Getting Real with Shadra Bruce

I admit that it has been at least 14 years since I’ve really had to be responsible for potty training another individual…but has potty training really changed that much?

It seems so.

Now, I freely admit that I’m a shy-bladder type who doesn’t think any of the excretory functions should be done in public. I’m a little shocked that I’ve raised a few children who not only burp but cheer each other on to be the loudest and longest. And Hallie has discovered that if she sticks her finger up her nose and then in her mouth she can almost make me throw up.

And poop. It is a constant conversation – at the dinner table no less.

Some of this, I blame on my son-in-law. He has to live with me (I barely lasted living with my mother-in-law for five weeks; he’s been with us for almost 3 years) so once he knows something will get to me, he tends to take a little pleasure in making it a habit. Poop talk is one of those things. I don’t blame him. I can’t even imagine living with parents – in-laws or otherwise – for that long.

But potty training – that’s where I was headed with this. Hallie is potty training. We bought cute little seats that sit on top of the big person toilet so that she can right away get the idea that the bathroom and the toilet is where you go. She used those for a while, but she went to a friend’s house who has a potty chair. She loved the potty chair. She used the potty chair. She wanted to pee on the potty and not in her diaper because of the potty chair.

Her mom and dad got her a potty chair.

And it’s in her room.

Ew.

It’s not in a bathroom; it’s not near running water; it’s not next to the toilet to make it easy to empty. It’s in her room.

And to help facilitate the whole learning to potty in the toilet stage of life, she is often without a diaper. Wandering the house. Occasionally peeing on the floor.

Ew.

Yet, as grossed out as I am by the whole idea and as worried as I get that she’ll pee on my rug (I love that rug – it’s the only carpet in our entire downstairs since it’s all hardwood and stone flooring), she is potty training really quickly.

There may be something to this diaperless method of potty training with a chair conveniently located near play and sleep space instead of all the way upstairs (not sure if I could make it if I had to go bad).

So I cringe and shake my head and get grossed out – but my daughter is a good mom, and I don’t blame her for trying whatever it takes to get one out of diapers before the next one gets here! Her method seems to be working.