I’ve decided on the reason Olivia will not potty train.
She knows how good she’s got it.
If she wants some independence, she asks for it. And I gladly give it.
“Yes, I would LOVE your help with the dishes!” “Great job sweeping the floor!” “Thank you for pushing Benjamin on the swing!”
But when she wants to sink back into that comfortable reliance on others for just-about-everything, there’s no talking her out of it.
“Olivia, please use your words; stop whining unintelligibly.” “Honey, get out of Benjamin’s high chair.” And the humdinger – “Would you like to sit on the potty – PLEASE?”
She mimics me more and more everyday. But that’s not nearly as fun as mimicking the baby. So I have a deep-down-in-my-gut feeling that she’s not going to potty train until he does.
Before Benjamin was born, I had heard the warnings about older siblings regressing. I don’t think Olivia ever REgressed. In fact, she loved stepping up into her new big sister shoes. She loved taking care of baby. She loved (and still does!) watching me with Benjamin and then turning around to do the same thing (to him, a doll, a toy train – didn’t matter!) She just failed to PROgress in certain areas.
As long as there’s someone else in the house who can cry and get what he wants, who can slap daddy across the face and simply receive a sweet smile in response, and who can use the convenience of diapers, I’m just not sure I will be able to fully convince her that growing up is more fun.
So how early is too early to potty train a boy? Sixteen months seems about right to me…
Uh good luck with that one! Boys tend to train later than girls.
Oh man! I hope she potty trains sooner than that. The good news is she WILL be potty-trained at some point. The big question is when…and hopefully it’s sooner than Benjamin!
Good luck, mama!
You should definitely sign up for our giveaway! Our little one is 19 mos and although we have not yet had any success we are trying with potties strewn about the house! The sign language definitely helps trying to train at such a young age. (Our next is due in Jan so I’m praying we can make some progress by then!) Good luck!
http://www.dontfeedthealligators.com/blog/giveaway-baby-signing-time-presents-potty-training
Hmm, I wonder if this will happy with Lexi… good luck with that one! Maybe Benjamin will be so far ahead that he’ll potty train right away!
Well if you read up on Elimination Communication you can start now! LOL We actually started at 12mo w/ my son. He’s not fully “trained” yet and has been on a little potty strike for a couple days, but other than that it’s meant many many less messy diapers for me to change.
Good luck! I have no other kids so I dont’ know much about all that sibling stuff.
Paul’s parents thought he was going to go off to college in diapers. 😉
You need to do with your children what you think is best, but I’m still going to give you my advice:
1. Do not rush them. When it’s their idea, potty-training goes MUCH easier. We have three, two boys and a girl, and when they decided they were ready, it took a week to ten days, and they were trained.
2. Do NOT use pull-ups. Ever. Period. I know you’re going the cloth route, so in that case, do NOT put them in a diaper once you begin training. Ever. It just confuses them.
I personally wouldn’t train a child that was 16 months old, because of the motor skill issues – they can’t dress and undress, and it makes training difficult.