Today’s Enterprise

Normally my days are split into what seems like a hundred different activities. So it seems rather odd to me to look back on my day and realize that it was almost entirely consumed by one major project: potty training. I’m not writing this to crow about my success – since I haven’t succeeded yet. In fact, it didn’t go nearly as well as I had hoped. But it was a start, and considering where we began, I suppose where we ended up was pretty good.\par
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When I was over at my friend Alice’s the other day she sent her son, who is\’c3\’82\’c2\~half a year older\’c3\’82\’c2\~than Judah,\’c3\’82\’c2\~to the potty a couple of times, so I asked her how she had toilet trained him. She uses the method in a book called Toilet Training In Less Than\’c3\’82\’c2\~A Day by Nathan H. Azrin and Richard M. Foxx. I promptly borrowed the book and later borrowed some supplies.\par
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What I remember of the potty training of my younger siblings is that they got potty treats for their various accomplishments. Period. That’s all I remember. So I was pretty enthused by a book that had a minute by minute guide and at least claimed to wrap up the training in a single morning.\par
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The idea is that you spend an entire morning concentrating on potty training. First you have your child “train” a doll (a doll that wets – borrowed from Alice) to use the potty, complete with the procedure for “wet pants.” Then, after the child understands all of the steps in toileting you train him using the same general procedure as for the doll and rewarding his every right move\’c3\’82\’c2\~with praise, hugs, snacks, and drinks. (the snacks and drinks serve a double purpose, you might say) The most intriguing part of the method is that after an accident the child is required to practice walking rapidly to the potty, sitting, and standing again 10 times, and then is asked whether he’s got wet pants and told how everybody he knows doesn’t like wet pants 10 times. You basically talk at him all of the time, between potty trials.\par
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Well… it didn’t take just the morning – it took all day, and I really can’t say that it’s done. But we’ve made progress. Training the doll went great – except for a few technical difficulties (the doll has a tendency to wet before you planned, if you’re not very careful). Inducing him to sit on the potty the first time in the morning and then the first time in the afternoon inspired a tantrum/fit on the scale of the ones he throws when we leave him with strangers. (not that we do that often) He acted as if I was leaving him on the edge of the Grand Canyon! Both times, not apparently in response to anything I said or did,\’c3\’82\’c2\~he just quit fighting it and became a willing participant. Very strange – but I was thankful!\’c3\’82\’c2\~\’c3\’82\’c2\~That was OK, but most of the day was very frustrating with him going through 6 training pants in the morning and then 3 or 4 in the afternoon. He wet his pants almost every hour for 3 or 4 hours in a row this afternoon.. the last time he had been sitting on the potty not 5 minutes before and I had just asked him if he needed to go within three seconds of the accident!\par
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But after dinner we seemed to have a breakthrough! I sent him to the potty right after dinner and he ‘tinkled’ almost right away. Then he disposed of the contents of the pot in the big potty (the part of the process he most relishes) and proceeded to use it again about 4 times in the next hour! And a couple of those times I didn’t even remind him to! So that made me feel like the whole day had not been a complete waste. Hopefully we can start where we left off tomorrow morning and maybe he’ll be able to develop better control, now that he’s thinking about it? We’ll see.