Hilary Moon Murphy

The Potty Victory Stomp

This evening Cassie reached another one of her milestones on the path to growing up. She announced to me, "Mommy, I need to go potty. I need to go potty now."

As usual, I ran her to the bathroom and we got her clothes off. But truth to tell, I was not expecting much. Up to this point, all of her attempts had been, well, dry runs.

Some of you non-parents out there may be rolling your eyes and asking, "Why the heck am I reading this?"

It's a parenting thing. Trust me. After several years of diapers you too will rhapsodize over the minutiae of toilet training.

We have been doing prep for the potty thing for months, ever since Cassie climbed on top of our toilet at eighteen months of age and shouted, "Mommy, I go pee!"

The big question for us was how to capitalize on this enthusiasm without pushing so hard that it made toilet training an unpleasant experience. One of the best books that I found on the potty training experience, Mommy I have to go potty! made it clear that kids train when they are ready, not when it is convenient for the parent.

But the author also stated that parents should not miss "windows of opportunity." If the child is interested, and if the child shows signs of readiness, that is the time to begin to train. I looked at the potty readiness checklist in the book, and realized that Cassie had eleven out of twelve of the readiness signs.

She has her own potty, and next to it is a basket full of little board books that she can read while she sits there. We've even gotten her some special books about the potty, and watched the "Potty Time with Bear" episode of Bear in the Big Blue House multiple times.

Here she is, reading:

We do not make her sit on the potty when she does not want to do so, but we do offer special storytimes while she is there. We do not belittle her for wearing diapers, but we do let her know that someday she too will use a potty like Mommy and Daddy. We do this because the potty should be associated with pleasant experiences, not shame or fear.

This evening, she sat on her potty and "read" several of her board books aloud to me, telling me the entire story of each after pointing to the pictures. Then she looked up and said, "Mommy, I peed! I peed!"

She got up and I looked. Sure enough, pee. "Honey, you did it!"

At this point, Daddy came home from a meeting and she ran up to him and shouted, "I did it! I peed in the potty!"

Then he ran in to admire the results. "You did it!"

"I did it! I did it!" Cassie ran naked through the house, doing what only could be termed a victory stomp. "I did it!"

She was so excited that she wanted to go back to the potty and try all over again. It took us a while to calm our big girl down and get her into her pajamas.

Even as we tucked her into bed, she said in a pleased voice, "I did it."

Yes, sweetheart. You certainly did.

Hmm