I started potty training my daughter shortly after her 2nd birthday - not because I particularly wanted to do it early, but rather because she kept taking her trousers and nappy off and refusing to put them back on...leading to a few accidents in the house. So I figured if she wasn’t going to wear a nappy then I had better teach her how to use the toilet and a potty.
It went really well in the beginning and within a couple of weeks we were accident free and she was confidently using both a toilet and potty at home and out-and-about without me needing to prompt her. Then after a couple of months she suddenly decided one day that she was bored of this potty malarchy, following which I had two weeks of nothing but accidents! During this time she would still quite happily use the potty at her day care (two days a week), but whether at home or out with me she would refuse to use the toilet or the potty even though she would tell me when she needed to go! Those two weeks were a nightmare - so many soiled clothes that I had to do a washload every day and tumbledry it each night or I wouldn’t have enough clothes for her to wear the next day. She thought the whole episode was really funny, which I think added to my frustration - it seemed like it was a bit of a game - “how many changes of clothes can I go through today?"… The upshot was that I resorted to putting her pull-ups back on because I couldn’t take the mess and stress of so many accidents when it seemed so deliberate.
She’s been in nappies now for the past few months. She still uses the potty when she feels like it and she uses the toilet every night before bed as part of her routine, but I am reluctant to go back to panties until I know I have a guaranteed stretch of good weather - at least if it is warm she will only be wearing a dress or skirt and panties - less washing than her winter outfits - and she will be outside in the garden a lot of the time.
I do feel like a bit of a failure for not perservering with the training in the hope that she would snap out of her rebellious episode, but at the time I really felt like it was causing too much friction between us and our relationship instantly improved as soon as the nappies went back on. Roll on Summer, when I will be giving the potty training a second go - and hopefully this time I will be successful!
xxx
