Guess who’s potty trained now!

Fighter is two years and eight months old (adjusted age 2 years 6 months)

After he turned two I actually attempted potty training him.

Like any self respecting twenty first century mother, I googled it first, naturally.  Found out from Baby Center that a kid has to be ready in three aspects before potty training could be successful.

1 Physically ready – able to hold pee ie fewer wet diapers, poops at relatively regular times,

2 Behaviourally ready – shows a wish to please, enjoys praise; demonstrates a desire for independence; discomfort when diaper is dirty

3 Cognitively ready – can understand simple instructions like “do you need to pee?”

At two years I thought Fighter might be ready.  He definitely understood “pee” and “poop” and simple questions and instructions.  He also seemed to be pooping at regular times and I definitely knew when he was doing it cos he’d go to a corner, grab on to some furniture and tell me to go away wtf.

So I got ready.  I went out and bought a potty from IKEA.  Went to Cotton On Kids and purchased pairs of what are his first underpants.  Brought them home and brandished them to him.

Me: “Look! Mommy got you underpants like a big boy!  You have to wear them ok? No more diapers.  When you want to pee, tell mommy and we’ll go in the potty.”

Fighter: “Ooh. Jude wear.”

They say you just have to go cold turkey, remove their diapers, put on their underwear (while making them feel proud of wearing big boy/girl pants) and then just hope for the best!  Ask them every fifteen minutes if they have to go, and be quick about it because they can’t hold it that long yet.

Some people say to prepare stickers as a reward for going correctly but I didn’t want to do that.  Number one, I don’t believe in petty rewards for what is their own pride and success, not mine.  Being independent and doing it right should be reward itself right!? #asianmom. Number two, I was too lazy to go buy stickers HAHAHAHA.

It was a complete disaster wtf.

Fighter would NOT tell us when he wanted to go.  When I placed him on the potty, he would sit there for ages, not going.  Then the minute he got up from the potty, he’d pee all over his legs and the floor.  Our poor helper was spending her life mopping the floor for those three days!

I realized he wasn’t even peeing a gush of pee each time.  Each time would be a little dribble, which got me thinking – maybe he wasn’t even physically ready for potty training.

I was super sien of forever stepping on pee puddles already by the third day so I aborted mission wtf. I figured Fighter wasn’t near ready yet and I wasn’t going to stress any of us out by prematurely potty training him.

And I bought more diapers wtf.

But a month or two back, Fighter’s class teacher told me she thought he was ready.

(Yes Fighter’s school does potty training!  Well worth the fees hahaahaha.  I know some preschools don’t accept kids who are still in diapers but ours does and they are really good at leading the training especially if it’s a noob parent who doesn’t know what she’s doing cough me cough.)

Fighter’s teacher said Fighter wanted to follow to the toilet every time his BFF Chase (who’s already potty trained) went for toilet breaks.  She thought he was ready. I was like uhh if you say so teacher.  You have to clean up pee puddles not me WTF.

On the day he started potty training, I packed five pairs of training underpants for him and a couple of diapers.  And a change of clothes.

When I came to pick him up, he wasn’t even wearing his change of clothes WTF.  He was wearing some spare uniform the school kept for emergencies because he peed in his pants THREE TIMES.

The teacher who’s normally very optimistic came out of the classroom looking frazzled. “If he doesn’t get it by this week, it’s okay.  We’ll try again some other time.”

She so pessimistic by first day means Fighter is damn bad la!!! FOL hahahahaha.

On the second day, he had FOUR accidents. :X  I packed two suits of clothes for him and he still came home wearing school’s spare pants.

But the teacher was optimistic!  Apparently on the first day, Fighter didn’t even seem to notice the pee running down his legs wtf.  On the second day, although he had 4 accidents, he showed discomfort at being wet and dirty so that was an improvement.

On the second day though, I got him home and asked if he wanted to pee.  He said yes and actually successfully peed in the potty!

On the third day, he had NO accidents.  The teacher had found out for some weird reason, Fighter was reluctant to pee standing up, but had no issues peeing on the toilet bowl.   He was also very good at holding his pee already!

For the rest of the week, he had no accidents. And he got a certificate from his class teacher announcing that he was “a star for having three days with no accidents” hahahaha.  Not like he can read la so don’t know how proud he was exactly wtf.

We started potty training on Tuesday and today is Saturday.  We went out for dinner and I was worried he’d pee and put a pull up on him.  When we were heading home, he suddenly told me “I want to pee, Mommy.”  I was in a rush to get home so I told him to just do it since he had his diaper on.

When we got home, I asked him if he still needed to pee and he said yes.  Let him do it in the potty and he peed a lot wtf.  His diaper was dry!  Which meant he actually held it in the whole trip home (maybe ten minutes) yay!!!

So there’s that.  Potty training was a big success for us!  But only because I think we waited until he was completely ready – his muscles are strong enough to hold his pee, he can communicate his needs to us and understand instruction.  And most of all, he was mentally ready.

I do think that the first time we tried, he was just not ready to start.  I knew he understood and he could speak by then but he just flat out refused to tell us when he needed to pee.  Only after he saw his friends going to the toilet did he suddenly decide to be independent wtf.  #peerpressure

Last poop anecdote!

Last night he wanted to poop and his potty was downstairs so we placed him on the toilet bowl. 

He seemed a bit unsure although he did do a poop wtf.

So to reassure him, I showed him the poop in the water before I flushed it.

Me: “Bye bye pang sai!”

Fighter: “Babai!” *waves hand*

Me: *presses flush handle*

Fighter: *watching poop flush* “See you later!”

Me: “…..”

Fighter: “Sorry pang sai.”