Parenting is a lot like pushing a giant boulder up a steep hill.
It's difficult, it's challenging and there are bound to be moments where you slip up and things just kind of roll away from you:
- just when you think "Hooray the baby is finally sleeping through the night!" you'll find yourself dealing with hourly wake-ups all over again
- the moment when it occurs to you that homework battles seem to be easing up you find yourself pulling teeth for an hour over a spelling handout
- after a week of peaceful mealtimes you're all of a sudden battling to get that fussy eater to JUST! EAT! THE! PEAS! ALREADY!
and potty training? It's bound to have similar setbacks.
Lately in our house my three-year-old has been vexing us mightily. I mean, this kid had the potty thing DOWN. He was putting his big boy underwear without complaint. He was using the potty without prompting. People, he was even staying dry at nap time!!
And then, out of the blue, he had a backslide.
One afternoon we were playing in the park and he had an accident. The next morning he was asking for training pants in the morning. That evening an accident before bed. It wasn't quite Square One - but it was pretty darn close.
I panicked.
I took to the Internet. I attempted to identify "triggers" that could be causing this unexpected step backwards. I broke out my potty training books and read them late into the night. All my research told me the same thing -- setbacks are totally normal and the best approach is to go back to the basics.
So that's what we did. I paid extra attention to my son and gave him lots of positive reinforcement. We went back to visiting the potty on a schedule. We even went back to our sticker system. In a matter of days we were back on track.
So I urge you to remember what is true about potty training and all other aspects of parenting. It's not a straight line but if you just keep moving forward you'll get there eventually.
Oh and also? Don't throw out those stickers just yet….
