Thursday, April 16, 2009

Help!

As most of you know, my Samantha is not yet potty trained.  She's going to be 4 in less than two weeks.  I have tried to potty train her off and on for a long while now.  The biggest problem is that she doesn't care.  She doesn't care if she has an accident.  If we don't have her in Pull-ups and she has an accident, she doesn't tell me.  She just doesn't care.  Also, if she goes in a Pull-up, she is equally uncaring.  

We have tried bribing her with everything we can possibly think of.  She gets excited about what we will give her, but when asked if she'll go on the potty, she simply says no.  

I was just reading an article on potty training, and they said that if they're not potty trained at this age and they won't go that it's a discipline issue.  I can understand that, and I know she is "ready" but not willing.  She is being stubborn.  

All the stuff on potty training says that you're not supposed to punish for accidents and such, and also not to force them to sit on the potty.  So how do I deal with the discipline issue, without making her not want to go potty even more?  She is a well behaved girl, that does listen when we ask her to do something.  And even is she does agree to sit on the potty, she won't "go" in it.  

Please help.  If anyone has any helpful suggestions I would appreciate it.  

2 comments:

Ice Cream Lady said...

Hey there,
Just wanted to encourage you. Keep looking at this challenge you're facing with S through time travel eyes. She WILL get this eventually. She will be a beautiful, poised, and classy 20 year old some day, who is not wearing depends!!! FOR SURE!!!

In my mind there is nothing wrong with just taking a break from it when you are feeling discouraged. I know you want her to succeed soon, but she will succeed eventually. There is a time and season for everything, it just may not happen on your prefered schedule.

What if you just wait (use pull ups for the time being) until R is ready to start training? If S see's her baby sister achieveing this goal, maybe she will be more motiviated to try too. I know that sounds like a lot more days of diapers, but maybe it would be a break from the frustration of accidents and training.

I'm not much help.
You should know that it took D a whole year to potty train, and it's looking like it will be the same for M. I thought she had it down, but nope I caught her standing in front of the toilet pooping on my bath mat yesterday!!! Also, D had an accident just last night.
So glad I now have a washing machine! Even when I say my kids are "trained" they are still learning and having accidents.

Good luck,
Keep your chin up.

Ice Cream Lady said...

http://mamamanifesto.blogspot.com/2009/04/i-wish-this-picture-was-full-of-crap.html

You are not alone!