Third Time the Charm?

Monday  in the early morning  Mystie

Jaeger asked on Thursday to be potty-trained. He seemed quite confident that he could keep underwear dry and use the bathroom. We tried when he was 2 1/2 and we tried again when he had just turned three. I might have been able to become Mommy-trained when he was three, but he wasn’t self-aware enough to become potty trained himself. And I’m just not into being Mommy-trained and pestering and watching and waiting and cleaning. So we waited.

I wasn’t going to attempt potty-training until Matt graduates and returns, even though that would be only a few months from Jaeger’s fourth birthday. But when an almost 3-1/2-year-old, who has been going through a maturity-spurt and longs for validation that he is a big boy, *asks* — even *pleads* — to be potty-trained, what can I do?

Consume more coffee and buy M&Ms.

We are into the second hour of potty-training this morning and — drum-roll — Jaeger has kept dry! The timer goes off every ten minutes and our routine is potty, wash hands, drink apple juice, have one M&M for using the potty and one for being dry (and one for Hans and Mommy for our encouragement efforts), and then set the timer again. He has used the bathroom each ten minutes and has kept dry, as well. Phew!

And Hans just came down from using the restroom and tried bragging about his dry underwear. His sympathetic mother responded, “Well, I should hope so; you are five years old. No, you don’t get candy for dry underwear.”

So, I’m thinking that from now on I’m not even going to bother initiating the potty-training ordeal. When they can communicate that they want to, it’ll go a whole lot faster and easier! :)

This afternoon we’ll graduate to fifteen or twenty minute increments while still pushing loads of juice. Tomorrow we’ll try thirty minutes without juice or incentives. And, if that goes well, we’ll attempt play group on Wednesday. :)

So far, it’s not been stressful. He’s old enough to get it without loads of forced enthusiasm. A sincerely stated “Oh Jaeger, I am so proud of you!” or “I knew you could do it! You really are a big guy.” and then getting on with the day is most meaningful for him. So if this works and takes, then perhaps it will end up making life easier. One or two fewer icky diapers a day is a perk in my book.

This entry was posted on Monday, September 29th, 2008 at 9:28 am and is filed under Lady of the House, Mother. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.