It seems like just two weekends ago potty training has finally clicked! I have been potty training Ethan for the past several months with moments of success followed by more moments of utter defeat. Sometimes I wonder if I make this attempt too early in my kids livea, but I honestly just get tired of diapers…followed by getting exhausted with what seems like never-ending days of accidents and wet underwear. Thus far, potty training is my least favorite part of mothering. (And, I suppose, if that’s the only challenge I ever have in motherhood I am doing very well!)
Potty training a boy has been different than a girl. As if I was not already aware of that, Ethan proved it tenfold last Sunday. Lately, he’s wanted to go to the church service with us which is fine unless Ed is on security duty because I simply cannot handle them both on my own. But as this was not one of those Sundays, we took him. About one song away from the sermon, he said he needed to go potty. Since I hadn’t taken him before the service, I believed him and Ed offered to take him. So, off they went and he did go.
The service continued, Emry happily coloring while I all but stood on my head trying to keep my wiggly son quiet and entertained. Just as the sermon was coming to an end, he told me he needed to go potty again. This is where the psychology behind potty training gets tricky. They have you over a barrel and you are reminded that they hold a lot of power during this period of their small lives if they’re smart enough to figure it out. Essentially, you can’t tell them no. So, not really sure he was telling me the truth, I picked him up and off we went to the women’s restroom.
He marches in, looking around, and states, “Mama, I want the heart potty.”
“Heart potty?” I echo, no clue as to what he is talking about. I open a stall. “Here, Ethan. Come in here.”
He comes, but he repeats, “Mama, I want the heart potty.”
I’m still not sure what he’s talking about, but the one advantage I do have in this portion of my parenting is that he’s tiny and I’m big so I can pull down his pants and pull-ups and place him on the potty. But he refuses to go.
“No, Mama! I want the heart potty!”
And light dawns. The urinal. Ed had taken him to the potty and must have let him use the urinal. Now that he had discovered that, a common potty was not going to suffice.
I couldn’t help it. I started laughing. There was no point at all trying to explain to him why a women’s restroom does not have urinals. And since he simply refused to go unless he had a “heart potty”, I set him back on the floor, pulled everything back into place and we went back to the sanctuary where I laughed and whispered to Ed my dilemma. So, he took him. And what do you know? He went. In the “heart potty”.
Although days of accidents still loom ahead, the truth is I can say Ethan is potty trained. After all, he proved he can go or not go as he pleases. And he’s given me a much desired rest in this potty training adventure. Since women’s restrooms do not have urinals, when we’re out Ed will have to take him!
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