I Don't Care What The Experts Say ...

Last August 13th I wrote this post about potty training Jackson. Last August. 2007. It's now September 2008, and I can officially say Jackson is potty-trained. Or at the very least, he's not wearing diapers anymore. We're going on 3 weeks in underwear, so I guess it's official ?

Some of you may think that 1 year and 1 month is a long time to potty train. But, as it turns out, Jackson pretty much potty trained himself. After the first two or three very unsuccessful tries, I decided that he would do it when HE was ready. Forget the potty training books (for parents AND kids - No More Diapers For Ducky, anyone?). Forget the Bye-Bye Diapers Potty Pack. The Potty Party Kit. The DVD Bear and Book. The Spiderman toilet seat. The Elmo step stool. The Potty Training Doll. Turns out - we didn't need 'em! (We didn't buy all that stuff, by the way.)

Those darn experts! Who's to say when your kid is good and ready? In our case, it was our kid. He was exhibiting all the classic signs of potty-training-ready, oh, last August. I got tired of everyone asking, "Isn't he potty trained yet?" Um. No. He's not quite three. And, how lucky for you, your kid was potty trained at 18 months. Mine must have brain damage. I'll have to get that checked out.

We introduced the idea of potty training to him a few times over the course of this last year. Sometimes he'd even ask to sit on the toilet, but it would never stick. The last time we tried to put him in Thomas the Train undies (that he picked out himself as part of our bargain - another expert tip) he had 5 accidents in 2 hours. And no, I wasn't about to NOT put him back into diapers just because I'd already bought the underwear. The kid obviously wasn't ready, and I wasn't going to push it.

Finally, three weeks ago, he asked to sit on the potty. We tried the underwear thing again. This time it stuck with no real pushing from mama. He LOVES it. Something just clicked in his little brain, and he said, "No More Diapers For Jackson."

And that's that.

(That's not to say he doesn't still have an occasional accident. He is, after all, still only three. Like last week, he was playing in his room. All of the sudden he stopped, ripped his underwear off, and ran to the bathroom -dropping little turds onto the floor all the way there. Talk about waiting 'til the last minute. But at least he ran!)