Woes of Potty Training

I have long been absent from the blog because I have been potty training.

Oh potty training.

Why does no one talk about how horrible this part of parenting is?  I feel like it's a secret that everyone kept from me until it was too late and I already had offspring.

I was ready to do it when I came back from Christmas vacation, having read a book called Toilet Training in Less Than a Day.  I wanted to have the big picture in my head before I started giving out Starburst and Nilla Wafers willy-nilly.  Well...the book gave me the big picture but was also a huge source of discouragement.  My mom said she used it to potty train me (and I really was potty trained in a day, but apparently that didn't get passed down in the genes to my kids), but she couldn't remember much about it.  My mother-in-law also used it with her kids.  Just to be clear, Mom, this is in no way a poor reflection on you, and I in no way hold you responsible.  The book was a bit laughable since it was first published in the '70s.  Quite politically incorrect by referring to "retarded children" and containing illustrations of women in their house dresses and aprons with the fathers in leisure suits and handlebar mustaches.  But there were quite a few ideas that I liked from the book.

1. The positive reinforcement given shamelessly with candy and sugary drinks that kids love (since you're trying to get them to drink a lot so they wet a lot and learn where it goes) every time you do a dry pants check.
2.  The positive reinforcement for carrying out every action of going to the bathroom.  (i.e. pulling up and down pants, sitting quietly on the potty, emptying the pot into the toilet, replacing the pot, flushing the toilet, and washing hands.)
3.  The gradual weaning of children from treats and praise for going to the bathroom.  (Good in theory, but we haven't reached this point yet.)
4. The consequence for having an accident.  (Practicing the motions of toileting ten times quickly with their wet pants from different locations in the house, then wiping up their own accident and changing their own underwear.)  E really didn't like this, but it was effective because the consequence directly related to having an accident.
5.  Starting out by having the child teach a doll to potty herself.

I think he's really getting the hang of it now, but there have been countless frustrations along the way.  It has pushed the limits of my patience and made me crazy and worn out.  But he knows how to go in the toilet and is so thrilled with himself now that he does.  Yay.  I look like a total maniac as I over-the-top praise him for his small offerings of urine and the other, but it's ok.  I'm a mom now and I have zero pride anymore when it comes to this.
I was thinking before I started how wonderful it would be to only have to buy diapers for one child...and then I realized that Pull-Ups are just as expensive as diapers and we'll be buying those for a little while since he wears them at bedtime and naptime.  But we're on our way.

And Sammi can either choose to be in diapers until she's 7 or she can be potty trained in a day.  Her choice if she wants to be favorite.  The end.