How to Outsmart Your 2 Year Old, or, How I Finally Potty Trained Hannah
Posted on: March 20, 2012
- In: Life
- 11 Comments
Last June, just before Hannah’s second birthday, we started potty training. For about 2 months, she did fabulously.
Then her little big personality kicked in.
You can't stop this dancing queen
Hannah doesn’t like to be made to do anything. She started to refuse going to the bathroom, despite all our tricks and treats. She’d intentionally wait until we put on her pull-up before she’d pee. If we tried to initiate going to the potty, she’d dig her heels in and fight us every step of the way.
So we stopped.
Hannah was thrilled. She’d laugh and say that she’d pee in her pull-up and that “it’s ok, I don’t mind”.
Two weeks ago, when I was on solo-parent night-duty, she pooped in her pull-up {something she hasn’t done in for-ev-er} because she “didn’t want to sit on the potty”. After that incident, I told her she’d need to start wearing a diaper. As soon as I put it one on her, she laughed and said “I’m a baby like Joseph!” *face palm*
Too cool for {potty} school
The next morning, I told Hannah she was going to wear a diaper again. She did her whole “YAY!” act and grabbed a disposable diaper. That’s when I threw her a curve ball. Disposables are night time diapers. Cloth diapers are day time diapers. Her bubble got slightly deflated, but she pushed through and put on the cloth. Within five minutes she was complaining, asking to take it off. I explained that she would need to keep it on, since she was refusing to go on the potty.
Then the begging happened.
Hannah promised she’d start going in the potty again, if I would please let her take off the diaper and let her wear underwear.
So I did.
That was a week ago last Sunday. She hasn’t had an accident since.
Hannah – 0
Mom – 1
Bring it, little girl. Mama’s still got a few tricks up my sleeve.
11 Responses to "How to Outsmart Your 2 Year Old, or, How I Finally Potty Trained Hannah"
March 21, 2012 at 11:34 am
What a cutie. Stubbornness? I think you might have won that stubborn contest in this one! Great Story.
March 21, 2012 at 2:25 pm
Great job Sarah outsmarting independent Hannah! Your experience reminded me of how many countless times Evan would pitch a fit about the potty when we started in October. He was great at #1 at school and some at home but we realized he really got it down when we quit asking him to go all the time and just let him have an accident or two (what school did). However, he would scream and demand the pull-up for #2 for about a month and half – I thought he’d never go poo in the potty. Then we started doing big time behavioral mgmt. (operant conditioning for us psychologists) – the first it time took a Toy Story figurine (followed by lots of praise and affection of course), then just intermittent rewards and always affection, and finally just someone to read to him! I’m very glad we finally figured out what works for our little ones! It’s been so nice not to be buying diapers and feeling confident we can go in public without an accident. When and how do we start potty training overnight?
March 21, 2012 at 10:20 pm
With Julia, we just let nature take it’s course for nighttime training. I know that kids don’t have large enough bladders to always hold it over night. We didn’t do any training with Julia, just started letting her go without pull ups once she stayed dry for so many days in a row. She’s still had accidents since then, but that’s part of it. With Hannah, she still wakes up wet, so it’s going to be a while with her.
March 21, 2012 at 3:55 pm
What a girl! Sometimes I think she and Archer are peas in a pod, but then sometimes I think he’s more like J. Either way thanks for sharing because I’m sure I’ll look back to this when we start…which might not be for years.
When we potty trained at school we wouldn’t let use just disposables because one could sit in it wet all day and never feel it or really care. Someone then taught me to put underwear on under the disposables. No mess for the adult no comfort for the person potty training. Usually, it didn’t take long after that to make big steps towards training.
Congrats on the potty training victory!
March 21, 2012 at 4:07 pm
Well done, you! I would never have thought of that…partially because I’ve never put my hands on a cloth diaper. 😉
March 22, 2012 at 2:18 pm
So clever. I’m going to file this idea for my littlest one.
A Wife Loved Like The Church 
March 21, 2012 at 12:17 am
Yay!! Congrats friend! haha! I need to try this with Jacob. He’s oh so very stubborn and hates being made to do anything too. I haven’t put a cloth diaper on him in a while (we’ve been using disposables lately) but I’m going to try my luck with it!
March 21, 2012 at 11:17 am
Hope the cloth diaper works like it did for us. If Hannah puts up any fight about going to the potty, I ask her if she needs a diaper…. She immediately goes into the bathroom after that. 😉