Our intensive potty training weekend went OK. We started on Thursday, Melisa cried all day Friday, Had a completely dry daon on Saturday (along with waking up to dry beds Saturday & Sunday mornings). He still hasn’t asked us, on his own, to go to the potty, but he’s a lot more willing to go when we tell him it’s time to go.
We woke up to wet sheets this morning, but, we already figured we’d go back to pull ups at bed time after a while. We really just wanted him to get it into his head that it’s OK to get out of bed to go to the potty.
He still has absolutely NO interests in actually going #2 on the potty. He’ll talk about it as if he gets it, but when it comes time for action, he’ll still run to his room & play with his cars @ his dresser while he does his business. We’ll get him in the bathroom when he’s done & clean him up, clean up the underwear, & tell him very briefly about where our poo poo is supposed to go, & he’ll talk enthusiastically about it, but he just won’t follow through…
I guess I feel a little defeated, but he’ll catch on eventually. And when he does, we’re throwin’ a party.
He’s also been faithfully trying out patience at bed time. As mentioned in my last post, he’s having fun getting out of bed & slowly making his way to where he can see us in the living room or our bedroom & about an hour into getting spankings & being told about why he can and cannot come out of his room, he’ll finally be tired enough to give up & go to sleep.
Our method right now is approaching this like we do any disciplinary action. We sit him down, very calmly explain to him what it is that he is doing that is not acceptable, tell him he’s going to get a spanking for his actions/words/attitude, calmly turn him over & SWAP! After he’s had a chance to calm down, we ask him to come back up to us & we’ll comfort him for a moment & reassure him that we love him. Then we’ll ask him why he got a spanking. probably 75% of the time he remembers & will tell us why, if not, we’ll remind him. Then we tell him why that action/words/attitude is not OK & ask him to apologize to who ever might have been wronged by what he did. Then we love on him & forgive him & remind him why he isn’t to do it again. In the case of bedtime, we then lay him down & tell him he’s only allowed to get up if he needs to go potty.
I’m thinking if he’s still doing this by next weekend, I’m going to try & do things the “Supernanny way”. If you’ve ever watch Supernanny on ABC, then you’ll know she always uses the same techniques to teach kids that bed time means to stay in your room, in your bed.
For “needy” children, you basically sit in their room, just out of reach, so they feel a little comforted by your presence, then you slowly move toward the door, stopping every couple of feet so the child still sees you, but starts getting comfortable that you aren’t sitting right next to them. Eventually, you’re sitting right outside the door & closing the door.
For “bouncers” like Taven (kids that “bounce” out of bed as soon as you close their door), you don’t say anything to them, you just take them back to their rooms (preferably with them walking, but carry them if you must) and say ONLY 3 little words “it’s bed time” each time. The idea is you are drilling it into their head that it’s not time to interact, or get attention & that your will is greater than theirs.
How do (or did) you deal with disciplining your kids?
How were you disciplined?
What about potty training, what did/didn’t work for you?
All thoughts are welcome.
