Potty Training Olympics by wickedkate.com

Parenting can be like an olympic sport sometimes. You have to train your butt off, prepare for your events, and then give it your best shot when the time comes in hopes that you will come up with gold. Walking, talking, potty training, school, or whatever the phase of life you are going through, the process isn’t necessarily easy. I like to keep a sense of humor about it whenever possible. That place of humor is where the following Potty Train Edition of the Parenting Olympics was born.

The premise is simple. Move all of your bodily function relief from your pants to the bathroom. It is just not that easy, especially when you are two. When we were preparing to train Boy, we took care to reserve a long weekend with both parents home for the big kick-off. We cancelled all other plans, stretched our parenting muscles, and built bridges over our “will he get it?!” anxiety. We had our opening ceremonies, and dove in to the Potty Training Olympics. Here are my status updates from the first two days plus an information and update on our progress!

Day One Minus One:
Girl is on day two of tantrum and cry-fest 2013. Boy doesn’t know it yet, but will begin potty training after nap time. I have a sport-related special knot in my calf muscle after rolling my GOOD ankle. There is no school today or Monday. Apparently today is the start of the Parenting Olympics. Hubs and I are going for the gold! Bring it.

Day One:
Morning Report
The opening ceremonies to the Parenting Olympics were a sight. The house is picked up, the steaming coffee torch run and anthem (went with “Let’s Go” by Calvin Harris) were awesome. We had zero accidents until bedtime, and then the bedtime potty free events were not as successful. Already this morning, we have awarded 6 m/ms for bladder restraint excellence, but have also done one load of laundry. Stay tuned…

Midday Report
Sprinting events took place several times throughout the morning. Most of the starts were made by the gun, but several were initiated by Boy himself. Many m & ms were awarded for excellence in the categories of dryness and cleanliness. Two loads of laundry were donated by the “sponsors”. Support staff (Girl) demanded additional payment for cheering and “big girl helper” duties. All in all, we are rolling into nap time one step closer to glory.

End-Of-Day Report
After a brief commercial (nap) break, the Parenting Olympics continued throughout the afternoon. Boy had several penalties, caught by Ref Girl and flagged with repeated pointing and yelling HE DID IT THERE!!!! Then the clouds parted, and he clued in. Gold was awarded for three long jumps in progress that resulted in self-initiated sprint to the designated area followed by demanding sister get off the “real” potty for him to go – and HE DID. As of today’s closing ceremonies, we are down 3 loads of laundry and 2 boxes of M/Ms. The judge’s committee (Hubs) has been diligent in his supervision. While the cleanup crew / cheering subcomittee chair (me) has gained a whole new respect for her resident judge, referee, and olympian.

Day Two:
Several silver medals were awarded for nearly getting the idea. We had many sprints, some long-distance runs, and some heavy lifting/holding of “it”, while we began to get the process on our own. The relay portion of our schedule appears to be complete, as independent running events begin to take center stage. Last night, we had a successful evening with clear weather. No “rain delays” occurred between sundown and sunrise. Today, we have had two gold medal events for strength of bladder and speed of sprinting to the goal. Crossing our fingers, ladies and gentlemen. It looks like we may have a winner on our hands!!! 😀

Updates and Information:
Days Three and Four of our olympic trials were much more successful with only single-digit penalties. We were proud to close our ceremonies with a night of pizza and jammies. While we were proud of our olympic efforts, we were nervous as we left the ceremonies. After all, they’d been held in ideal conditions in our home country. How would he fair elsewhere? We found out the next day when we received a “pull-ups please” call from daycare after two accidents. Boo. We ran some over, and he was fine.

It has been 15 days since our opening ceremonies. I am proud to say that Boy is now running to the potty himself, asking to go when he needs assistance, and has had few issues. We had one bowel movement accident. Unfortunately it was at a friend’s house, but the friend took it well and she even cheered Boy for finishing in the potty as she cleaned up the damage. Morning accidents occur sometimes due to misalignment of equipment outside of his control when he pees ONTO rather INTO his pants. He has had only a small handful of overnight slip-ups, each met with an embarrassed cry which shows that he’s aware of his mistake. Dare I say, we are potty trained?!

For those that are curious, we used the Three Day Potty Training Method . While we are not child development experts by any stretch, we have used this with success for both of our children. We went straight from undies to potties with no stop at pull-ups, even overnight. I would love to claim that I did this, but in reality, it was truly my Hubs that did the heavy lifting. I was mostly the cleanup crew and cheering squad, Girl was the referee pointing out penalties, but my husband was the eyes on the field that supported Boy’s efforts to get to the goal. I give Hubs serious credit for his ability to dedicate himself to the purpose and to hang in when the going got gross. Yet another reason he is a keeper.

For a hot moment, I was sad to be leaving the diaper world. It meant that my little boy was getting older. Since he is going to be our last, it meant the end of an era for me. Almost four and a half years of diapers came to a close, and I became teary. My nostalgia lasted about an hour before I started doing cartwheels.