Potty Training is a Nightmare

Well friends, we are at that time in life where potty training becomes a focal point of my parenting life. I *think* that Charlotte was trained by the time she was 3 – and I mean fully trained – underwear all the time, no pull-ups necessary even at night. While she was difficult with every other aspect of her young life, potty training seemed to be an easy accomplishment for her. I don’t remember doing anything special with her and it was like one day she just did it and never looked back.

Mackenzie is another story. Last week she decided she wanted to go to the bathroom on the toilet. This is it, I thought. We are going to do this! We’ve had a potty seat for ages that she’d look at but never want to use, but this day she was sitting on that training seat and peeing like a champ. She would go every time I put her on the bowl and even told me she had to go a few times! She even wanted to try and go to the bathroom in a public setting, which was the failure that may have led us to our current lack of accomplishment. I bought her pull-ups because she seems to hate the diapers now and I thought we’d be on the road to underwear just like her sister. But now she refuses to go or even sit on that damn Minnie training seat. “No peepee on the potty. No more peepee! I no do that! No thank you mommy!” She has lost ALL interest in it. I hate it because I am sooooo done with diapers and all that comes with it. My mom said Charlotte did something similar (I do not remember any of this because I think I mentally blocked out the ages of 0-3 with her) but I’m hoping maybe she has just a temporary loss of interest and will pick it up again soon? I am really not one of those people who can do that 3-day crash course of leaving the kid naked peeing all over the house. That is not me and will never be me. This is truly one of the worst parts of rearing young children if you ask me.

As of now I’m kind of just letting her dictate what she wants to do. I see no point in constantly putting her on a toilet she won’t go on, especially because we don’t have a bathroom on our first floor (thank you 100 year old houses) and my knees aren’t what they used to be for 25 stair sprints a day. I ask her if she wants to go, she tells me no thank you and we move along with our day. She won’t go for me or Eric or the babysitter. She’s done with it, and for now so am I. A slave to diapering I continue to be. Oh well.