ILX Parenting 5: I'm a big kid now

Got her to fall asleep without me there for a week straight, then tonight she actually finally used the potty, multiple times. WOOT!

Four times today while changing diapers I turned away for a brief moment and the kid pisses. Not like I turn back and catch him in the act, it's as if he squirted out an ounce or two instantaneously and is already lying in his own urine-soaked sleeper that I now have to change.

Yes! Stealth-pissing. Mine has been doing that too.

K has discovered the existence of genitals. Boy ran out naked so we had to explain what she saw. She is totally psyched about it. "Daddy guess what! I have a gina in my butt!"

My 5 yo asked yesterday: "are skeletons usually not alive?"

haha! both great.

my 6 years old wants to play "the naked game" with a friend's older sister

she does not want to play "the naked game" and he is crestfallen

Story of my life.

omg at all of this

loling at "gina in my butt"

for a while in the early potty training stages, my kid got confused and just called it her "front butt".

Ella very earnestly leant over to my wife at dinner the other night and asked, "Mummy, do you have a fuzzy bottom?"

^ inquiring minds want to know

Weaned, potty trained, can open doors and the fridge and the pantry so.... What are the next 16 years about? Because I'm feeling pretty obsolete.

a figure of fun?

she'll need you for encouragement, self-esteem, someone to play toys with for maybe the next 2-3 years.

my girl is starting to read, a couple years ahead of where her big brother was reading. she sounded out the words "star wars" to me last night, unprovoked. and about two weeks ago she told me she wanted to floss her own teeth.

She'll need you to operate the stove and drive her places. Also snuggles.

That's right! Reading and stove :) we still play together but now, more and more, whatever play, we always play with August being Mommy and I am August.

FWIW, K is three and not potty-trained and super resistant to it, any tips appreciated. The thing is we have had several successful days where she did use the potty multiple times, but then she always wants to go back to wearing the diaper. We get told "you can't push them, they have to be ready" so we don't force her, if she insists on the diaper she wears the diaper, but now it's starting to feel late.

We didn't get our kid fully potty-trained until right before she turned 4. And my bigger kid wore pull-ups at night until he was 5, I'm pretty sure. do you have a little potty chair or do you use the kind that fits over the grown-up toilet seat?

gamification

We've done the prize thing. Stickers. Chocolate. Isn't working atm, she's resisting.

Warmer weather can help, you can let them run around without any pants on

she no longer wants to, wants a diaper

I don't have advice but I am obviously keep on learning about this topic. Do you know why she wants a diaper?

Family lore has it that I potty trained myself by hanging out on my potty seat in the bathroom with my grandfather while he pooped and read, which is disgusting. But as an in-home exhibitionist who pees with the door open (and the mother of a child who prefers to keep her eyes on me at all times), Ivy has already had lots of opportunity to watch the big people potty in action so fingers crossed for when the time comes.

I mean it seems to me that she legit doesn't want to use the potty, but also doesn't want to pee or poop on herself, so she's smart enough to figure out that the other option is a diaper. She doesn't want to risk an accident but is against the potty. Why she's against the potty I don't completely understand -- one night recently she used it several times and seemed very pleased with herself, and then it was like it never happened.

we had plenty of accidents. I mean, wet underwear everyday. poop rolling down the leg and onto the floor. I remember that toward the end I bribed her with toob toys

poop rolling down the leg and onto the floor

I thought I had the whole borderline-clinical aversion to bodily effluvia under control after 15.5 months of being barfed, drooled, peed, and pooped on but NOPE still there.

I busted out the bumbo seat for the first time yesterday solely to sit the kid in the bathroom while I took care of some business.

xp: oh yeah. and especially since she was only consuming chocolate milk at the time, her poop was just all these little marbles. They'd come out of her pants cuff and she'd kick them all over the floor. Not fun.

it never ends - V's still having "accidents" on a semi-regular basis and she's 7. I dunno how common/uncommon this is but it seems to be entirely psychological, she's too busy/engaged w whatever she's doing and then oops pooped/peed her pants. so much fun.

our littlest is 8 and she still wears pull ups at night, and since she's #3 we don't care; eventually she'll get over that but it's so not worth stress that we might have felt with the earlier kids

Sometimes there's a little part of me that suspects we've overcorrected as a society for past problems by being not insistent at all when it comes to potty training. I have a hard time grasping why it's ok to insist when it comes to everything else, but not that.

It definitely happened a lot earlier when there were no disposables and washing was done by hand. Stet's gran had each of her five children potty trained by the age of one.

Holy shit that's early!

Has anybody ever tried those blogger mom "intensive three day potty training" tactics? Where you basically hunker down with your kid for three urine soaked days and at the end, the kid is potty trained (and you are committed for a two month rest cure, presumably)?

People I know have not had good results, or at least it doesn't work as advertised -- it may effectively START potty training but it doesn't get the job done.

We found this book to be useful, if your daughter likes reading:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51tyVNDzZQL._SX258_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

There is a boys version too

Our main problem now is getting her OFF the potty: she sits there with her toys and books and gets comfy and you have to crowbar her off after half an hour

Normal behavior.

I just read somewhere that potty training attempts too early are not going to be super productive because there is something that developmentally and physiologically needs to happen with the kid that before they can be trained. Think it was in a dr sears book, so yea however you feel about dr sears ( I generally like him)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bP0Uf3Shd0

I hate that this is about moms and not parents, because IME babies are equal opportunity about this stuff, but that aside, I am identifying strongly with this video. Especially the part about trying to pick up blocks while the baby is like *DUMP* because that happens a lot.

I feel kind of pandered to tbh but still, man, the blocks thing. Also the bath, then the food in the hair, then the bath again. And the clothes out of the dresser. All of it really except the dishwasher because our kitchen is too small to accommodate one adult, one toddler, and an open dishwasher at the same time.

there is currently a war going on over my wallet. i find loose change scattered around the house and pocket it. my kids later locate my wallet, liberate all the loose change, and we start over.

just wait til they learn how to use your credit card!

hate that fucking video. the reason she's not getting anything done is because some asshole is filming instead of HELPING

can you guys recommend some parenting blogs? my bff is getting totally neurotic reading garbage about how things never get easier and the defensively self-righteous tone of open letters to so-and-so or w/e -- it's making her miserable. she has a 16 mo old and a 6 week old. i feel like she has been pregnant for like 3 years.

I'm not sure it's quite what you're looking for, but the two I read most are Honest Toddler and Eeh Bah Mum.

thanks! i don't have any idea what i'm looking for -- i just want her to feel better, maybe get some larfs.