To stand or not to stand.....

I did as much research as I could on the whole how to potty train your child. Am I suppose to teach him to sit? Stand? How do you teach a boy to stand when you don't have the same equiptment parts? What am I suppose to do with it just being me? Will he sit for the rest of his life if I potty train him sitting? After reading article after article, they suggest that you start boys off sitting because they may have a bowel movement while they are urinating. Uh ok....GREAT! I asked friends, coworkers and family on what do to....and each person's way was the "best" way to do it...hahahaha.

My bright idea during the vacation I had almost a month ago was to potty train bug, I figured what better way then to have over 7 days focused on learning to use the potty and get away from the diapers......I knew it wasn't going to be an easy task, however I didn't realize it was going to be so difficult. I mean some people can get their children potty trained in days. I figured that if we stayed home for most of the vacation and didn't do anything but run around the house naked it would work....or so I thought.

First off, my son doesn't like, and never has liked, to run around the house naked. He actually has a fit and needs to be dressed....guess I won't have to worry about him streaking when he gets older. So I ended up just taking off his diaper and having him go "comando". The first day, I was bugging checking in with him every 2 minutes or so. I will admit I was getting annoyed with hearing my voice say "Cam do you have to go peepee?" But I honestly just wanted to keep reminding him he didn't have on a diaper. I had the little potty seat out in the living room so if he had to go last minute there was no issue. YUP big waste of money that didnt go over so well. First he refused to sit on it, when he sit on it he kept complaining that it hurt his bum....my poor baby. So I brought him into the bathroom and put him on the potty while holding him...that didn't go over well either. He cried and was scared of the big open hole of water. No accidents for the whole morning.......my child is going to het this and be potty trained before he goes back to daycare, YIPPEE, is what was going thru my head. During his tub that night I noticed he was getting ready to have a bowel movement, so I grabbed him out of the tub and put him on the potty where he actually went. I was so proud of him, jumped up and down, clapped, let him pick a "prize" for going on the potty. We are so on the right track and he is definitly going to be potty trained in no time.....or so I thought.

The next day I decided I would have him run around "comando" again, except this time I would NOT keep BUGGING asking him to go potty I would periodically take him in the bathroom and have him try. Yup this is going to work out perfectly. In we go to the bathroom for one of the breaks and he tinkled on the potty....yes this is going amazingly easy. So I praise him, pull up his pants and off we go to the living room again. 5 minutes later as I am emtpying the dishwasher with my helper, a flood is pouring down his legs....man this isn't going so well. So I tell him it is okay, it was just an accident and that when we need to go pee we go on the potty. Change his wet clothes and start all over. Another bathroom break and he tinkles again on the potty...yes! YUP you guessed it, 5 minutes later while standing in front of the side door my son is standing in yet another puddle. It is okay Camdon, it was an accident but next time you need to go pee you need to go on the potty (and I bring him in to show him yet again where it is located).....so not our day for potty training but there is always tomorrow let's go do something during our vacation.

The very next day Camdon had no interest in being "comando" so I didn't push the issue. We went about our day and I mentioned using the potty a few time thru out the day. The very next day after that was the same thing. I was getting discouraged and didn't know what to do. Offering rewards wasn't going anyplace, praising him didn't seem to be working....so what do I do now?

Well I just kept mentioning it to him. I got a seat (CARS themed) that goes on the big potty since he seemed to want to use the real potty and not the potty chair. it had the potty shield for boys, because after you have them sit on the potty once you will realize that when a boy pee's his pee doesn't just automatically go down, it acutally goes up like a water fountain. The first couple of days it worked great, however for some reason bug kept saying it hurt. When I asked him what hurt I realized the shield was doing more harm to him then it was any good. I took it off and he has been a happy clam.

So last night we went up to my nephew's Tball game and had a sleep over up there. When we got home all the boys were getting ready for showers/tubs. Camdon's turn came, so I told him we were going to use the potty chair that aunty and cousins had (construction truck one). He saw my youngest nephew standing up to pee and firmly told me he wanted to stand up. I was so nervous.....nervous he wasn't going to make it in the potty, nervous he was going to fall, just nervous it was going to be a mess. Surprisingly enough.....he pee'd standing up like a pro and that is how we have been going since then. He is so proud of himself for doing it this way and it seems to be working out for him

So my whole goal of getting this done in a few days thought that this potty training thing was going to be easy and quick, was thrown out the window within the first few days. It is going to be a timely thing and all I need is patience with it. I was afraid nervous to be teaching a boy to use the potty, but I have learned that I can do this without a man in our lives. I have attempted yet one more thing as a single mom and we will be able to get thru this together.

In the end I guess it doesn't matter if he learns to sit or stand.....the first step is to learn to go in the potty. The second step is to learn to keep going in the potty and not in diapers/pull ups/underwear/pants. The third step is do learn to stand if he isn't already standing at that point. I mean there isn't any one in college still wearing diapers, right?