Potty Time

Yes that is right I said potty time.

We are not "potty training" we are going through potty readiness. Parson is very interested in the potty, in fact he has used it a few time by his choice. We are not asking him to go potty on the big boy potty and we are not sitting him on the potty unless he asks for it.

He generally asks to sit on the potty once or twice a day...sometimes we get some potty action and other times we don't. We are not to worried about it because for petes sake Parson is not even two yet.  I have to say the first time he pooped on the potty we might as well have thrown a party.

We stopped doing stickers and wont do treats because they are to much of a distraction for our little guy. A big bout of praise, singing, dancing, and clapping does the trick with P-man.

There are a million books and opinions about potty training out there and I will admit I have read a good portion of them. Some of them have great information and others are down right crazy. The fact of the matter is you are not going to "make" your child use the potty. There is just no sense, your child will probably not like the potty if they are forced or pushed to hard to use the toilet.

I have two or three veteran Moms that I run to when I am confused and have questions (bless them because that's often) the best bit of information I got was a profound truth to me at the time. That we are in the passenger seats when it comes to potty training, we have to wait for the interest and readiness of our toddlers. Another thing they said was "No one goes to kindergarten in diapers"

I think a lot of the stress that we as parents feel (that we in turn put on our kids) comes from society. Things like the Mom at the grocery store saying "Well my child was potty trained at 19 months" or "My child is not even two and they have a better vocabulary then 5 year old's"  or those books that we information hungry Moms cling to so we can make our kids the best and most successful.

Our intentions are honest and wholehearted. But lets be honest weather your child knows their ABC's by the time they are two or not until they are 3, weather they are potty trained or not and weather they have the best vocabulary early or late. They are still your baby, someones baby. Who are we to judge one another children based on our own families or that information we find in books.

Children come in all shapes and sizes and developmental speeds. Recommendations and milestone suggestions are just that... recommendations and suggestions. If we as parents feel in our hearts that there is a  problem with our little ones lets promise ourselves and our kids to check with experts and not Google.

Lets do our kids a favor and let them be kids. Lets guide them in the direction they need to be going and help them learn the skills that they need by playing and reading and spending time with one another. Lets promise to not hold them up to an expectation that we found in the newest amazon best seller book.

Lets do this because each stage is temporary and we need to enjoy and remember every bit of every stage.

Patty