Mommy Advice Wanted: Toilet Talk

I'm becoming quite positive that Little Chica will be potty trained.

By the time she is 10.

And possibly not before then.

Let me preface by saying that we are not actively potty training right now. No, because that would require my child actually WANTING to sit on a potty. She used to sit on the potty. About a year and a half ago, we purchased a cute little froggy potty. Little Chica thought it was great! We got into the habit of having her sit on it before her bathtime, when she was unclothed anyway. Sometimes she was even successful in making a deposit. Soon, most nights, a little bit of pee pee would make it's way into the blue bowl, to the delight of everyone.

Then one night about 8 months ago, she pooped. And it all went down hill from there.

I wasn't home, and Hubby was taking care of potty/bath time. He said while she was enjoying her traditional evening constitutional, she became panicky. A short while later, he saw that there was a load in the bowl. Little Chica proclaimed it was chocolate, and they went on with bathtime as usual. Hubby was thrilled and called me. We thought, "WOW! Maybe we'll be on our way to getting this girl potty trained!" We made plans to make a concerted effort.

Little Chica had other plans.

Plans that had nothing to do with the potty. Ever again. For whatever reason, pooping into an open space was uncomfortable and undesirable. If this is what being a Big Girl was all about, she wanted to have nothing to do with it.

Soon, she started refusing to sit on the potty. We backed off and respected her wishes. Bitty Bug was born, and we didn't want to push another transition after our lives were turned upside down by the new baby. Now that we've adjusted to our new life as a family of 4, and the onset of preschool starting in September (one wherein the only requirement is being potty trained), we've tried to approach potty training again.

Attempts have been, thus far, terribly unsuccessful.

You see, one cannot be potty trained when they absolutely positvely refuse to sit on the potty. Or look at the potty. Or be in the same room as a potty. This has made bathtime particularly difficult. As the tub is, of course, in the same room as the potty. She has also realized that being in the warm water of the tub gives the sensation of needing to pee. Which upsets her. So for a while, she would hysterically freak out about being in the tub. Because she had to pee. And she was courteous enough to not want to pee IN the tub. And she would of course not pee in the TOILET. So we had to wash and rinse her as quick as lightening to get her into a diaper JUST SO SHE COULD PEE.

Another hang up is that she has started only pooping when she is sleeping (or supposed to be sleeping). So naps and bedtime are usually disrupted in the first 30 minutes, as a diaper change is inevitiable.

It's pretty crappy.

(Pun intended.)

So, I'm reaching out to you, Community. We'd love to enable and encourge and empower our daughter in the Realm of Potty. But until she is willing to make friends with the commode, we can't even begin. And believe me, we've tried every enticing bribe out there: promises of marshmellows for using the potty. Promises of becoming a Big Girl. We bought HELLO KITTY PANTIES. Recently, Hubby even promised, during one particularly desperate moment, that she could have any thing she wanted if she'd just sit on the potty.

Nothing.

What advice do you have? And if you don't have any advice, please tell me a hilarious potty training story. Because that would equally make my day.

Leave a comment below - I anxiously await your words of wisdom (and/or humor).

And if YOU have a question or problem you'd like to enlist the Community to help with, email me. I can post your question or problem, and we can ALL benefit from the answers!