WATCH: Oh, Kmart!
Pamela Poole: Talk About a Choking Hazard! What I Never Expected to…
Free range potty training
Filed under: Toddlers Preschoolers, Development/Milestones: Babies
When I discovered I was pregnant with my third child I was more than a bit flummoxed. I realized that I would have to go through all those early childhood milestones again. The teething, crawling, sleepless nights, I thought I was all done. More frighteningly I couldn't even remember how I got through them all in the first place.
We have weathered many of the baby milestones in the last 31 months, including some extra health scares for good measure, with few injuries to body or soul. The one biggie that looms right now is potty training. I haven't much memory of how or when I potty trained the older two of my kids, just that it went fairly smooth and with little trauma. However, my third child, Devon, is a much more obstinate creature than my other two. He is the sort who removes his clothing in the crib and tosses his diaper across the room just to see how far it will fly. With this image in mind, I have put off most potty training encouragements from my end. My thoughts have run along the lines of when he is ready he will tell me in one way or another. And tell me he has. Most days Devon vocally refuses to don a diaper. Some days he will wear cloth trainer pants, but more often than not he prefers the breeze whisking between his chubby legs as he lumbers about. His preferred locale for potty relief is not his cute potty chair or the big boy toilet, but rather the edge of the backyard deck. The first thing Devon does in the morning is run for the back door, same with the last thing at night. This is great when we are at home, but at weekend soccer games or in the park Devon simply drops his drawers and lets loose. Good thing he is cute and small, most people find this act endearing.
I am beyond the point where I plan to research this issue by ordering various books about how and where to pee. Right now it is warm outside and by relieving himself outdoors, Devon is conserving water and not creating more landfill problems with diaper use. So far we have avoided any unsightly bowel movement accidents in public, those have been at home or I have been able to predict them and convince Devon to wear a diaper for a short time. If he still has this pattern when the leaves turn and the snow flies, I might consider reading a book on the subject but until then my son is a free ranger.
We have weathered many of the baby milestones in the last 31 months, including some extra health scares for good measure, with few injuries to body or soul. The one biggie that looms right now is potty training. I haven't much memory of how or when I potty trained the older two of my kids, just that it went fairly smooth and with little trauma. However, my third child, Devon, is a much more obstinate creature than my other two. He is the sort who removes his clothing in the crib and tosses his diaper across the room just to see how far it will fly. With this image in mind, I have put off most potty training encouragements from my end. My thoughts have run along the lines of when he is ready he will tell me in one way or another. And tell me he has. Most days Devon vocally refuses to don a diaper. Some days he will wear cloth trainer pants, but more often than not he prefers the breeze whisking between his chubby legs as he lumbers about. His preferred locale for potty relief is not his cute potty chair or the big boy toilet, but rather the edge of the backyard deck. The first thing Devon does in the morning is run for the back door, same with the last thing at night. This is great when we are at home, but at weekend soccer games or in the park Devon simply drops his drawers and lets loose. Good thing he is cute and small, most people find this act endearing.
I am beyond the point where I plan to research this issue by ordering various books about how and where to pee. Right now it is warm outside and by relieving himself outdoors, Devon is conserving water and not creating more landfill problems with diaper use. So far we have avoided any unsightly bowel movement accidents in public, those have been at home or I have been able to predict them and convince Devon to wear a diaper for a short time. If he still has this pattern when the leaves turn and the snow flies, I might consider reading a book on the subject but until then my son is a free ranger.
Your<span>Voice</span>
Ask Us Anything About Parenting
TheTalkies:RelatedVideos
-
Potty Train Your Puppy
How to potty train a puppy, the essentials in 4 minutes.
-
Public Potty Training
Potty training is one of the most challenging tasks parents will face as they raise their kids. But what happens when the degree of difficulty is raised and potty training goes from the home to out in public? In this episode of The Lab, Daddy Clay and Daddy Brad attempt to help deal with the phobia of public potty training. They talk with a dad and friend of DadLabs, Gregg Ross, who shares his potty training mishaps. What are the essential diaper bag items a parent will need to bring along?
-
Potty Training Twins and Multiples
Is potty training twins really twice as hard as potty training one? Dr Carol Cooper shares her advice and experience on potty training twins and multiples, from when to start to how many potties you'll need.
-
Potty Training Dance
Huggies came up with a fun way to potty train kids, the Potty Dance. Juli Auclair of Parents TV talks to Tori Spelling who was the special guest at the Potty Dance event, about motherhood and potty training your kids.
SitesWeLove
- Site Map
- |
- Staff
- |
- Terms of Service
- |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Trademarks
- |
- Advertise With Us
- |
- About Our Ads
- |
- AOL Downloads
- |
- Contact Us
- |
© Copyright 2012 AOL Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Aol Family
ReaderComments (Page 1 of 2)
5-17-2007 @ 10:53AM
lt said..."at weekend soccer games or in the park Devon simply drops his drawers and lets loose. Good thing he is cute and small, most people find this act endearing."
Uh....I'm guessing you only *think* that they think it's "endearing." It's gross and totally inappropriate....no one should pee in public. I mean while camping is one thing - on a soccer field is quite another.
Reply
5-17-2007 @ 11:11AM
Miss said...Relax lt. I'd think it endearing.
Reply
5-17-2007 @ 11:35AM
Amanda said...Never fear. I think it is a little boy thing. And no matter what you do, it is bound to happen once or twice. It is likely that, I too, once would have been shocked by this like the first commenter, but I am now over it. How couldn't I be? My son is the same at nearly 3, and has peed in multiple lovely places. The funniest and most mortifying being the church yard facing Main Street right after a Sunday Service. By the time you realize what has happened it is too late!
Reply
5-17-2007 @ 11:52AM
Manda said...HA HA HA HA HA!! I'm cracking up over here!! I am lucky i suppose, i have girls. the oldest one I am trying to potty train. she LOVES big girl panties but when she has to pee she goes and sits on the steps to her bed and pees there!!
Lord give me strength!
Just hang in there....this too shall pass :)
you're a good mom
and as for commentor #1...you must not have children. I hope one day you do and I hope they pee outside and you laugh your head off
Reply
5-17-2007 @ 12:40PM
Ginny said..."IT" never had a boy, I suppose...
I, too, think it's gross when my son pees in public, but once they start the stream, what do you do? The other day my son walked up to a tree in our front yard and peed. Oh Lord, please tell me my neighbors weren't looking!
Reply
5-17-2007 @ 12:49PM
Heather said...My vague recollections of when my first son potty trained was that it passes pretty quickly, the embarrassing public stuff. I think I mentioned in the post that we have yet to have any public BM incidents. But when I see a child other than mine dropping pants in public, I just giggle and know that close to him there are a set of parents pretending to look the other way.
Thanks for sharing your comments! It's always good to have company.
Reply
5-17-2007 @ 1:16PM
JB said...I bet your yard smells lovely- and your neighbors probably ADORE that delightful odor, as well as watching your disgusting larva doing its free range thing. And I'm betting dollars to donuts if the brat lays a steamer in a public area, you'll walk off and leave it for someone to step in (yeah, that's "adorable", you lazy bint).
Letting your toadler loose to drop trou at will is lazy and irresponsible pet ownership (I say that, as opposed to actual PARENTING) at its finest- at least good pet owners pick up after their animals...and you probably don't.
Get a freaking clue. It's not "cute" and it's not "adorable"- it's a health hazard and I'd call the cops on you AND your filthy little rat in an instant if I caught either of you on my property. (Plus, I'd hand your lazy butt a shovel and make you clean it up.)
Please get yourself sterilized immediately.
Reply
5-17-2007 @ 1:19PM
Carrie said...poor JB. Definitely not breast fed. LOL!
Reply
5-17-2007 @ 1:20PM
Ginny said...Aw, piss on you JB!!!!!!!!!!!
Reply
5-17-2007 @ 1:24PM
Shannon said...If you want to let your child defecate and urinate in your own yard, fine. But have some common courtesy for other people. I wouldn't appreciate it if your child peed or pooped in my yard, just like you wouldn't appreciate my dog doing the same in your yard.
Reply
5-17-2007 @ 1:29PM
Ginny said...Come ON people. Not ONCE in this post, nor the comments, did anyone mention that we allow our children to crap in our yards. You people can NOT be for real. Even the most civilized mother of a son cannot stop a boy from whipping it out in public at least once. That is not to say that we condone; encourage or continue to allow it. Get a grip. DAMN! What's wrong with you?
Reply
5-17-2007 @ 2:07PM
Jessica said...JB you are way out of line! It is my hope you will no longer be allowed to post here. I highly doubt you are a parent and this site is for parents, so bugger off, asshole.
OR
I ask of you to please, PLEASE talk about my child the way you did about Heather's....and don't forget to leave your home address. We'll have a nice little chat about what it means to mothers when you call their child "pets", "rats", "larva" or "brat".
Reply
5-17-2007 @ 2:15PM
Heather said...Amen to that Ginny and Jessica! Why is it always the trolls who have to ruin things? The above post is simply a light hearted look at the potty training phase. All of us who are parents have to go through it, why not laugh rather than give our kids shame complexes!
Reply
5-17-2007 @ 2:17PM
angelharp42 said...Man, I'm glad I live in the country! But even when we lived in a neighborhood, none of my neighbors seemed to mind, or even notice, when Julian (then 3 years old) would take aim at a tree in our backyard. In fact, that's how we taught him to "go" standing up! Paint a mark on a tree and tell him to aim for it. It's just baby pee, for crying out loud! It won't hurt you. Just about every parent I know has been doused, drenched, splashed, or leaked on at SOME point. Now that we live on a large (70-acre) farm, sometimes there isn't time to trek back to the house when Nature (there's a reason it's called that, by the way) calls. Hmm. Should I make my kid have an accident in his pants, embarassing him and making me have even more laundry to do, or send him into the woods? What a dilemma! And yes, he knows (now) not to do it in public. But there have been a few instances where he took aim off my Dad's porch on the 4th of July, and nobody batted an eye, except to snap a pic to later use as blackmail. Lighten up, y'all! When my youngest boy is old enough, I'm sure he'll be doing the same thing.
And bonus, if they go in a perimeter around the garden, it helps keep the deer away!
Reply
5-17-2007 @ 2:18PM
Shannon said...Jessica, I am not a parent but an aunt who is greatly involved in her nieces life, I do take a great interest in parenting trends or keeping up with those celeb moms. I think if I'm not causing any trouble I should be allowed here.
Reply
5-17-2007 @ 3:43PM
Nicola said...Here's my story. We were doing well with potty training, making good progress. My son knew the answer to, "Where do we go when we need to pee?" and always proudly answered, "In the potty!".
Well, at the park a few weeks ago there was no bathroom, so we went behind a tree. He's a boy, that's what boys (and men) do. My husband is a public pee-er extraordinaire. Shortly after this, while at home, we noticed that he was frequently rushing right past the bathroom and out of the house to stand in the middle of the backyard when he needed to pee. What? So, I asked the question again, and this time (and ever since) his answer was, "We pee in the potty OR in the grass.". My fault and we're trying to break him of the habit, but he really does seem to prefer the all natural feel of his backyard pee.
As for the "its gross" posters above, good grief, do you think that most people in the world have flush toilets??? Do you think that people who pick your fruit and veg in the fields, yes, even in this country, have a toilet to use when they need to go? I do a lot of fieldwork and research in remote areas. We don't have toilets and we are PhD educated scientists. We go behind a tree or a bush, we do that all summer long, its what animals (and we are nothing more) do. And where do you think that your waste goes when you flush the toilet? To some magical potty heaven in the sky? A pit toilet which accumulates masses of human waste is far less sanitary than a kid taking a pee in a random patch of grass to be dried out by the sun or washed away by the rain in a matter of minutes. Come on.
Reply
5-17-2007 @ 5:39PM
Stephanie said...My son is 2, and I know we'll be facing this kind of thing soon enough. My husband is all for taking the diaper off and having him run about in the back yard during the summer to see what happens.
Reply
5-17-2007 @ 6:32PM
Miss said...While I disagree with JB's hysterical comment, I disagree even more strongly with readers who at every turn try to regulate who can and cannot post here.
Reply
5-17-2007 @ 8:06PM
pbhj said...Nicola > "do you think that most people in the world have flush toilets"
No. But it's a sign of civilised society (in animal society too) that you reserve a place as a toilet. I'd imagine most people use a pit, probably with some form of brushwood screen and a sturdy stick or log as a seat. Personally I'd prefer a long drop composter with a "hay bail" urinal.
As far as farm-workers goes it's a requirement in most western countries for them to have a flushing toilet and hand-washing facilities available. Urine _is_ used as fertiliser as are excretia (but not human excretions in UK commercial farms). Fertiliser is added early in the growing cycle and is chemically changed by the action of weather, environmental chemical sources, bacteria and animal life in the soil, etc.. Also we wash and/or cook food before eating it.
>>> "Devon is conserving water and not creating more landfill problems with diaper use."
Ever heard of cloth nappies? Composting toilets?
If the kid goes in the gutter or against a tree (not in a play park) then I'm fine with that ... if he goes in the park or on the football field that is a health hazard.
Have him go on your seat in the car ... oh that's right you sit there ... oh and guess what, kids (and adults) lie, sit, slide and roll around on the football field.
Reply
5-18-2007 @ 1:15AM
SKL said...Wow, I never would have thought toddler pee would raise such ire. Every kid pees somewhere other than the toilet thousands of times. While I would prefer that the pee not end up where I or my kids are about to sit or play, it really doesn't make a huge amount of difference if some random pee ends up here instead of there. I have never heard of anyone getting sick and dying because of contact with toddler pee.
And it's true that if you ever take your little boy out of the house, (a) sooner or later the boy's gotta go NOW, and he's too far from the potty and it's GONNA happen outdoors, and mom/dad decides it makes more sense for him to pull down his shorts first; and (b) once that happens, he is gonna try it a few more times before he realizes it's not acceptable except in cases of dire emergency. This isn't necessarily a matter of parents being lax. Even the strictest parents can't stop the pee once it starts.
By the way, even for adults, the law says that when you really have no other choice, you are allowed to pee in public. Also, I don't think anyone was advocating kids peeing in common public areas. Some people need to calm down.
Reply