Potty training can be a very interesting time for a dad trying to teach a little girl through
imitation on the potty and subsequently I haven’t stood up to do a pee for ages. It was the ‘poo’ however and not the ‘pee’ that really unraveled our toilet training system.
We were going along really well for a while and even gloating how clever we all were as our daughter had mastered the deaf sign for ‘toilet’ or the potty as we call it (open and closing the hand) by the time she was 12 months old.
Every morning and after every meal we would say “It’s time to go to the potty” and at the same time we would make the sign. She got to know the routine and by the time she was 15 months old she had even done wee wees’ and poo poos’ on the potty. Not all the time mind you but enough to get us pretty excited at the prospect of no nappies.
Well it all came undone with one stupid and careless mistake. We were driving home from an outing one afternoon and about 5 minutes from home she called out, ”Daddy, Daddy”.
I turned around to see what she wanted and she was making the hand signal for the potty. After praising her for being so clever and grown up I explained to her that we were almost home and if she could hang on a little longer then I would take her to the toilet as soon as we got home.
I must have gotten side-tracked or something because when we finally did get home stupid Dad completely forgot about his little girls’ urge. After about 10 minutes she walked past me and I smelt that familiar scent rising like the steam off a freshly baked muffin.
“Oh my goodness sweetheart, Daddy forgot to take you to the potty. Have you done a poo?” I said, marveling at my own stupidity. “No, no, no” she said and ran away from me into another room.
After that I had real trouble getting her onto the change table. She kicked and screamed and cried and I almost had to hold her down to get her nappy off. She actually looked very embarrassed that she had messed her nappy and I think that she thought that it was all her fault.
Poor little thing. Even though I apologized to her and told her that it was all Daddy’s fault and not hers she continues to be a little weird around toilet issues. She doesn’t make the sign anymore and she won’t let us put her on the potty at all and so subsequently we have dropped the whole thing for a while.
We still talk to her about it but we don’t force her to do anything or put any pressure on her about it. I suppose the toilet issue is a sensitive one at any age so if you are going to try to get them started early then you have to be sure you can follow through.
Good one dad. It looks like it’s nappies for a little while longer…