Thursday, December 31, 2009

Parent training

Shortly after we adopted Beauty the wonder dog from the Oregon Humane Society we enrolled her in dog school for training. What we learned the first day is that the training really is more for the humans than the dog. She was a pretty well behaved dog to begin with, the training was so we could learn how to properly motivate her to listen to us. Anyway, it occurs to me that potty training is sort of the same. Henry pretty much knows what is expected of him and how to do it but it's my ability to help assist him that success or failure hinges on. If I press too hard, it makes the process too stressful or causes him to become stubborn. If I'm not observant enough, opportunities for victory are missed.

Today is day four of potty training. Since removing the diaper this morning - yes, he's still using them at night - Henry has not had an accident and he has pooped on the potty. Things that have worked include letting Huck run around the condo in the buff, tracking his pees and poops so I can anticipate when he might need to go and get him to the bathroom in time, staying close to home, reading books to help him relax when he's on the pot, and rewards (chocolate or a bit of candy cane and a sticker for his potty chart) for pees and poops done in the potty. And applause, plenty of applause. No negativity or punishment when things go wrong, like yesterday when I heard "oh no," from the living room and found Huck bent over his underwear, which he had been wearing but removed, that were filled with unpleasantness. Oh no, indeed, Bean.

4 comments:

MissMVK said...

Did Henry ever get scared once he had success on the potty? Piglet used to LOVE sitting on the potty, in fact he would beg me to let him sit there another minute or two every session. Then one day he peed and I all but threw him a parade. Since then he is terrified of the potty. He won't sit on it at all! We've decided not to push the issue since he's not even two quite yet. Thoughts? :)

Christie said...

Scared, no. Resistant to sitting on the potty, yes.

Thoughts? I wonder if buying a different color potty might help; then he'd no longer associate the bad potty experience with that specific potty. If P's open to explanatory conversations, you could explain that the current potty no longer comes with parades.

Cathy said...

That is awesome! Sounds like he's got it. For both of my boys pooping in the toilet was harder than getting them to pee.

You're absolutely right that it takes just as much training of the parent as the child. For me (did I say this already) - it's relaxing and letting him tell me when he has to go instead of constantly asking. Today I had Liam sitting on the toilet for three books because I knew he had to poop. He kept telling me no poop. Finally, we finished the books, he got up, went and played for I kid you not two minutes, then went into the bathroom to poop. All on his terms, it has to be. As it should be, I suppose, right?

Mary Jo said...

Awesome. You and Henry are waaaaay ahead of us in the potty world. But you've given me some encouragement to maybe, maybe try harder.