Potty Training: A Year Long Struggle

I’ve been hesitant to post in fear that I might jinx it but I think it’s safe to say that after 11 ½ months of full blown potty training Justin is FINALLY potty trained.  He’s been wearing underwear only at home for a while now but the final step was sending him to school in underwear, which he’s been doing for the past month.  There were some accidents the first few weeks but these last two weeks have been accident free. 

A few weeks ago I decided to test the waters with a shopping trip.  Let’s not even get started on how crazy/hectic that trip was because my boys are such busy bodies and I can’t take them shopping anywhere without a shopping cart to confine them.  Anyway, I digressed.  Before we left the house I had J use the bathroom and then we headed out to our first stop.  Then we headed to Target and I took J to the bathroom as soon as we got there.  We made one last pit stop on the way home and J made it home accident free. Successful outing, yay!!! 

Even still, it wasn’t until the following week while at Carlene’s house for Festivus that I started realizing that J really is potty trained.  The kids were in the basement with a sitter while the adults congregated upstairs.  I went downstairs to check on the boys to find J walking out of the bathroom pulling up his pants.  I was so excited that he was able to recognize the need to use the bathroom amongst playing with 8 others kids and take himself to the bathroom. 

He’s also been at my in-laws on several occasions and he’s told them when he has to use the bathroom.  And last week with Santa Barn and Noel night we made it through the entire day without any accidents. 

This was a LONG journey; we received tons of advice from friends and family, lots of judgmental stares/questions when people heard J was 4 and not potty trained, lots of self doubt and questioning whether we were doing enough.  I now realize that when we started potty training J just wasn’t ready and it ended up frustrating us more than him.  But when it finally clicked for him things just took off.  I guess my mom was right when she said “have you ever known a kid to go to kindergarten and not be potty trained… it’ll happen when he’s ready”. 

He still wears a Pull Up during nap time and bedtime but I’m still claiming it because when he’s awake he goes to the bathroom on his own or tells an adult when he has to go.