Deja Poo
When grandmotherhood appeared I was delighted, and I am still delighted. I had forgotten some of the less delightful portions of small ones though, like potty training. I will say straight up that I was not good at it when my sons were that age. As a young mother I was totally dumbfounded as to why a child who could manage his clothes and the potty, and knew how everything worked would just refuse to do it after he had learned, and you know who you are! One of them went so far as to sneak off behind the bushes and dig a little latrine with his little shovel and do his business there once. He always has been an outdoors guy. Fortunately for me their daycare Mom completed the job.
Now my youngest grand-girl is in the potty process. And she too knows how it all goes, but for whatever reasons there are in a small child's head she too still poos in her drawers. And she doesn't seem to like it. Her mom is much better at this than I was and far more organized but grand-girl is the daughter of the latrine digger and every bit as, uh, self directed. She pees in the potty and while she is here she mostly attends to that task on her own with some reminders. But, for the rest of it she prefers to hide under the table or in some corner and attend to her business in private. I've tried the usual, careful watching, bribery, no "Martha Speaks" unless she at least gets on the toidy and tries. So, if she gets quiet and out of sight we track her down not just to make sure she isn't cutting her hair, or painting a wall, but to plop (pun intended) her on the potty. So Friday she upped the ante. She was just standing looking a book on the footstool when the odious odor appeared. No hiding, no grunty face, and she looked disgusted, and wailed, "Cece, there's poop in my jammies," well, duh. She's tiny, and she was so upset as though someone else had done this to her, it was hard for me not to laugh. You can see where I might have failed with my own kids. I'd guess this piece of child training will end soon even if it feels like forever, so I don't get too excited unlike when my boys were small. Deja Poo!
Now my youngest grand-girl is in the potty process. And she too knows how it all goes, but for whatever reasons there are in a small child's head she too still poos in her drawers. And she doesn't seem to like it. Her mom is much better at this than I was and far more organized but grand-girl is the daughter of the latrine digger and every bit as, uh, self directed. She pees in the potty and while she is here she mostly attends to that task on her own with some reminders. But, for the rest of it she prefers to hide under the table or in some corner and attend to her business in private. I've tried the usual, careful watching, bribery, no "Martha Speaks" unless she at least gets on the toidy and tries. So, if she gets quiet and out of sight we track her down not just to make sure she isn't cutting her hair, or painting a wall, but to plop (pun intended) her on the potty. So Friday she upped the ante. She was just standing looking a book on the footstool when the odious odor appeared. No hiding, no grunty face, and she looked disgusted, and wailed, "Cece, there's poop in my jammies," well, duh. She's tiny, and she was so upset as though someone else had done this to her, it was hard for me not to laugh. You can see where I might have failed with my own kids. I'd guess this piece of child training will end soon even if it feels like forever, so I don't get too excited unlike when my boys were small. Deja Poo!
posted by Celia | May 02, 2009
5 Comments:
Oh Celia, that is just so funny. Your son, the latrine digger. Did he turn out to be an engineer or anything like that? Maybe a gardener? I guess your sweet granddaughter is a poop off the old block! I know what you mean, our youngest son Travis would take his diaper off in the crib, and "finger paint" early in the morning. Darcey, our youngest granddaughter would poop okay in her potty, but would always just announce "I peed" No warning, no signs that she had to go. Just the announcement that her pants needed changing because the deed was done. Her mom would scold her, and Grampa and I would be laughing in the background. Thank goodness it's the parents turn now. I take great pleasure in knowing that the poop circle of life goes on!
Sue - The poop circle of life, how funny! Digger Boy has a small farm now and is pushing goat and pig poo around when he's not being a computer guy at his day job.
Amazing. My poop painting son has grown into a computer guy. An IT manager for a big School Board in Canada. I wonder if there is a connection there somewhere?
i hooted when i read "latrine digger!" you are too funny for words. since i don't have kids i have never been intimately involved in this activity. by the time my nieces visited without parents they were fully trained. it is much easier to handle when you know it is ultimately someone else's responsibility, isn't it?! ;)
Yes, it is, for me that's the charm of the grandparent thing.
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