Christian potty training

[David71452]

Hi all, my daughter Chloe is just 3. She is a beautiful sensitive girl and being brought up with Christian ethos. She however has had no interest or ability to potty train yet. I have been told god will give her the guidance and feelings to train when she is ready however my older daughter had completed this earlier.

I am praying to God to give her guidance regularly. Is it fine for god to not guide her in this yet. Has anyone else been through this where it took longer and should I wait. I know my Christian duty is to be her shepherd and guide her and do everything with love and patience so I pray I am on the correct path.

I would appreciate any advice with this from any other families who have gone through this. God sends us so many parenting challenges and this is one I am unsure what to do

 

[Tall_Timbers]

I raised 4 kids. With the last one we came right up against Kindergarten starting before he finally got potty trained. Any longer and we would have had to of waited a year before starting Kindergarten. That same little rascal graduated from Princeton with a double engineering major so don't worry too much. Don't rush them. Make it fun/interesting and let them know you're happy when they score in the toilet.

 

[Mem]

Hi all, my daughter Chloe is just 3. She is a beautiful sensitive girl and being brought up with Christian ethos. She however has had no interest or ability to potty train yet. I have been told god will give her the guidance and feelings to train when she is ready however my older daughter had completed this earlier.

I am praying to God to give her guidance regularly. Is it fine for god to not guide her in this yet. Has anyone else been through this where it took longer and should I wait. I know my Christian duty is to be her shepherd and guide her and do everything with love and patience so I pray I am on the correct path.

I would appreciate any advice with this from any other families who have gone through this. God sends us so many parenting challenges and this is one I am unsure what to do

I've just recently experienced a breakthrough with my 3 yo granddaugher, Josie. I brought it up to her often in conversation, to get to the 'bottom' of her reservations for using the potty. Asking if it scared her, or if she just didn't want to, or..., because I knew that she could, if she wanted to. I asked her that even though we both knew she would probably have no trouble wiping herself when she pp'd, was she concerned that she wouldn't be able to wipe her poopoo? Because we all also know she is not quite able to do that all by herself just yet and so she would have to call out, "Nanaaaa! wipe my buuttt!" when she went poopies, or whoever was there to help her.

Well then, it so happened that Papaw was within the closest vicinity when she came from the bathroom with news that she left a 'big poop!' and that she had to tell Nana about it. So, she ran up the stairs and said, "Nana! I pooped a big one, and my butt is clean!" (it was one of those) and I said, "Great! Now, you're ready for college!" and beamed a big smile and then thought about that a minute and reasoned, "No..., I'm still potty training." And I said, "Yea...you're right. But see how much cleaner using the potty is? There's nothing all over your butt (we checked with a wipe to make sure) and its just takes a little wipe instead of a whole bunch of wipes. And now, Nana doesn't' have to buy a whole bunch of wipes and I can use the money I save get her a McDonalds instead!" (or whatever 'reward' that'd she might fancy as a worth a poopy).

Breakthroughs will happen like that.

 

[Mem]

Something that would always annoy Josie is when I called her pull-up a diaper. She'd wouldn't fail to correct me that it was a pull-up at which I'd point out that pull-ups were meant to be pulled up after going to the potty, but she used it like a diaper. I didn't say this with any sort of spirit of ridicule, but as matter of fact, as even a 3yo image of God possesses the capability logical processing. Even if it might take a little extra time in regard to their consideration of it, just trust that they are listening. Oh, and don't forget the reassurance that you are fully aware that 'accidents' do happen.

 

[Mem]

Something that would always annoy Josie is when I called her pull-up a diaper. She'd wouldn't fail to correct me that it was a pull-up at which I'd point out that pull-ups were meant to be pulled up after going to the potty, but she used it like a diaper. I didn't say this with any sort of spirit of ridicule, but as matter of fact, as even a 3yo image of God possesses the capability logical processing. Even if it might take a little extra time in regard to their consideration of it, just trust that they are listening. Oh, and don't forget the reassurance that you are fully aware that 'accidents' do happen.

...along with letting her know your full awareness as well if she might take advantage of the grace for the allowance of "accidents" happening. That is, there might be a time when you should call her out with, "I'm not sure that was actually an accident, but".

Ok. That's all I have on the subject... even if I do think of more (I just noticed @Cameron's poem answering my poem...using reference to Dr. Seuss. Perhaps maybe I should write a book on Potty-Training!)

 

[David71452]

...along with letting her know your full awareness as well if she might take advantage of the grace for the allowance of "accidents" happening. That is, there might be a time when you should call her out with, "I'm not sure that was actually an accident, but".

Ok. That's all I have on the subject... even if I do think of more (I just noticed @Cameron's poem answering my poem...using reference to Dr. Seuss. Perhaps maybe I should write a book on Potty-Training!)

Thank you for all your thoughts, these are really helpful. Josie sounds like a wonderful girl you should be very proud of. We have tried the motivation and she does not get as interested. She does not react to accidents, we are taking a pause but when we start again I will use your language and approach and pray for more success. We haven't used pull ups with her yet so may try that as a middle ground between wet underwear and nappies

 

[Mem]

Thank you for all your thoughts, these are really helpful. Josie sounds like a wonderful girl you should be very proud of. We have tried the motivation and she does not get as interested. She does not react to accidents, we are taking a pause but when we start again I will use your language and approach and pray for more success. We haven't used pull ups with her yet so may try that as a middle ground between wet underwear and nappies

An introduction to pullups should be accompanied with letting Chloe know their purpose, potty training, and your expectations of her progress. Not so much in the form of any sort of strict timeline but with awareness of her 'skill' potential. That is, offer her your own confidence that she will master the potty and graduate to Bluey and Bingo underwear, or Elsa. That was the breakthrough moment with my niece (who is now high school).

When I noticed her tendency to dip behind a chair when she 'felt the need,' I asked Rose if we could have a chat about toilets, and about how they're really not as scary as they seem when they make all that noise, and about underwear and all the possibilities that are available in them which a girl has to choose from, "like butterflies, or flowers, or unicorns, or...oh, I don't know, what else?......" and she offered, "Dora?..." and I replied, "Oh! Yes! Dora! How wonderful would that be?! ... So, if you believe that you can use the potty and try your best to not soil them (lest we have to throw them away like we have to with diapers, as diapers are meant to be, but underwear is not), I'll go buy you some Dora underwear. Okay?" and she quickly agreed, and the very next day I returned and she had used the potty and was wearing underwear.

That was one chat that Rose was convinced, but I also I made sure to address all the concerns I could think of that she might have, ie an intimidating toilet, no one in the bathroom with her when she has to go, the difference between accidents and 'with purpose,' etc. Be confident in your insight of Chloe, and I pray for you God's provision of His insight into those things that may be escaping you.

 

[Mem]

P.S. the idea is to leave her no excuses to even think 'I can't' (unless there is valid reason, of course).

 

[HealthAndHappiness]

Hi all, my daughter Chloe is just 3. She is a beautiful sensitive girl and being brought up with Christian ethos. She however has had no interest or ability to potty train yet. I have been told god will give her the guidance and feelings to train when she is ready however my older daughter had completed this earlier.

I am praying to God to give her guidance regularly. Is it fine for god to not guide her in this yet. Has anyone else been through this where it took longer and should I wait. I know my Christian duty is to be her shepherd and guide her and do everything with love and patience so I pray I am on the correct path.

I would appreciate any advice with this from any other families who have gone through this. God sends us so many parenting challenges and this is one I am unsure what to do

I'll share my experience with raising lots of wildlife rehabs and exotic animals for the ministry. What I learned from those experiences hopefully will be a blessing for the little one and you all.

Tall T and Mem already touched on this, so here's been my experience to back them up.
Once the animal, in my case, goes in the litter box, they get a treat. They are very food driven.
If they went when I wasn't there, I call them over and make sure they get positive reinforcement for the good behavior. That is usually praise paired with a treat next to the box.

Once they established a consistent routine I don't have to offer a treat every time. Praise can just be given. If they are hungry, I can offer food, but not always necessary.

With a child, food might not be the incentive, but something else is going to work IMHO.
For my little brother it was praise.

 

[Billyd]

Patience. Every time you go, let her sit on her seat. When you wipe and get up, teach her to do the same. When she finally goes, heap praises on her.

It's the same process with boy's, except that they can see what dad is doing.

 

[Edify]

I have a belief & it's this: When a child is old enough to recognize what's bad is, they need disciplined to stay away from it.
Potty training is one of these. When the child says "I pooped", they know. Whenever they seem to be standing still, or grunting, race them to the potty, telling them when they feel this it's time to potty.
Parents must pay extra attention to this.

 

[blueluna5]

Hi all, my daughter Chloe is just 3. She is a beautiful sensitive girl and being brought up with Christian ethos. She however has had no interest or ability to potty train yet. I have been told god will give her the guidance and feelings to train when she is ready however my older daughter had completed this earlier.

I am praying to God to give her guidance regularly. Is it fine for god to not guide her in this yet. Has anyone else been through this where it took longer and should I wait. I know my Christian duty is to be her shepherd and guide her and do everything with love and patience so I pray I am on the correct path.

I would appreciate any advice with this from any other families who have gone through this. God sends us so many parenting challenges and this is one I am unsure what to do

Potty training is not fun. My boys took years to learn it. They had to for preschool but it was close.

I mean it does suck going through it, but it's not a cursed type of situation either. My kids were never interested so I don't personally think that's a thing.

They both do well and get honor roll in school so it hasn't held them back. They are very strong willed stinkers though who hate following rules during a fun time. I think that has more to do with it.

With mine I said you're starting school soon and you're not allowed diapers there. For bedtime I said we're out of diapers and I'm not buying more. That was it... But I was working with them for years and tried it all. Sticker charts, naked method, no going anywhere for a week, potty watch. I think there was more but I blacked out for some of it.jk

 

[LTL]

Once I was at a frinds house. And the little girls were watching TV. I could see that the baby, now walking, did not wear diapers. i asked, how is that possible, that she is already potty trained. The answer was that anytime someone went to the bathroom, they had to take the Baby to sit on the potty. And, since she had not know anything else, then she was already potty trained. Consequently, they never bought diapers.