The Potty Breakdown Part One

It started two weeks ago Monday. The psychotic break I mean.

Mine, that is.

You see, K turned four a few weeks ago and he was still wearing a pull-up. I can’t tell you how frustrating it is to have a big boy who knows how to use the potty, continually and willfully choose to not use the potty.

We woke up that day like the other days before it. The kids were fed and dressed and we took M to school. K, D and I went back home for a short while before we went to the park to meet some friends.

The park was nice. The weather was warm and the sun was shining. There was a perfect spot under a tree to sit and chat with my friends while our kids played together. There really was no indication that I would soon be losing my mind.

After the park I wanted to hit the dollar store. I told K before we went in the store that I would not be buying any toys and that he needed to be quiet and stay by me in the store. Naturally, he spotted something the second we walked in the door.

I want this Mommy!

No.

I WANT it!

No.

Rinse. Repeat. And repeat. And repeat some more until he worked himself into having a fit. Honestly, I thought the fits would have subsided by his age but I guess I was deluding myself.

We left the store amidst stares from people who were undoubtedly thinking that I had my hands full with the little terrorist 4-year-old and a baby. Wouldn’t they have loved to find out I have another kid too?

Once we got home I cooked lunch and fed the baby. K will typically poop after lunch so I made a point of asking him if he needed to poop several times because I’d told him if he doesn’t learn to use the potty they won’t let him go to preschool this year. (No idea if that’s true but I thought it was worth a shot.) He sometimes says he just doesn’t want to go to school then, but I know he really does want to go play with his friends.

K, do you need to poop?

No.

Are you sure? Maybe you should go try.

Nooooooo.

Okay, but I really think we need to work on getting that poop in the potty so you can go to school. Time is running out.

I don’t need to go poop Mommy!

Approximately 5 minutes later:

K, I think it’s time to go try to poop on the potty.

I already pooped!

Arrgggghhhhhhhhhh!

And, with that, the great you-will-sit-on-the-potty-until-you-poop-in-the-potty marathon commenced.

Which resulted in K just NOT POOPING AT ALL. For, let’s see…oh three days.

You’d think I’d have learned that I will not win if I turn this into a battle. Apparently I have a learning disability.

So then that Thursday when I had my psychotic break and took all the toys out of K’s room? I think I may have scared him a little.

The next day we were going to continue the potty-sitting, but he convinced me that he would go try to potty every time I told him to. I agreed to those terms and he did actually go to the bathroom and pee every time I told him to.

I started cleaning out our cupboards because some of them were a little dangerous both in the way of the length of time some of the foodstuffs have been in there and also in the way that if you opened the cupboard you risked a concussion.

In the process of cleaning one cupboard I found a box of 6 Matchbox cars that I had bought (along with another box) A YEAR AGO to try to bribe K into pooping on the potty. He did get all of the cars from the first box. One. Poop. At. A. Time…stretched over at least 6 months. He’d crap on the potty, get a car and be good with just that one new car for a while. Then, when he thought he’d like another car. One crap again. So that method didn’t work so well.

But that Friday I had another idea.

(To be continued tomorrow!)