As I’ve talked about a few times on here, and a lot of times via our other social media platforms (Instagram, mostly), we’ve taken a pretty lax approach to potty training. It’s not that we want Finn to be in diapers forever. It’s just that on our list of priorities, making sure Finn is potty trained sooner rather than later has ranked pretty low.
Our pediatrician encouraged this approach, saying that there’s no rush, and that allowing him to potty train socially–by copying what everyone else in his daycare class is doing–would be easier on him than having to do some sort of boot-camp method, which we’ve wanted to avoid.
So, about 6 weeks ago, daycare asked us to start bringing some “big boy underwear” to school, and they said they were going to encourage him to begin wearing them during the day and using the potty, at least to go pee pee. A few days into that, his teachers told us he’d been doing so well and picking it up really quickly. So, we felt pressured to keep it up at home.
But, of course, we really didn’t. We kept his potty out and asked regularly whether or not he wanted to use it, but that was about it.
Then, earlier this week, he came home in his big boy underwear, and we just decided not to put a diaper on him. A few minutes later, he told us he needed to use the potty, and just like that, we got up on his stool, pulled his pants down, and peed on the potty–just like he’d always done it.
We made a big deal of it, celebrating his achievement, and Mimi and Pops sent him a “pee pee present.” I also gave him a little piece of chocolate, which he loved, and that motivated him to pee on the potty 3 more times that night. Each time, I gave him a little piece of chocolate.
The next day, I ran out and got him a jar of M&Ms, which is what my mom used to potty train me. I told him he gets 1 M&M when he pees and 3 M&Ms when he poops. This is him, sitting for a long time on the toilet, trying to poop. (He didn’t, actually, but he tried.) He’s counting out how many chocolates he’s going to get, trying to hold up 3 fingers.
He still hasn’t pooped on the potty, and we still are being pretty casual about it, but when he’s home, he’s in big boy underwear (unless he’s sleeping), and we’re letting him lead the way. Our plan all along was to let Finn potty train when he’s ready, and he seems to be doing just that.
