and more potty training...

[DCJenn]

OK- this is a definite WWYD (what would You do) question.

Nikolai turns three next month and they're already itching to move him to he 3yo classroom at his little school. Great. Except they want him to be potty trained.

He's soooooo not interested in potty training. I spoke with the director and basically told her that even if he was potty trained with Rick leaving he'd regress anyway. And I told her that I was not happy with the idea of them holding him back intellectually just because he's not potty trained. So, she agreed to move him to the 3yo classroom when there's an opening.

So, here's the dilemna- we've been keeping him in underwear and pull-ups- occasionally he'll use the potty at school. Here- he'd rather wallow in his filth and play with his trains. Seriously, twice in 30 minutes tonight I was dealing with poop in the underwear. Obviously he's not interested.

the director suggested that we keep at it so that he's not associating potty training with Rick leaving. I'm just tired of dealing with poop. (as he announced tonight, "I have poop everywhere.") But what exactly are we working on? He has NO interest. So should we continue this futile effort to get him to use the potty at school and at home which means I'm cleaning up poop and poopy underwear several times a day or stop for a while and pick it back up once he moves to the 3yo classroom. I'm hoping that peer pressure will spur him on as all of the parents of more than one kid have said that the second and subsequent kids want to emulate their older siblings and potty train more quickly. I'm hoping that he'll want to be like his buddies.

Seriously- I'm already cleaning up the cat pan, the dog poop, the grown-up toilets. How much poop does one girl have to deal with?

Jenn

If he's able to handle it at school, I'd send him to school in underwear and then change him back to diapers at home. TOTALLY not PC advice - or what you'll find in any parenting book.

My guess is that he'll walk the walk at school, and eventually (could be a decent amount of time here, but the kid isn't even 3!) when you go to change him into a diaper, he'll protest. And I keep saying diaper, b/c I that's what I think you need to use. My kids found pull ups acceptable, b/c it was a bigger kid on the package and it had cooler cartoon characters on it. They fought diapers like CRAZY.

If he CAN do it at school, then he CAN do it at home - but you're right - he doesn't want to. When he wants out of diapers, he'll do it.

Or - I could be totally wrong. :!

He doesn't sound interested.

My standard advice -- put the poop in the toilet with him watching and let him flush (if he likes that). That seemed to help my kids get it. M&Ms as a reward helped too.

[Momo]

He sounds very much like our children. They literally would have no problem playing for hours in poop. They just had no interest. My advice is to just let him use the pull-ups and drop the subject all together. He'll be ready when he's ready and not a second before. I threw out so many pairs of poopy underware trying to potty train our oldest son I could've bought twenty packages of pull-ups.

Don't stress, you have enough on your plate right now. Potty training can be on the back burner.

I agree with this.

[Gwendolyn]

Yes

(however pull-ups are Satan’s spawn! They really want to get as much of your money as they can as you are on your way out of the diaper aisle. HIJACK: They are nearly twice as expensive as diapers DS won't do diapers now, but he is not going on the potty regularly. They have helped up the ante for going potty, but have become a major expense.)

As a side note, I am really suprised that there is a three year old room that is requiring potty training. It kinda goes against nearly all child development thought...

however pull-ups are Satan’s spawn!

that is EXACTLY my take on them.

And Jenn - I agree w/the others who say that you both CLEARLY have a lot on your plate right now, and there is really no need to rush it.

I've got rid of pull ups as they were soaking up the wee even the feel and learn ones and way hay success, well nearly. Everytime he has a stinky windy that has to be done on the potty too, we are still having some accidents but persisting. pull ups hold poo and wee in them and he was too comfortable being dirty