Thursday, October 4

Negotiations

Four year-old Andrew has finally acquiesced to be potty-trained.

I can only hand the success to THE NANNY here in our house who has boldly and brilliantly led the path to diaper freedom.

Andrew has the know how.

He has the skills.

And he has an unbelievable willpower.

We discovered recently that if he's in underpants, he goes to the toilet.

If he's in a pull-up, he doesn't.

Truly, he just doesn't want to.That lovely padded pull-up is just so cozy, who in his right-toddler-mind would worry about pulling that thing down to sit on a briskly cold and hard toilet seat?

I ask you.

So we challenge him, requiring that he step out of the nighttime pull-up as soon as he wakes. Thus, he lands squarely back in responsibility land; the land where he is fully capable and fully trained. He prefers the land of denial. But whatever, I am the mama.

Last week, he and I entered a discussion which went something like this:

"Hey Droopers, lets get that pull-up off and get some big boy pants on!"

"uh... no."

"Yep. It's time dude. Drop the drawers and let's get dressed."

"Mom. I'm just gonna wear this pull-up okay?"

"Nope, you are going to wear pants buddy."

Don had gone downstairs to retrieve a pair of big boy underwear from the school backpack (in case of accidents at playgroup) and I scurried Andrew along to find his dad and get his pants on.
He swish-thunked down the stairs on his bottom with his pull-up clad derriere striking each step to make a resounding thud, and he called out "Daddy. Daaaaady. Daaaaaady" as he made his way to the bottom. Reaching the destination (and the dreaded underpants) he explained to Don with much fervor and conviction (clearly, the wheels turning in his head):

"Dad, just put the pants OVER my pull-up. Okay?"

As if to say: I will comply with your must-wear-pants dictate, but let's do it this way which works out oh-so-much-more-comfortably-for-me.

As if kid. As if.

15 comments:

  1. I can't help but think this will serve him well later in life. ;-)

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  2. I have the same thing going with Julia. In panties, she's the potty princess. In pull-ups, she tries to convince me that she simply ceases to poop or pee and should be permitted to wear them all day. My problem is, I let her wear pull-ups too much. I had a lot of control problems when I was little and have horrid memories of very humiliating accidents and I don't want her to go through that. So, I pull on the pull-up when there's danger of embarrassment. Given her busy little social life, that's often.

    I need to join a pull-ups anonymous group or something.

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  3. Serioulsy, if he has someone who's willing to wipe his butt, why do it on his own. The kid's on to something. lol

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  4. Hahahaha. He's a smart kid. I agree that it will serve him well some day. But wow! This is huge progress from the last time I heard anything on this subject. Go Andrew!!!

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  5. What is it with boys and wet pull ups? How is it not uncomfortable for them?

    Sigh.

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  6. The boy is a born negotiator! I think he has a future in international diplomatic relations!

    Seriously, congratulations and celebrations are in order. What book did you buy him as reward? ;)

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  7. LOL! It's amazing how at such a young age their negotiation skills are SO well developed :-)

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  8. Fantastic. I think I'm very lucky that Boy #1's language skills were not as well developed as your son's when we went through this stage...

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  9. I love the negotiations fresh young minds come up with.

    Potty training with my son was struggle, failure, struggle, failure, failure...success! Miraculous.

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  10. That's pretty smart!

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  11. hey, with the gift to find that kind of compromises, he could become Belgians prime minister!

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  12. Well a big congratulations, there's nothing like the feeling of kissing diapers good bye.

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  13. Interesting. Pull ups are uposta HELP potty train, not HINDER.

    Gotta love him.

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