Potty Wars

It might be hard to believe, but the princess pictured here marked not one, but two stores in a single day with golden puddles during the long, hard process of potty training.

That's right. I've reached one of the monumental times in parenting - potty training. I followed all the (questionably helpful) advice I've learned from residency. Such gems such as "Try a sticker chart, it works like a charm," "Let her run around without a diaper on so she can use the potty when the urge comes, " and "You'll know when she's ready,"come to mind. I really hope these things helped someone, but for me they resulted in: flat out disinterest in stickers, urine on my floor, couch, and coffee table in rapid succession, and continued assertions of, "I want my diaper back!"

I really don't know how I expected all of these gimmicky things to work after every other moment of parenting has taught me that nothing is that easy. There was almost zero chance that I could say, "Hey, you get one whole sticker if you go from being totally happy in a soggy diaper for three hours to having to stop doing fun stuff every hour or so to sit on a cold toilet seat," to my stubborn little bug and expect it to happen.

So here's the real truth: potty training is a huge inconvenience and a lot of work. Bug was dry all day for the first time today because I (not her) was finally willing to pay the price for that accomplishment. I carried her potty chair up and down the stairs to keep it at hand while we were in the playroom. I allowed errands to take twice as long so we could take potty breaks the minute we walked into each store, before we left the store, and sometimes during the shopping if the urge struck her. I turned off the stove in the middle of preparing dinner to help her onto the big potty.

These might not sound like huge inconveniences, but the time burden is heavy when you commit to it. It makes me realize how much easier it would be to just let her keep peeing in a diaper. Thinking of it that way, I realize why she was never going to be the one to take the initiative and it had to be me.

Anyone else about to take this journey, best of luck...