But it has been almost three weeks now, so I think we are in the clear.
Drum roll please ......
I am proud to announce that the Gray family is officially ..... DIAPER FREE!!!!
(Thought I was gonna say something else for a second there didn't ya? Probably scared a couple of you - including my husband!)
Hey, being diaper free is no small thing. We have been buying and changing (and buying and changing) diapers and pull-ups for seven and a half years now. That's a long time. Sometimes I thought we were never going to get there. Many times in fact. While I was assured by every parent with older kids I met that "it will happen," and "they won't go to college wearing diapers," I wasn't so sure. There were brief moments of shear frustration that I thought MY child would be the first college freshman in Dora Pull-ups (provided they made some in her size).
I will freely admit that I am a bad potty-training parent. There are some parents I know (or have been told about) that are great at it. They can train their child like in 10 minutes or a half a day or something really obnoxious like that. Some parents who take little potty chairs wherever they go for their child. Some parents who let their child run around the house naked and go whenever wherever to figure out when and where to properly go.
I was not one of those parents. I am not condemning those parents - if those methods work for you that's great. I was not up for that. I was too forgetful/lazy/grossed out to do that. I really hate cleaning up potty messes so the idea of letting my child make them ON PURPOSE instead of accidentally was not appealing.
Plus I'd get frustrated and give up easily. I would try with my kid for a few days, but if they were being exceptionally stubborn (like sitting on the potty for 20 minutes with no result only to have them go on the floor five seconds after they stood up) I would end up putting them back in a diaper by the end of day two. I was just an inconsistent frustrated potty trainer. It's really a wonder they became potty-trained at all.
It didn't help that I have three extremely strong-will children either. (Cough, cough, I have no idea where they go THAT from cough, cough). The candy bribes didn't work, the "potty prizes" didn't work, even the threat of not being able to go to preschool (which my youngest wanted more than anything) was not enough to get her to go. She was gonna go when she was good and ready damnit and no parent, grandparent, teacher or pediatrician (hey, I'm not ashamed, I was grasping at straws here) was going to push her before she was ready.
But now we've cleared that hurdle. For days my husband and I would look at each other and ask "are we over the hump? Is she really potty-trained now?" We kept expecting a back slide, but so far none have come. I do expect an accident or two - that's just natural, but I think I can let out the deep breath I have been holding in for the past few weeks (and that is not just from being at the receiving end of a messy diaper).
So, no more diaper bags to pack. No more calculating the number of diapers I might need on any given outing based on duration away from the house (I should only need three, so I'll take six). No more panic when I realize I only have two wipes left and my kid is making that "funny face" under the slide at the playground.
Now it is replaced with the panic of "can we get to the bathroom in time?" And thoughts like "She should only need two pairs of underwear for this trip - I'll pack six. Can she hold it until the rest stop or do we need to pull off on the freeway?"
But I will take those worries over a messy diaper any day.
Sorry for all the potty talk, but if you wouldn't mind clicking on the Top Mommy Logo at the top and voting for me I promise my next post will be completely void of the word "potty." Thanks!
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