MOM-ents: This Ain't No Potty

I have a confession to make.  I really don’t feel like potty training my kid.  And she’s almost three.  And I blame my mother. 

When the weather was getting nicer last year, I thought it was a good time to start working on Ryann to get her to use the “big-girl potty” and she wasn’t really interested.  My mom (who has seven kids) wisely told me not to rush or try to force it; she would go when she was ready to.  Then with a new baby coming, I thought it actually would be better for Ryann still to be in diapers since I wouldn’t be able to drop everything to get her to a toilet.  And it seems like ever since then, something always comes up that keeps me from really pushing her.

This week, I am off work and thought I would work on it again.  We’ve talked about it, she has the panties, stickers, M&M's, potty seat, baby potty, potty books, dangling carrot (she can’t go to preschool in the fall unless potty trained) and then so many bribes and promises that I can’t keep track of them all (among them are any toy she wants from Toys"R"Us, the deed to our house and a million dollars). 

But we may want to go to the zoo this week and drive out to West Bloomfield to see daddy at work and do some shopping and all of those things are easier without having to stop and use a public (barf) restroom.  So when I asked Ryann if she wanted to try wearing big-girl underwear this week and she said, “No thank you, maybe next year,” it almost came as a relief. 

It does not help that I read all of these mommy blogs that talk about the various methods of potty training and then different moms comment on their effectiveness.  I want Ryann to be potty trained in a week, tops.  If that means she will be three and a half when she is trained, so be it.  I have no interest in cleaning up “accidents” for months on end (people seriously do that).  I also can’t imagine taking her to the potty every 20 minutes for any amount of days and I sure as heck can’t be trusted to let her run around naked while I wait to see the first signs of pee and whisk her off to the bathroom. 

Her two best girlfriends were trained within a week–they just decided to start going on the potty and did it.  So I am waiting on her to let me know while keeping my fingers crossed that she doesn’t remember all these promises that I have made for when she does go.  Here’s hoping that I won’t be writing a freak-out column in August because preschool starts in September and she needs to be potty trained. 

Then again, there is always next year.