Adventures in Potty Training

While the theory behind saving the most difficult for last is sound, the application of said theory is not always so simple.

I thought that potty-training a fifth child would be a breeze...there are so many examples for him to follow, I have done this four times before, etc. I thought wrong, very wrong. While we are having some success, it is being very hard! We started on Wednesday afternoon when our kindergartner left for school. No distractions, one-on-one attention, plenty of fluids, salty snacks, new Cars underwear, positive reinforcements...the whole caboodle!


He caught on quickly. We have had many successes...a few accidents, but overall things are going well. I just wasn't prepared for his little attitude...he is the first child I've potty-trained to have an accident out of spite, and also the first one to tell me that he doesn't want to be big. He loves to have false alarms (we run to the toilet and hop him on just to find out that he's not quite ready yet). He is also our only child who doesn't like praise. It has been hard to figure out the balance between encouraging his successes without making such a big deal that he doesn't want to keep trying. This is being quite a challenge!! Wish me lots of luck and even more patience!!