I have had something on my mind for a while that I feel I need to write down. I try my best to not compare my kids to each other. I will talk to Zach about there differences and such but around them I try very hard to just tell them what I love about them and leave it at that. It's that whole concept of if you tell Suzie that she is smart and Susan that she is pretty all Suzie will remember is that she isn't pretty and Susan that she isn't smart. I believe Elder Holland said something along those lines. With that in mind I want to relay the difference here on this blog of my children when it comes to potty training. Elsie just last week when we were in AZ sat on the potty a lot and went pee. She loved it. My sister has a little potty and a big potty in one of her bathrooms and Elsie thought the little potty was awesome. She had done it some at home before we left to AZ as well but when we were there she pretty much potty trained herself. When we got home I stuck panties on her and she has done amazing. She did have a few accidents but overall she has gone in the potty and she has done amazing. She is scared to go poop though. But I think over time she will get over that.
Now lets compare this to Kali. She is 4 and will turn 5 in November. Elsie is going to be 2 on Feb 7th so about a month from now. Elsie is doing WAYYYYYY...... better than Kali has ever done. Kali has pretty much peed her panties every single day since she started potty training. If I could take back the last year of my life and just put her in pull ups and let her go when she wants to my life would have been 100 times better and everyone would have been happier. But being the stubborn person that I am I didn't. She still has accidents every day and it can be so frustrating but now I just try and take it with a grain of salt and move forward. I hope by the time she starts school she will have figured out how keep her panties dry but maybe she won't I really don't know.
So why is this? Is it because I don't know how to potty train a child? Is it because I didn't try some trick that would make her go. Well I don't think so. I tried sticker charts, treats, prizes, cold showers, a timer you name it and it hasn't worked. I took her to the doctor and they think that she isn't getting her poop out enough so it's pushing on her bladder which makes it hard for her to know when she has to go. We have been working on it and there may be a small improvement but most of the time I just think she doesn't care or it seems that way.
What I'm getting at is no matter what struggles our kids go through I hope that we can all be supportive and not critical. You never know how long or what that Mom has tried to do to get there child to behave or whatever the case my be. Just remember to be kind and loving. I have potty trained 3 kids well kinda 2 and I can tell you that majority of the training comes from the kids themselves. They have to be the one who is willing to do it. I know I will go through similar things like this as my kids grow older and I'm grateful I've had the opportunity to go through this challenge and know that I can still love my kids even if I know that what they are doing could be so much better if they would just do it my way. Chances are they won't and I hope that I can be loving and kind even when they have to figure it out in there own time and in there own way.
