Six year olds have a way of cutting right to the point and asking whatever comes across their mind. While I was battling with Thing 3 one morning to change his Pull-Up and get dressed for preschool (a daily occurrence that I can count on as sure as the sun coming up), Thing 1 asked me “When will Thing 3 be potty trained?”
Ah, yes, when indeed. We have been engaged in potty training Thing 3 since the bootcamp back in July. We’re now well into October and while there has been definite progress since then, we are very far from declaring mission accomplished.
How much progress? He generally will go potty 3-4 times a day now at preschool. Except when he decides he doesn’t want to for whatever reason. What reasons could he have for wanting to be in a wet Pull-Up when he knows how to use the potty? This is Thing 3, remember. It might be the wrong day of the week, or he could be wearing the wrong color shirt, or he might not like how the teacher asked him, or he may have heard a sound he doesn’t like. At home, he still wants no part of the potty except the last few nights he has gone just before bed like his brothers. Oh yeah, he still has yet to poop in a potty, preferring to do his business in the Pull-Ups.
It’s one step forward, two steps back.? Sometimes I think Thing 4 may be potty trained before her brother even with the nearly 3 year head start.
Disclosure: I get paid as a Pull-Ups Potty Training Partner.
Once every two weeks or so we get DS (same age as Thing 3) to poop on the potty. That is because we see him hiding and telling us to go away, so we know he is pooping. Sometimes we can convince him to use the potty.
He is OK at daycare, not great, but OK. They have set times when they go.
We do the sticker thing (10 stickers = reward), bought big boy underwear, you name it.
We are also wary about pushing it too hard, because we did that with DD and she had potty issues up until recently (age 6).
We are with you. We understand.