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Ink Stained Kvetch
by Dwayna Wisdom
Here's what Rankles Me:
Potty Training Postponed until Teenage Years!
I know that sounds crazy, but if Disposable Diaper Manufacturers have their way:
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C The most wonderful thing happened as a side effect. I had a bigger grocery budget. I never had to spend another penny on Disposable Diapers. We never used Pull-Ups at all, there were no Large Size Toddler Diapers either. At least a year or more of Diaper Company Products were never used in our family. Disposable Diaper companies must spend millions in advertising designed to convince you that it is normal to postpone toilet training your child. They tell you you're too busy to do it, and after all there wouldn't be products for 3 year old kids if you weren't expected to use them. Further they intimate that if you don't use their products, you're "rushing" your child's development. But of course if you're just bound and determined to potty train your child, at least put them in their Pull-Up diapers for a year and teach them the Potty Dance! Give us a Break! If we can teach kids the potty dance, we can teach them to teach a dolly how to use the potty. The rest will follow! |
We'll all be wearing Dipes from birth to death. Take for instance the Potty Dance inventors. They show kids, dancing around in their pull-up dipes, kids who should have been potty trained years ago. I know whereof I speak. I successfully potty trained my daughter when she was 15 months old. I did it in one day. It was like magic and I did it by following the step by step instructions in a book I found in a used book store called, Toilet Training In Less Than A Day.
It was done completely without trauma or shaming or reminding. Never once did she get sentenced to sitting on the potty until "something" happened.
This book was originally published in 1974, I came across it in 1979 and used it in 1980. At first I was as skeptical as a new mom can be. I expected this to be a huge challenge, but it turned out so well I wanted to tell everyone. There are a couple of keys to the success of your effort. 1. Find a place to spend the whole day with your child, that is not home. This is especially true if you've tried and failed using other methods to potty train your child. In my case my mom taught school, so while she was away at work one day, *baby and I spent the day at her house. We made use of the family room, kitchen and downstairs bathroom. 2. You absolutely need to find a doll that wets. For boys I presume you'll want one that is anatomically correct so to speak. For us we opted for the 1.99 doll that wets that we picked up at a 5 and dime. 3. You'll need at least a quart of Apple Juice and some paper cups. Then you allow your child to spend the day teaching the dolly to make it to the potty before she pees. Simple enough, but sheer genius. In teaching the dolly she's teaching herself. While you reward her with apple juice each time she gets the dolly to the potty. That gives her plenty of chances to try it herself. My mom came home before we got to the final trial, and I was afraid that the whole day had been for naught. I was afraid that almost all the way through the book's suggested lessons wasn't going to be enough.
The book said to expect that the next day there would be one "accident" and then training would be complete and your child would have been trained in less than one day and all without trauma. Well the next day, I didn't expect to experience success, but I had put her to bed in her big girl panties anyway. Shortly after she arose, she had an "accident", on the way to the potty. I responded positively and encouragingly. I expected recurrences, but to my surprise, there were none. None at all. This very simple method had worked. This was truly a cause for rejoicing.
*I'm not suggesting that you potty train newborns, of course your child needs to be walking and talking.