Thoughts on potty training

So Raya  has  swimming  lessons this  week--every day for  30 minutes--her  first "lessons" ever! We leave in awhile so I'm  sure  I'll post  tomorrow about how she does :-)

But now I'm  left with trying to think of something to  post...and since  lately I've posted a lot of pictures I  thought t oday I'd bore you all  in a different w ay---with my thoughts on potty training haha.

First off, every kid is different  (blah  blah blah ;-) and some people potty trained their 12 month old  in an hour  and some people have 5 year olds in pull  ups (thinking extremes here!). But  in general  I think the  first  societal  push for potty training is usually around 18 months old.  And  with Brielle  being 18 months I'm seeing  the potty training debate, tips and tricks, success and horror stories, pop up everywhere on the blogs and message boards I read.

So  without further  ado, here  is  why Brielle has  never sat on a potty and will  not do so for quite some time yet! :-)

With Raya I jumped on the bandwagon early. I  bought  her  a potty chair at like 9 months old, she peed in it  every night before her  bath,  I was  excited  and thought I  had a potty training genius, etc. etc.  I  tried to officially potty train at 18 months and again at age 2 with no real  success.  However I have realized  that  people  often  define "success" differently, so let  me  explain.

Each  time I tried to  potty train Raya she  would go when I took  her for  the most part.  She  was  never scared of the potty and would always pee (we had more  trouble  with poop haha).  However in my  mind a child  is potty trained when the following things  are met:
1) They  can tell you when they need to go *without* reminders and/or scheduled potty breaks. If I  need to constantly  remind or have a stinkin' excel spreadsheet of sheduled potty breaks in the day then  I feel like I"m training myself, not the kid. Raya did  great when  I took  her  regularly, but  if  I got  busy with my  day and forgot, then we'd have some accidents. This  was frustrating!
2) They can  pull down  their pants, get on the potty, and go independantly! If I have to take them  to  the  potty, pull down their pants, put them on the potty, and wait while they go, then am I really gaining anything? I  mean, certainly I'm  not going to force a willing child to use a diaper if t hey are  ready...and I know some 18 month olds *are* ready....but  many times I think  parents jump on the potty training bandwagon simply to avoid diapers. And  let  me tell  you, I think diapers are easier in many ways! I can change a diaper in 20 seconds flat. Time me as I try to help a toddler on the potty, wait, wipe, and  then start the god forsaken hand washing (which is  always a wet and messy ordeal!)....and suddenly my potty trained kid takes 50 thousand times longer  than a quick  diaper change.
***I  do  still  help wipe  though, even now that  Raya  is potty trained....which I  think  is expected  for hygeine purposes....but just throwing out there that  you will  not  avoid wiping poop, even after potty training :-P
3) They can "hold it" in public for  extended periods  of time.  (I'm sorry,  but  I'm  not  keeping  a potty in my trunk, I'm not carrying a potty seat  in my purse,  and I'm not stopping at every store so that  my 18 month old can pee on a 15 minute timeline! haha. When they  can  hold it 2 hours, then we're talking.)

So  when  I  look  at  *my* definition of being  potty trained  I can tell  you that Brielle is not even close on any of the above. Maybe  it's  partially  because  she's  my last baby,  but she's still  a baby! I can't even imagine her  short little  arms pulling  down her own pants  to go potty haha. I  plan to reevaluate when  she's 2, but  I"m predicting that we'll  potty train around 2.5 years like we eventually did with  Raya.

And let  me just  say, when Raya was 2.5 years she was 100% ready! She potty trained in less than a day...it  was soooo easy! (Need I remind you all  about when I attempted training her  at age 2 and I  caught a turd in my  bare hands?!)  So yeah, when I sat  back  and waited for  her  to be r eady then potty training was  the absolute easiest thing ever. 

....and maybe  I"m  in the minority, but Lee and I  bicker all the time about who has to answer  the  call  of Raya's "I'm dooooooooooooone! Come wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiipe me!" ....which always  seems to come  during dinner, when I'm  in the shower, in the  middle  of cooking dinner, etc.....many times  we've said "man, diapers were so easy!" haha.