHEN, she makes it a whole week with no accidents
Any wagering on my success??
Chris and I got to go to the new Cowboys Sadium this weekend - it was SWEEET! It was unbelievably large - we couldn't even tell where the ball was at from our nosebleed seats so we watched the game on the massive screen which seemed like a silly way to watch the game. But we walked around alot before the game - Chris was joking that it would take 5 escalators to get up to our seats but it really did take 5 escalators it was crazy! My $14 margarita and $10 popcorn were yummy and we had fun nonetheless.
