Just Sittin' There

On Facebook lately there have been several posts from young moms who are celebrating successful potty training, some including pictures.  Yay!  Cue the balloons!  I am so happy for them.  But for every one who's genius child finally "gets it", there are five sets of parents out there in dispare, convinced that their kid is going to have to take his diapers to school in his backpack.

I hear that some people will give an M&M for a successful performance on the potty.  One M&M!  Come on!  No wonder it's taking awhile. When I was baby-sitting one of my grandkids every day and her mother decided it was time to work on potty-training, at Grandma's house she got a whole Hershey bar when she did something extraordinary! (The grandkid, not the mom)

Here's my take on it.  I think every child has a date embedded in his brain.  If the parents start trying to potty-train him or her six months before that day, they will think it takes six months for potty-training and they will believe this is a hard and fast rule for all children.  If, by some miracle, the parents happen to start training their child the day before the pre-ordained date, they will think,  "Wow!  We are great parents.  We potty-trained our kid in only one day!"

Sometimes the little darling just isn't ready.  I am not naming names, since I want to still have access to my grandchildren after this is posted, but I know a child who was so enamored of his potty chair when he was two, that when it was time for his dad to get home from work, he would carry the chair outside with him and sit on it while he waited by the driveway.  And he brought it into the living room when we, I mean, his parents, were having a church Youth Group meeting and sat on it in the middle of the circle.

The other child in that family did not get the message quite as early.  While the mom was not too disturbed by this, his grandmother was mortified.  She said, "Any child who can tell you he wants his diaper changed....and bring you the diaper!!!...is old enough to do it himself."

But, his pediatrician said, "I guarantee you he will not be taking diapers to kindergarten with him.  Leave him alone!"

And the kid said, when pressed by his grandmother, "Jesus doesn't want me to."

Then that special, pre-ordained day came along.  His aunt gave him a package of Spider Man underwear for Christmas.  He laid down his diapers and never looked back.  I'm pretty sure that if they made Spider Man underwear in his size, he'd still be wearing them today.

Take heart.  It will happen when it happens.