Closing Remarks

Well this past week has been long and hard, very long and hard. Are we potty trained yet? Not even close. Have I seen a regression in both effort and successes on his part? Yes. Am I going to give up and throw in the towel, really remains as the BIG question...the answer is, no. I am not going to give up nor will I be throwing in any towels.

I have concluded this though, I was putting WAY too much pressure on both him and me. This is the reason I think we are having a reversal of progress. Yes, I did cave in and put some pull ups on him and yes he totally thought they were diapers, but the reality is I do have to leave the house. For both his sanity and mine, we had to get out of here. Sadly, I must admit, I have not enjoyed my son in this past week, I have been utterly fixated on him, but I have not stopped to really enjoy him as I lived in constant fear of an "accident".

So, after talking to every one and their mother, I decided to call my mother. She, as always, gave me some really good advice. She said take a breather, step back for a few days and try again. She said at this point, the two of us just need some down time and she was totally right. I admit, I cried my eyes out on the phone with her and she quickly pointed out, potty training isn't supposed to be this painful.

I have decided to stop listening to everyone who keeps telling me how their kids were potty trained in a day or a week or something like that. To those people, I envy you. That however, just will not be the case here. Like most things in my life, slow and steady apparently will be the pace for me. I am resigned to the fact that training is going to take me months. I will give it 2 months before I decide to quit. Universally, that is what is recommended in all my research. I think that is a good measure.

Lastly, I have concluded the demands of motherhood are equally matched by the age of the child. When they are newborns, they sleep, eat and poop. Life is easy, though at the time it seems awfully difficult. They get a little bigger, maybe they get sick or begin teething and things get a little more difficult. They become toddlers and discover their independence making things even more difficult...then comes potty training and you realize this is motherhood. Once you become comfortable in one phase of life, they quickly move on to something else. Slowly you realize, this is just how it's always going to be, you've never been a mother before and everything will always be new and consequently harder the first time around...then if you're lucky enough, you'll get to do it a second time and you'll find what worked for the first one may not work the second time. So to Lisa, Iris and eventually Kailey, I have no advice for you. Find what works for you and go with that and when that doesn't work, try something else.