Taking the stress out of Potty Training

There is nothing ‘not-stressful’ about parenting, but by sharing experiences and breaking down each of the things we ‘have-to do’ we can make life a bit easier. One such ‘must-do’ things in the journey of parenting is the dreaded ‘Potty Training’.

Weirdly, 99% of adults are potty trained, which means almost every kid will eventually be potty trained. But still, 99% of parents go through the stress of training their kids. But why?

Here are some reasons (you may agree on some openly, while the other reasons are the actual cause of stress, even if you don’t want to agree.)

• You’ve had enough of using those disposable diapers, because honestly that money can be put to better use.
• Only after becoming a parent you suddenly care more about the environment and have learnt that a diaper takes 500+ years to decompose! (I’m not kidding)
• For the already environment conscious- the cloth diapering (all though looks cute) has been a pain with storing, washing and drying.
• Only those who deal with a rash know what it means to stop using diapers and all their alternatives.
• Your kid, yes your very own, still makes the smelliest poop and you’ve honestly had enough of being so close to it, almost always during a mealtime.
• You see friends, cousins and neighbours enjoying a diaper free life and cant wait to be in that phase.
• Your ‘more experienced’ mom friends cannot stop bragging about how their ultra disciplined kids were toilet trained at earlier ages, making you feel like a failure.
• You’ve bought a fancy potty seat and CANNOT wait to use it (secretly wishing you had not spent money on it)

I’ve been a victim to many of these reasons myself and

I definitely made ‘potty training’ an important KRA in my parenting career

trying different initiatives to be able to complete the task before the dooming deadline arrived (also set by myself with no data to back this goal).

Let’s take a deep dive into my ‘amazing initiatives’ because it sure took time and effort and is important to this case study. Honestly, there are some valuable pieces of information here that can help first-time parents, if not to accomplish the task, to at least make it fun.

• I introduced the ‘friendly-potty’ to my son early. At 10 months. And he loved it! It was his favourite time of the day. To sit on a helicopter-shaped toilet and pose for my pictures. All the pooping was saved for the diapers though.
• I learned the language of my son’s weird faces. I could just look at him from across the house and predict in how many seconds he was going to do the big job. And more often than not, it took me more than those number of seconds to get to him.
• When the little one started understanding better, we introduced bribery! One poop in the potty meant a star drawn on his palm. He treasured it until I scrubbed it off during bathtime quite unceremoniously.
• The little simple stars got more fancy & complicated with stamps of different shapes and colours, cute stickers and what not because these things are what new age parents ‘have-to’ buy right! P.S — It worked for a long time…..
• With more potty accidents, we moved to more experiential trophies. While our darling went about his routine, we entertained him by giving him not only a standing ovation but climbing atop our dining chairs and cheerleading him through the process. And this worked wonders too!
• Our potty has traveled in the car boot across the city and even across. Road trips have been easier with a make-shift toilet ready, anywhere & everywhere.
• Our library of books was re-arranged and the potty books (oh there are so many of them) became our favorites. Check out this Instagram post
• Setting a routine made potty-time easy-breezy. A glass of hot milk meant the potty would be used soon, but only we know the struggle of getting that warm milk down his throat before it went cold.

So yes, it seemed like we got it all right. But here’s the climax….. we failed. And at this stage was when the frustration set in. Where the ‘imagined’ fear of being judged took precedence. Where the obsessive parenting make life more difficult than it already was — the only reward, the little boy gave up on being potty trained before his parents did. 😖

Why do I say ‘reward’ because it was at this phase, on giving up, did everything fall back in place. Little Yajur decided that it was now only up to him to make this ‘potty-training’ drama work, without all the drama. 😅

So he started asking us for the potty. He figured out the timing of communicating his urge. He learned to control himself when we were still many steps away from reaching this throne. And he understood that just that simple act of pooping in that little pot made his parents happy, proud, and blissful — it brought harmony in his home…All before he turned 3 (my turn to brag here)! 😇

Bringing the little one from his ‘portable potty’ to the main toilet seat is a story in itself, but we did repeat some of the above tactics to make it happen. But made-up stories involving animals who had to poop worked well.

But we are humans, after all, nothing is enough. Our next expectation was to get him to pee outside the diaper too. Fortunately, this took lesser time and trouble — but a bunch of cute-looking underwear made it work. Also, his Amma got an earful from his Appa and strict warnings to not keep asking the boy to pee at her whim & fancy 😋

But our little boy was using his throne to sit and pee! OMG what a disaster. So with enough theory and some practical demonstration, we finally managed to tell him that his pee belongs in the drain, and the only way he could ensure that journey was to stand as close as possible. 😆

I wish I could say, all ends well, but now we are in this ‘crazy’ phase where we have to convince him that other homes, restaurants, and other places also have a drain. And when the time comes to use nature for the call of nature…God help us🤞🏼

Originally published at https://yajurchronicles.com.