Potty training has been one big power struggle, with Cinderella. I was quite frustrated one day, and called my mom for advice. I couldn't get Cinderella to sit on the potty, and she refused to wear panties. If I put them on her she would just take them off. She didn't like getting wet, when she had an accident. So her solution was, just wear the pull-up. My mother suggested that I give her some control over something that didn't really matter. So our strategy became, if you don't sit on the potty, you have to wear panties. I know it is backward, but it has worked. She sits on the potty most times, and if she starts throwing a fit, I will ask her if she wants to wear panties. She usually agrees to sit on the potty. And she still wears pull-ups pretty much all the time.
Yesterday, I was taking the kids to Costco. As we were driving, Cinderella looked out the window and saw a school. She pointed to it and said, "I saw a house." I explained to her that it was a school. Then as we passed houses, I pointed them out and told her that they were houses. She pointed to an apartment and said it was a house. I told her it was an apartment. She said, "I don't like apartments." I then told her that we live in an apartment, and that apartments are just a bunch of houses stuck together.
When we were at Costco, she noticed the playground they had on sale there. She told me she wanted to play on it. I explained to her that they didn't want people to play on it. They want you to buy it and put it in your yard, and play with it. Right now we live in apartments so we don't have a yard. But when we get a house, we will have a yard, and maybe we can get a playground. Her response was, "When I am bigger, we can have a house, and I can play on a playground. But not when I am little."
Well later that night Cinderella commented to me that she doesn't wear underwear. I told her, that's right, but when you can go wet in the potty all the time, so your pants don't get wet, then you can wear underwear. She responded with, "I can wear underwear, when we have a house." I sure hope it doesn't take THAT long.
2 comments:
Hmm... maybe she has forgotten about the playground incident, but if not, maybe you can use it to your advantage? Point out to the fact that you have a playground by your apartment that she can play on... so she doesn't have to wait until you have a house to play on the playground... likewise, she doesn't have to wait until having a house to use the potty. Would it help to invite some of her potty-trained friends over on a regular basis? Then she can see that it's not just big people that use the potty. We're having a lot of the same struggles with our son as well... about 6 months younger than your daughter... eventually we'll figure out what works!
Don't you just love kids and their extremely strong opinions? Especially when they think that they are always right?
Post a Comment