That is the real question.
Recently, my husband and I decided it was time. Time for potty training.
Around Christmas, I bought a little potty for Josie on a whim. I got her a very cute potty book, A Potty For Me by Karen Katz, one of her favorite authors. I bought her nine pairs of Gerber training pants for her Christmas stocking. Made her a sticker chart. Read everything I could find online about potty training. I was motivated. Nervous, but motivated. She had begun telling us when she had a dirty diaper (though not when she had a wet diaper), and I was ready to face the challenges potty training brings. After all, Josie was two and a half, around the time most kids start. She was interested in the potty, and she catches on to new things quickly. We were ready. Right?
Mm, not so much. Things started out alright. She was fine with the underwear, fine with sitting on the potty, and she LOVED the book. We had her sit on the potty first thing in the morning, then right into her underwear for the day. The plan was to sit her on the potty every 30 minutes to an hour to have her "try." Eventually, she would go in the potty, she'd get a sticker, she'd be thrilled and would want to do it again and again. She'd start telling us she had to go before actually going, we'd calmly head to the bathroom each time and we'd be well underway. Solid plan.
But as the saying goes, we make plans and God laughs.
Josie was cool with sitting on the potty, even several times a day. We'd read her book on the potty, sing songs, talk about colors and shapes, name things we saw in the bathroom. We'd sit and sit and sit. And nothing. would. happen. Then, late in the first day, a miracle: she stood up, and the potty was a tiny bit wet! It is supposed to play a little song when she goes, but it wasn't enough for the potty to even register that there was anything there. I shook it until the song played, made a massive deal of it -- to the point where I felt like a freak, but it was worth it to see her broad smile and little dimples. She got a sticker for her sticker chart, and I even gave her a bonus sticker to wear on her hand. She told Daddy and he acted wildly ecstatic too. We were both thinking, YES. This is it, we're cooking now! The beginning of the end of diapers for Josie!
Well, long story short, over 5 days time, she never went in the potty again. What she DID do was pee in her pants and cheerfully tell us, "Pants wet, change pants? Nice, different pants?" While it was clear she didn't want to hang out in her wet pants, she didn't seem bothered in the least by the process. After 3 days of this, Dan and I began worrying that this was what she thought we were training her to do. To pee in her pants and then tell us. She was VERY successful at this. I dare say she was becoming proud of this accomplishment.
So, after another day or two, some discussion between us and some consult with my sister (who has trained two girls of her own), we decided maybe she wasn't 100% ready after all. While she was enthusiastic about the potty, she didn't seem to be aware of the feeling she had to go before going, and I suppose that is pretty key in toilet training. We made the tough decision to go back to diapers (which was totally cool with her, by the way - maybe another sign she didn't quite get it) and figured we'd try again in a month or so, or whenever her readiness has increased.
So, the downside is we are still very active Pampers customers. The upside is that I don't have to worry about clothing changes and wet store floors, extra laundry and setting timers to remind us to try to potty. For a while, anyway!
