About 2 months ago I signed Mike and I up for a "Love & Logic" parenting class. Its based on a best selling book, and the local rec center was offering it for any couples out there that wanted to learn more. I like to take extra curricular classes to keep myself busy and I was curious so I signed us up. There were tons of young couples in the class, all with kids under the age of 6. During the course the teacher said something about potty training that struck a chord with me. She said "If you have a child that won't potty train.....99% of the time it is not a medical condition or health problem. Its a control problem". Basically, your child is hanging onto this control in his life because he's not getting enough of it in other areas of his life. Yeah, that kinda stung.
So if this was Emmett's problem, Mike and I decided we were going to try really hard to give Emmett more control of his life. So for the next few weeks we starting saying things like: "Would you like to wear the red shirt or the blue shirt today?" or "Would you like to eat a banana or an apple?" Simple little things in his day to day life that let him feel in control. (Not big issues like safety, or kindness that aren't questionable). It went great and we still do it all the time.
A couple of weeks ago, Mike and I decided to take the chance and try big boy underwear again. (The last time we tried it was in December). But when we approached him about it, we told him that he had the choice if he wanted to do it or not. We pointed out all the wonderful, amazing perks he would get by wearing big boy underwear, and told him all the awful things about wearing Pull Ups. He cried at first because he was afraid of the change, but in the end he happily chose to put the underwear on. Over the next day I kept telling him if he didn't want to poop in the potty he could ask me for a Pull Up and I would give him one, and that he could choose if he wanted to poop in the potty or not, but that we do NOT poop in our underwear. Soon after, with no coaxing or nagging from me, he walked in the bathroom all on his own and pooped in the potty. I wanted to cry I was so happy. Its been 3 weeks and he's been great ever since. Moral of Emmett's story: it just had to be his choice, and his choice alone. No punishment or reward could do it. If I took anything away from that class, it was finally being able to potty train this stubborn, but cute little boy.
 |
| Emmett wearing a T-shirt I gave Mike as a gag gift for his birthday last year. I thought it was rather fitting. |
